Works
- A Strategic Contingencies' Theory of Intraorganizational Power, Administrative Science Quarterly, 1971
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
Strategic contingencies. Subunits of an organization gain power over one another because the division of labor makes some of them control contingencies on which others depend. A subunit's power rises with its capacity to cope with uncertainty for others, its nonsubstitutability, and its centrality in the workflow; each condition is necessary and none is sufficient alone.
What it explains
Hickson and his colleagues explain why the unit that handles the organization's most critical and uncertain problem, and cannot easily be replaced, comes to carry weight in decisions. Taking ownership of such a problem is a recognized route to influence.