Works
- Who Gets Power, and How They Hold On to It: A Strategic-Contingency Model of Power, Organizational Dynamics, 1977
- The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective, 1978
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
Resource dependence. Organizations depend on others for the resources they need, and whoever controls a critical, scarce resource gains power over those who depend on it. Organizations manage those dependencies in several ways, among them co-opting the parties they depend on, for example by giving them seats on their boards.
The strategic-contingency model of power. Power inside an organization goes to the subunits and people who can cope with its critical problems, so a legal department gains power when the company faces lawsuits. Once held, power tends to be institutionalized, as its holders shape structures and rules that keep it in place after the problems change.
What it explains
Salancik and Pfeffer explain why power follows control of what others need and the ability to solve the organization's most pressing problems. Building a resource others depend on, or co-opting those whose resources one needs, are the practical consequences.