Irregular, unpredictable situations in one area have a knock on effect in another. Organisational members who can make contingent responses to resolve uncertainties possess individual or sub-unit power. Being on the spot, ready and able to handle contingencies hitting the organisation involves interdependencies.
Division of labour and demarcation of skills between specialists means that in multi-disciplinary situations the generalist is not available. When there is operational and environmental uncertainty (markets, supplies, money), trouble-shooters with specific and general skills do well. Operation uncertainties include machine breakdowns, computing crashes. In these situations as Crozier noted the specialist troubleshooter (specialist machine engineers in a Crozier's tobacco factory, case derived power over the non-technical managers because only the engineers could restore normal operations. The degree of power - depends on
Risks are typically anticipated by building in buffer processes or routinisation e.g. minimum stock levels, duplication of equipment, planed maintenance programmes, training to cover contingencies. But some uncertainty always remains that cannot be accurately predicted and forestalled. Those who see power derived from their capacity to deal with uncertainty often preserve their powerbases by ensuring that the uncertainties continue. The manager who plays the fire-fighter game - may use this drama to show how indispensible they are. It is possible to manipulate situations so that they appear more uncertain than they actually are.
If we can understand how uncertainty impacts on the way the organisation operates then this may offer more insight into power relations between groups and departments, when/how the expert comes into the play and how resources are distributed.
