BOLA: Power - Countervailing Structures

Countervailing Structures

Power can be obtained over an organisation even though not being a" card-carrying member" of it. How? Join or set up a countervailing power structure. Trade unions, lobby groups, a consumer assocation or community action group can:

build networks of influence with other groups developing networks of favours by forms of patronage perhaps inviting an influential personage to be the patron.
lobby key decision-makers and governmental systems more consistently
take the principled high ground
seed the media with information relevant to their case and mobilise the opposing message, making sure that leaks become floods
force opponents on the defensive by criticising their behaviour and questioning truth, fairness and the ethics of actions
channel collective resources so that individuals (test cases) are funded to challenge big brother in the courts. Take legal action to block organisational decision by injunction.

Greenpeace, beyond their expectations, succeeded in forcing Shell not to dispose of a redundant oil platform by sinking it in a North Atlantic deep. A massive media campaign captured the minds of consumers - particularly in Germany - who acted by not buying Shell products! Even though Shell had researched the environmental consequences carefully using the best technological advice, compared alternative disposal methods and secured the considered agreement of governments, they were forced to withdraw their plans.

Individuals make careers from being the leaders and spokes-people of countervailing organisations. Ralph Nader, Peter Hain, Mary Whitehouse, Martin Luther King and Gerry Adams are but a few. Consumer groups act as champions and have critical influence over industry far more than employees do. Within the social milieu, community and environmentally aware media, educators and lawyers influence more by criticising than joining. Indeed the ability to shape public opinion and then (self-authorised) speak for it can indeed force the resignations of elected politicians and their officials.

Often for the initiating power to reject the rights of workers or the opposing group - is to reject a whole range of ethical values

freedoms of speech and rights to information
civil liberties, natural justice and equal opportunity
public vilification of the selfish and exploitative
exploitation of the environment to the detriment of the world

The earth-friend protestor dug into a badger set to delay civil engineers clearing trees for the Newbury by-pass stated

I'm prepared to die here. The future of the planet is at stake. Its our children's lives and future that I am fighting for!

These are powerful, emotive sound bites for the media desperate to fill silent spaces in their pages and broadcasts.

The Corporate State

Where a group concentrates power in the hands of a few - there is ample scope for those in opposition to create rival blocs - overtly or covertly, within the organisation or externally to it.

Galbraith argued that as the American economy had evolved, the political and economic power of large corporations (oligopolists) had been tempered by the countervailing power of concentrations of sellers. The situation of giants standing off against each other results. According to Galbraith, countervailing power works particularly where there is limited demand only - the buyer having some room for manoeuvre with the seller. If there was unlimited demand, the balance of power shifts to the seller - the monopolist or rising star company who is on a winner with a new product which everyone wants.

The example ofjust-in-time inventory management systems illustrates the swings of power between buyer and seller. Suppliers in a recessionary situation may be forced into participating and incuring additional costs.

Galbraith also advances the idea that corporations are capable of manufacturing unlimited demand to control markets. This may be done by limiting supply, introducing new products which force a market in a particular direction. Within the computer industry - the dominance of Microsoft DOS, Windows and the launch of Windows 95 is possibly an example of the latter but in reverse. By enabling such operating system software to be bundled cheaply with each machine sold - the company's market share is so dominant that it limits the scope of others to survive in the market.

Free market forces are constrained
They become subject to regulation benefiting the general good and protecting those (the young, the old, the sick) less able to help themselves in a fierce competitive world. Government regulatory bodies such as OFTEL, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission constrain the worst excesses of monopoly power. Even the office of the Ombudsman provides the individual with a check against the officialdom of governmental bodies themselves.

An Oligopoly of Buyers

Large retail organisations such as Tesco and Marks and Spencer have the buying power to balance the power of producers. A producer may become completely dependent for their sales on one large distributor who is in a monopsonist position (a buyer monopoly) able to force producer decisions. In such circumstances - although the owners of each firm are separate - organisationally a new dispersed form of organisation, an integrated dependent network, has emerged.

Trade unions

challenge owners and managers limiting their power to act against the interests of union members. They lobby government to shape legislation to protect and improve the living standards of members. Also - they promote the language of community and participation which in itself is in opposition to free-market principles which enable commerical power and ownership to become concentrated in the hands of the fit and opportunistic, the haves rather than the have-nots.

Becoming a recognised shop steward changes a worker's status in the organisation. They are more than an ordinary employee. They have some protection from unfair dismissal under the law. Their ability to raise matters formally within the organisation represents a legitimised right (the union and its activities are recognised in business policy) to challenge managerial decision-making. A manager may be required to

postpone action,
hold meetings,
have their reasons aired publicly and either back down or be held up to ridicule.

The shop steward who states "I must consult my members on this" or who "invokes a grievance procedure which may embarrass a manager in front of his/her peers" mediates managerial power. These are legitimised countervailing strategies.

The steward may become a full-time union officer able confront corporate mogols and government ministers. Their speeches and interventions are capable of reaching national audiences.

This resource was written by Chris Jarvis who maintains and develops BOLA.