| dc.description.abstract | This thesis uses Foucault’s conceptualization of power to examine power dynamics in two health and human service organizations. Foucault suggests that power should be observed by assessing relationships, cultures, and ideologies. Recognizing power processes that inform individual agendas, culture, and structure is vital for understanding how organizations function and potentially create sustainable change. However, there are few academic studies that focus on organizational power. Moreover, when investigating power in organizations, research has tended to: 1) compartmentalized power; 2) classify its definition as a human capacity; or 3) privilege collective efforts to exercise power. Findings based on an analysis of interviews, focus groups, participant observations, and organizational artifacts indicate the presence of power at multiple organizational levels. Results also reveal varying and often contradictory expressions of power as well as informal power dynamics. Given these outcomes, I present a model based on Foucaultian themes to simultaneously observe power at multiple organizational levels. Lastly, theoretical and practical implications for organizations, policy, and organizational change are discussed. | |
