An example of methodological concept of informal power research in a work organisation

Abstract

In this paper, the authors present a methodological concept of informal power research, on example of the possibility of its use in the organization of higher education. Gender equality means that women and men have equal opportunities, rights and obligations in their social, professional and family environment. Although it is often reduced to an equal distribution of paid and unpaid work, a broader concept includes many more indicators such as the political dimensions of gender and physical integrity of men and women. Some studies only stresses the dimension of equality, while the other focuses on the evaluation of the same gender roles and the transformation of existing practices, but most researchers in this field agree that gender equality has many different dimensions that can not be subsumed under a single one-dimensional indicator. Sociologists usually recognize gender inequality in unequal access of women and men to social resources, money, time, social division of labor and the labor market. In this paper we consider the faculties as an organization of higher education, ie. organization of work, as the area of human social organization in which different interests of individuals and groups condition relations of cooperation and conflict, and investigating whether the formal power that women have within the organization is limited or completely blocked by the informal power that originate from the traditional patterns of behavior and authority.