Power and Knowledge

Abstract

This chapter discusses the links between knowledge and power and aims to demonstrate that, to “manage knowledge implies use of power, in terms of the ability of an organisation to achieve a collective sense of ‘what to do next’ and to exercise authority over the behaviour and communication patterns of internal and external agents – thereby influencing such things as who will interact with whom, on what basis, and to what purpose” (Clegg & Ray, 2003: 23). Power, knowledge, and the ‘rules of the game’ within an organisation (its political system, organisational culture, how things are done) are therefore intertwined; one cannot simply exist without the other. Clegg and Ray (2003: 23) go on to say, “the interaction of power and rules – to enable and constrain legitimate individual and collective actions – simultaneously shapes those actions. Rules shape actions that, in turn, have consequences for the evolution of rules and their interpretation in context.”