What is it about?
People who become powerful enjoy the feeling it gives them. In Univestiy jobs there are many opportunities to enjoy these feelings of power, and this paper suggests there are (at least) three kinds of pleasure, associated with identity, influence and interaction. This is explained with examples. The paper is written in honour of a colleague, Prof Ken Parry, who insured these thoughts by a question he asked.
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Why is it important?
Power is often addressed as something one has or is affected by, but the visceral experience of power is seldom examined. This paper proposes a new approach to the study of power, with possible implications for career choices: for example, which jobs might offer opportunities to be powerful in ways that give you the most pleasurable, or to discover new pleasures through new kinds of power.
Perspectives
It was fun and sometimes quite sobering to think about these issues in relation to my own career choices and the kinds of trouble I have made for myself over the years.
Prof Jonathan R Gosling
Exeter University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Take your lead: The pleasures of power in universities and beyond, Journal of Management & Organization, April 2019, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/jmo.2019.17.
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