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Collaborative systems are particular cases of multi-team systems in which several groups representing various interests meet to debate and generate solutions on complex societal issues. Stakeholder diversity in such systems often triggers power differences and disparity and the study explores the dual role of power disparity in collaborative settings. The purpose of this paper is to extend the power approach-inhibition model (Keltner et al., 2003) to the group level of analysis and argue that, on the positive side, power disparity increases the cognitive activity of the interacting groups (i.e. task-related debates), while on the other hand it generates a negative affective climate.

The authors collected data at two time points across nine behavioral simulations (54 teams, 239 participants) designed to explore the cognitive and affective dynamics between six parties interacting in a collaborative decision task.

The results show that power disparity increases cognitive activity in collaborative multi-party systems, while it hinders the affective climate, by increasing relationship conflict and decreasing psychological safety among the stakeholders.

This study provides important theoretical and practical contributions mostly for the consultation processes, as interventions might be directed at fostering the positive effects of power disparity in collaborative setting, while mitigating its drawbacks.

By extending the approach-inhibition model to the group level, this is one of the first empirical studies to examine the dual nature of the impact that power disparity has on the cognitive (i.e. positive effect) and affective (i.e. negative effect) dynamics of multi-party collaborative systems (i.e. multi-team systems).

Based on the social dominance theory, this study aims to theorize the moderating effect of power disparity in the impact of team knowledge variety on team creativity and further to verify team open communication as the mediating mechanism of the aforementioned interactive effect.

The multisource (team members and their team leaders) and longitudinal (separated by four months) survey data were collected from 67 research and development teams in China to test the research model. The authors used multiple regression analyses to validate all the proposed hypotheses.

Results reveal that team knowledge variety has a more positive impact on team creativity when teams have lower power disparity. Besides, team open communication is significantly and positively related to team creativity and mediates the interactive effect of team knowledge variety and team power disparity on team creativity.

This study reconciles the mixed findings in the previous study and provides new insights regarding the functionality of team knowledge variety. By identifying team power disparity as a moderator in shaping the effects of team knowledge variety, the authors extend the research that explores the moderators of the team knowledge variety–team creativity relationship, and make comprehensive consideration of the coexistence of multiple diversities within teams (i.e. knowledge variety and power disparity) and their joint effects on team creativity. Besides, this research identifies team open communication as an important underlying mechanism in transmitting the interactive effects of two different types of diversities on team creativity, thus offering new insights on how teams can perform creatively.

This study aims to examine how changes in power disparity shape in-groups and upper-level management conflict are associated with intragroup relationship and task conflict variations. It also examines how workplace conflicts relate to focal employees’ perceptions of coworker support.

Data were collected from 3,343 respondents for nine years, comprising measurements taken on six occasions in 47 departments and stores of a Canadian retailer. The relationships between, within and across levels were tested using multilevel structural equation modeling.

The results showed that higher levels of power concentration vested by a few members or a single person are associated wih higher levels of intragroup conflict than usual. Furthermore, higher levels of task and relationship conflicts at upper management levels are associated with higher-than-usual task and relationship conflicts between nonhierarchical employees. Additionally, a higher-than-usual intragroup task conflict level was associated with lower-than-usual coworker support, supporting the proposed multilevel dynamic model.

An important limitation of this study is that all variables are self-reported despite using the six-wave repeated measurements, thereby increasing the possibility of inflating some observed relationships. Future research should examine the emergence of a larger spectrum of power dispersion configurations and their role on process conflict.

Retail managers should legitimize why a high-power concentration occurs when the equal distribution of power is not possible and find ways to minimize the trickle-down effects of conflicts at upper levels on their subordinates.

This study examines the effect of variability on power configurations and conflict in upper management ranks on conflict dynamic. The findings show that a high-power concentration elicits increasing conflicts, and that there is no empirical evidence that intragroup conflict is associated with positive outcomes.

This study aims to respond to repeated calls for more process-focused research on effectual entrepreneurship. It illustrates how effectuation takes place, particularly through gaining the commitment of actors with diverse resources, knowledge and needs in a context characterized by power disparities. It illuminates the ethical concerns faced by effectual entrepreneurs and the impact these concerns could have on the service design.

The qualitative investigation involved in-depth interviews with 30 intercultural trainers-entrepreneurs delivering repatriation training in the context of international assignments. The authors supplemented primary data with the analysis of training and promotional materials.

The authors identify four key elements of the effectual process, in which entrepreneurs aim to elicit commitment while reconciling potentially conflicting demands of the actors involved: surfacing needs; value framing; co-creation; and joint affordable loss. The authors show how the acquisition of commitment has a consequential impact on subsequent steps of effectual entrepreneurship. The authors highlight how the interdependence of entrepreneurs, their services, clients and end-users impacts the availability of means and goals. More importantly, the authors also demonstrate how resource dependence, knowledge disparities and power imbalance between actors partaking in effectual entrepreneurship can lead to numerous ethical concerns and result in suboptimal service designs.

This study demonstrates the dark side of effectual entrepreneurship in a resource-constrained environment. The authors show how power disparities and resource-dependence can lead to ethical dilemmas and inferior service designs, where entrepreneurs follow the lead of influential and resource-abundant stakeholders at the expense of the end-users.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a Foucauldian concept into the theory and practice of OD and change management. The piece challenges Habermasian a priori assumptions about organizational diagnosis and intervention.

This is a conceptual paper.

Literature points to the benefit of considering the possibility of parrhesiastic behavior in change management and organization development as part of a broader set of diagnostic tools.

Future research should engage in practice driven test cases, interview practicing change managers, and refine the concept for use as a diagnostic tool.

Including discussions of parrhesia in change management and OD study and practices can better prepare change professionals for the realities of contemporary organizational practices.

To date, the links developed in this manuscript have not been made in the management literature, though it builds upon emerging literature in critical management studies and human resource management. It has the potential to influence both theory and practices of both OD and change management.

Economics can be defined as the study of economies, i.e., the ways in which people earn a living. On this definition economic activities occupy a large proportion of most individual's lives and their outcome determines living standards and social status. Therefore it seems axiomatic that indifference to economic matters will be rare and that acquired positions of power will be used to influence their result. Within an economy, individuals and groups possess widely varying degrees of power; few would deny that the directors of ICI possess a greater influence over the parameters within which they operate than does a one‐man business or that the National Union of Mineworkers exerts a greater impact than the National Union of Agricultural Workers. Power can be defined in a general sense as the ability to get one's own way and in economic terms as the ability of an individual or group to fix or alter the conditions of exchange in its own favour. However, power is inherent in anonymous social institutions as well as in identifiable groups and individuals, and it derives more from the routine application of effectively unchallenged assumptions than from domination after public conflict.

This study aims to explore the relationship among five types of power (expert, referent, legitimate, reward and coercive power), two dimensions of cooperative behavior (specific investments and communication) and three types of alliance performance (alliance stability, income increase and cost decrease) in contract farming. By investigating the dyadic perspectives of companies and contract farmers, the authors examine how power use influences cooperative behavior, which further enhances alliance performance.

The authors construct a theoretical model grounded on resource dependence theory (RDT). Data from 202 companies and 462 farmers in China are used to test the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling.

The authors' results show that the five types of power play different roles in cooperative behavior. On the one hand, farmers' expert, reward and coercive power enhance the company's specific investments; farmers' expert power enhances the company's communication but farmers' coercive power harms the company's communication. Also the company's specific investments enhance communication that is positively related to alliance ability, income increase and cost decrease. On the other hand, the company's expert, referent and legitimate power enhance farmers' communication, while the company's coercive power harms farmers' communication; the company's reward and coercive power enhance farmers' specific investments. Moreover, farmers' communication is positively related to alliance ability, income increase and cost decrease, but farmers' specific investments do not significantly influence such.

This study contributes to the literature on contract farming supply chain management by examining the relationships among power use, cooperative behavior and alliance performance from the dyadic perspective of companies and farmers. These findings have practical implications for agricultural companies and farmers promoting cooperative behavior and alliance performance through appropriate power use in contract farming supply chains.

The purpose of this article is to explore and propose a way of using power as a theoretical anchor to investigate the information behaviour of people in work roles.

The paper reviews literature on power relevant to the information disciplines. Various models of power are described, and a more sophisticated view, which takes a relational approach to power, is used to suggest how information related behaviour could be investigated.

In this paper, power is regarded as a pervasive phenomenon involved in all aspects of individual lives, including the aspects emanating from work roles performed by individuals, thus manifesting itself as part of the relationships in the organisation. The paper suggests a framework that links information behaviour to power by arguing that power relations that form part of the processes of the work roles induce the information behaviour exhibited by those people. The paper concludes by pointing to a need for information behaviour researchers to consider power as central to understanding how people seek and use information.

The framework could be used as a tool for designing studies that will enable the collection of data on information behaviour.

Current research aims to investigate the relationships between Chinese national cultural values (uncertainty avoidance (UA), power distance, masculinity (MAS), individualism (IDV) and Confucian dynamism) and accounting practices (professionalism, uniformity, conservatism and secrecy).

A sample of 842 users/preparers of financial statements participated in this cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey from China. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test the proposed relationship.

Results show that cultural values strongly impact financial reporting practices in China. Chinese society is characterized by low UA, high power distance, collectivism, future orientation (Confucianism) and masculine traits. These values show an overall preference for uniformity, conservatism and secrecy in financial reporting with weak professionalism. The findings show that Chinese society emphasizes law abidance, strict codes of conduct, written rules and regulations and respect for consistent orthodox measures.

This study provides valuable input for policymakers in developing regulations and accounting standards in the Chinese market. Understanding the relationship between cultural dimensions and accounting values helps to address societal challenges and align policies with cultural values to acquire desired financial reporting values. Global firm managers must consider cultural dimensions in accounting when entering Chinese markets or negotiating with partners from different cultures. Findings also suggest local managers gain self-awareness of their cultural biases and accounting values, enabling them to navigate businesses and society's financial reporting needs.

This study enriches the existing literature on cultural and accounting practice studies by validating the role of stakeholder and social contract theories in Gray–Hofstede’s framework and highlighting the influence of dominant cultural values on accounting values. The study provides a unique empirical analysis of the Chinese market by using a questionnaire survey and structural equation modeling (SEM). Further, it also opens avenues for future research on the relationship between cultural dimensions, accounting practices and their global impact. These findings emphasize the importance of cultural sensitivity and adaptability, especially in multicultural environments.

The purpose of the paper is to identify how the intersection of power, context, subjectivity and directionality makes it possible for the targets of workplace bullying to deflate power imbalance between them and the perpetrators.

The paper is based on nine in-depth interviews with self-reported targets from different public sector organizations in India. The targets were purposively selected keeping in mind that they made deliberate attempts to counter bullying. Constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data.

Six themes emerged as sources of power imbalance and eight themes as the way of deflating power imbalance. The core category that emerged was “enhancing personal identity”, which was the underlying phenomenon leading to deflation of power imbalance, through the intersection of power, context, subjectivity and directionality.

The study indicates that power, context, subjectivity and directionality of bullying help the targets to identify effective strategies of deflating power imbalance. In the process, the targets indulge in personal identity enhancement. It further reinforces the understanding that power does not remain static and may shift from the perpetrator to the target of bullying.

The study provides various tactics that targets can use to counter workplace bullying. It implies that targets need not always leave the organization or succumb to the situation in order to deal with bullying. It encourages the targets of bullying and those who deal with bullying targets to indulge in personal identity enhancement through problem-focused strategies of tackling workplace bullying.

It also furthers our understanding of workplace bullying from the point of intersection of the four aspects of the phenomenon – power, context, subjectivity and directionality – which allows the targets of bullying to enhance their personal identity.