Losing Control Again? Power and the quality of working life

Talk of power and work seems passé, an unhelpful memory of battles that have long since been settled. This paper argues that far from having been superseded, we need a view of power to understand many prominent changes in work and working life. The imbalance of power remains a fact of life in the employment relationship in the 21st century, just as it was in the 19th and 20th. However, the responses society makes to it are radically different. For example, the solution to the power imbalance is no longer simply a matter of trade unions and collective bargaining, but is now seen as involving skills, individual employment rights, management practices that emphasise empowerment and autonomy, and, to a lesser extent, the implementation of technology in places of work. Our understanding of the circulations and exercise of power is more complex than it once was as a result.