The Power of Social Collectivities: Towards an Integrative Conceptualization and Operationalization

By integrating some of the more persuasive elements of the major current approaches, this article develops a conceptualization of social power and a formula for predicting the enactment of power between social collectivities. The predictor measure is defined as the ratio of either party's relative resources (including specifically those pertaining to social collectivities) to its relative position vis-à-vis contended issues. Data from shop committees and managements of sixteen organizations in Israel support the main contention that the extent of balance or imbalance in the resources/position ratio can predict the intended enactment of potential power better than either resources or position separately.