The Rhetoric of Power, Part II: The Case of Bettavalve Placid

Power cannot be studied simply by observing the outcomes of contested decision making or by focusing on the possession of physical or structural resources, as an outline of some of the power processes at Bettavalve Placid suggests. Power exists and is mobilised even when “nothing happens” in the normal sense. To fully understand the processes of power in organisations generally and in industrial relations in particular, the use of ideology, legitimising principles and rhetoric and the ways in which these are used continually to reinforce and reproduce structures of power and domination need to be studied. It is demonstrated how the unitarist ideology of the Bettavalve Placid management was continually reinforced by the use of various legitimising principles and articulated via certain rhetorics.