Power, Surveillance, Conflict & Decision-Making – Vocabulary Flashcards

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering digital fatigue, power dynamics, surveillance, influence tactics, conflict management, emotional labour, and decision-making biases from the lecture notes.

Digital Fatigue

A state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged screen use, excessive online meetings, and constant digital communication.

Digi-Housekeeping

The often invisible administrative work of organising digital files, managing tools, and handling nonstop notifications, which consumes time and energy.

Psychological Safety

A team climate where people feel safe to express ideas, questions, and concerns without fear of negative consequences.

Calendar Blocking

Scheduling dedicated time slots for focused work, breaks, or personal tasks to protect work-life boundaries.

Co-Created Digital Norms

Team-agreed rules about response times, meeting hours, and communication channels that clarify expectations and workloads.

Reward Power

Influence based on the ability to provide desirable outcomes such as praise, bonuses, or privileges.

Coercive Power

Influence derived from the capacity to punish or withhold rewards to ensure compliance.

Legitimate Power

Authority that comes from one’s formal position or title within an organisation.

Expert Power

Influence gained from possessing valuable knowledge, skills, or expertise.

Referent Power

Influence that stems from charisma, likability, and the desire of others to identify with or emulate the leader.

Power Paradox

The phenomenon where empathy and kindness help individuals gain power, but holding power can diminish those very qualities.

Visible Power

Overt decisions and actions where power is exercised openly through rules, policies, or commands.

Covert Power

Power that operates behind the scenes to shape agendas and limit which issues are discussed.

Institutional Power

Power that defines reality and normality by embedding control in societal structures, norms, and ideologies.

Disciplinary Power

Foucault’s concept of power exercised through surveillance and norms that people internalise, leading them to self-regulate.

Panopticon

Bentham’s circular prison design enabling constant observation; a metaphor for surveillance systems that induce self-policing.

Digital Panopticon

A workplace environment where pervasive digital monitoring leads employees to self-regulate even when no one is actively watching.

Bossware (Tattleware)

Employee-monitoring software that tracks keystrokes, screen time, or webcam activity to oversee productivity.

Technocratic Control

Management approach driven by technology, data, and algorithms that optimise performance, sometimes at the expense of human judgment.

Employee Voice

Workers’ ability to express opinions or concerns, often via platforms like Glassdoor or social media.

Glassdoor Effect

The shift in employer–employee power dynamics caused by public online reviews that influence company reputation.

Well-Being Impacts of Monitoring

Stress, burnout, reduced job satisfaction, and turnover risk linked to constant workplace surveillance.

Power Priming

Mentally or physically preparing to feel powerful—e.g., recalling past successes or adopting expansive postures—to boost confidence.

Strategic Contingencies Theory

The idea that departments gain power when they control resources or skills critical to solving an organisation’s key problems.

Dependency Creation

A power-building tactic in which a unit makes others rely on its resources or expertise.

Centrality

The degree to which a department’s activities are crucial to an organisation’s workflow, enhancing its power.

Non-Substitutability

The uniqueness of a department’s resources or skills, increasing its bargaining power because alternatives are lacking.

Ability to Reduce Uncertainty

Power gained by providing information or solutions that decrease organisational unpredictability.

Influence Tactics

Specific behaviours used to persuade others, such as rational persuasion, ingratiation, or coalition building.

Rational Persuasion

Using logical arguments and factual evidence to convince others that a proposal is sound.

Inspirational Appeals

Influence by invoking values, ideals, or emotions to gain support.

Consultation

Involving others in planning or decision-making to secure commitment.

Ingratiation

Applying flattery or friendly behaviour before making a request to increase compliance.

Exchange (Influence)

Offering benefits or favours to obtain cooperation.

Personal Appeals

Requesting support based on loyalty or friendship.

Coalition Tactics

Seeking the aid of others to persuade someone to support a proposal.

Pressure (Influence)

Using demands, threats, or persistent reminders to gain compliance.

Legitimating Tactics

Referencing rules, policies, or authority to justify a request.

Machiavellianism

A manipulative, strategic personality trait focused on self-interest and deception to gain power.

Political Skill

The ability to understand social situations and use that knowledge to influence others for personal or organisational goals.

Need for Power

A personality motive that drives individuals to seek influence and control over others.

Internal Locus of Control

The belief that one can control life outcomes through personal effort rather than external forces.

Risk-Seeking Propensity

A tendency to pursue bold, uncertain actions to achieve goals.

Relationship Conflict

Interpersonal tensions arising from personality clashes or incivility rather than task issues.

Task Conflict

Disagreements about goals, content, or the substance of work.

Process Conflict

Disputes over how work should be accomplished, such as roles or scheduling.

Unitarist Frame

A view that organisational conflict is abnormal and dysfunctional, assuming common interests among all members.

Pluralist Frame

A perspective recognising that conflict is natural and inevitable due to diverse interests within organisations.

Radical Frame

An approach attributing conflict to structural inequalities and power imbalances in capitalist systems.

Conflict Symptoms

Observable indicators of discord, including reduced productivity, absenteeism, low morale, and high turnover.

Competing Style

A win-lose conflict approach that is assertive and uncooperative.

Avoiding Style

Withdrawing from conflict, showing low assertiveness and low cooperation.

Accommodating Style

Yielding to others’ wishes, characterised by high cooperation and low assertiveness.

Compromising Style

Seeking mutually acceptable solutions through reciprocal concessions.

Collaborating Style

A win-win approach combining high assertiveness with high cooperation to satisfy all parties.

Collaborative Conflict Culture

An organisational climate that actively and agreeably addresses conflicts through open dialogue.

Dominating Conflict Culture

A climate where conflicts are addressed aggressively and disagreeably, favouring power plays.

Avoidant Conflict Culture

An environment where conflicts are sidestepped or suppressed, leading to passive coexistence.

Passive-Aggressive Conflict Culture

A setting where individuals resist covertly, expressing disagreement through indirect or delayed actions.

Distributive Negotiation

A win-lose bargaining strategy focused on dividing limited resources.

Integrative Negotiation

A win-win strategy that seeks creative solutions to satisfy all parties’ interests.

Conflict Contagion

The spread of conflict from a small group to wider parts of an organisation.

Emotional Labour

Managing one’s feelings and expressions to meet the emotional requirements of a job.

Face-Work

Hochschild’s idea that jobs involving direct contact require workers to evoke emotions in others while controlling their own.

Alienation (Emotional Labour)

A sense of detachment and inauthenticity resulting from prolonged emotional performance at work.

Cognitive Dissonance (Emotional Labour)

Psychological discomfort when displayed emotions conflict with genuine feelings.

Prescriptive Emotion Work

Emotion management that follows formal organisational rules about appropriate displays.

Presentational Emotion Work

Displaying one’s personality to craft an authentic-seeming customer experience.

Philanthropic Emotion Work

Genuine caring or helping behaviours that exceed formal job requirements.

Classical Rational Model

A decision-making model that assumes choices are made logically by evaluating all alternatives to select the optimal one.

System 1 Thinking

Fast, automatic, intuitive mental processing prone to biases.

System 2 Thinking

Slow, deliberate, analytical thought that can identify and correct biases.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to seek or interpret information that confirms existing beliefs while ignoring contrary evidence.

Anchoring Bias

Relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions.

Availability Bias

Overestimating the likelihood of events that are easily recalled or vivid in memory.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Continuing a course of action due to prior investments of time or resources that cannot be recovered.

Overconfidence Bias

Excessive belief in one’s own judgments or abilities, leading to risky decisions.

Groupthink

A mode of group decision-making where the desire for harmony suppresses dissent and critical evaluation.

Risky Shift

The tendency for groups to make decisions that are riskier than those individuals would make alone.

Ethical Blind Spots

Unrecognised influences that cause people to make unethical choices despite believing they are moral.