Decoding Power in Thai Organizations: Control, Visibility and the Authority Illusions
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Abstract
Organizational power is often inferred from formal authority, hierarchical position, and visible performance. In practice, however, decision influence frequently diverges from these signals, particularly in hybrid organizational environments where multiple governance logics coexist. This misalignment creates persistent uncertainty about who actually holds influence in everyday organizational settings. This study addresses the problem by asking how power operates beneath formal structures and why visible indicators of authority often fail to reflect actual control over decisions. Adopting a conceptual research design, the paper synthesizes literature on organizational power, legitimacy, and attention to distinguish between structural control—control over resources, agendas, rules, and organizational attention—and symbolic visibility, such as titles, recognition, and positional prominence.
The study proposes that managerial tensions and misaligned decisions emerge when visibility is interpreted as evidence of authority. To explain this mechanism, the paper develops the Control–Power Decoding Framework, which models how organizational actors interpret power signals under hybrid governance conditions. The framework includes a control–visibility matrix that identifies four recurring positions: structural authority, symbolic authority, marginal actors, and hidden power. This study contributes a conceptual explanation of why power is systematically misinterpreted in organizations and offers a practical lens for distinguishing symbolic authority from structural control in managerial decision-making.
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