Clusters of Power and Control

The corporation environment is a battlefield. Key players are competing to gain power and control. The paper aims to analyze the power and control function within the firm. To do that three basic clusters of people (CEO/Management, Board of Directors, General Shareholders’ Meeting) are recognized and analyzed. The analysis takes place using five categories (goal/scope/interest, Strategy, Allies, Foes, Tools, Instruments, Weapons and Preferable Environment). The authors take into account the legal and regulatory framework (corporate law, corporate governance law and codes), the codes of ethics, good practices, principles of corporate governance (OECD, 2004) the market’s needs because they are basic drivers and regulators of how the delegation of power and control takes place and how balance is established. The paper shows that power and control is concentrated, legally, at the top of the organizational pyramid, but in reality the only cluster that has the ability (well formulated strategy, tools and allies) to enforce its will on others is the CEO/Management Cluster.