title: Shifting the Balance: Relationship as Power in Organizational Life.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Power has traditionally been studied and experienced within organizations from a hierarchical and positivist perspective. However, organizational complexity has never been greater, and in our attempts to find new ways to live amid this complexity we seek alternative theoretical perspectives that may better represent and inform our experiences of organizational life.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article summarizes the positivist view of power within organizations and the limitations of attempting to study power from this perspective. Power is then reconceptualized and explored using the complex responsive process (CRP) analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is an exemplar of how narrative inquiry guided by CRP may be used as a frame for reflexivity and reflection amid organizational power dynamics.
  
  
  METHODS
  The narrative description used in this paper was based on the author's experience and reflection upon a nursing faculty meeting in a large public university.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By becoming aware of the power relations in which we engage, and by reflecting upon them using CRP, we may come to understand power relations in a different way. In the act of examining and reflecting on our habitual roles in power relations, we may open up the potential for personal and organizational transformation.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Sandra J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Davidson
mesh_terms: D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D015279:Organizational Culture; D011209:Power, Psychological
keywords: Academic nursing; complex responsive process; nursing education; power analysis