Mairi Maclean
Pathways to Power: Class, Hyper-Agency and the French Corporate Elite
Maclean, Mairi; Harvey, Charles; Kling, Gerhard
Authors
Charles Harvey
Gerhard Kling
Abstract
This paper explores pathways to power from the perspective of the French corporate elite. It compares those who enter the ‘field of power’ with those who fail to reach this final tier. Adopting an innovative econometric approach, we develop and test three hypotheses. These underline the pivotal role of external networks and the strategic advantage of hyper-agency in maintaining power; and indicate that social origin remains a powerful driver in determining success. Birthright and meritocracy emerge as two competing institutional logics which influence life chances. Higher-status agents benefit from mutual recognition which enhances their likelihood of co-option to the extra-corporate networks that facilitate hyper-agency. The objectification of class-based differences conceals their arbitrary nature while institutionalizing the principles informing stratification. We re-connect class analysis with organizational theory, arguing that social origin exerts an enduring influence on selection dynamics which inform processes of hierarchical reproduction in the corporate elite and society at large.
Citation
Maclean, M., Harvey, C., & Kling, G. (2014). Pathways to Power: Class, Hyper-Agency and the French Corporate Elite. Organization Studies, 35(6), 825-855. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840613509919
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Online Publication Date | Jan 22, 2014 |
Publication Date | Jun 1, 2014 |
Deposit Date | Dec 18, 2013 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 6, 2019 |
Journal | Organization Studies |
Print ISSN | 0170-8406 |
Electronic ISSN | 1741-3044 |
Publisher | SAGE Publications |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 35 |
Issue | 6 |
Pages | 825-855 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840613509919 |
Keywords | Bourdieu, elite careers, field of power, French corporate elite, hyper-agency, institutional logics, social class, social mobility |
Files
Maclean Harvey Kling_Pathways to power_AAM.pdf
(497 Kb)
PDF
Copyright Statement
This is the version of the article accepted for publication in Organization Studies published by SAGE https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840613509919
Downloadable Citations
About SOAS Research Online
Administrator e-mail: outputs@soas.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search