Resistance is power.” How can coercion be affected by organizations? Insights from Italy

This research seeks to investigate the “relational side’s role” of organizational power in mitigating that of “positional power” in private firms under the lens of gender dynamics. Employing a sample of service firm workers, a regression analysis is conducted to investigate the role of Reference and Experience, framed as Personal Power because of their relational nature, in influencing coercive power and the gender-based dynamics occurring between them. From a theoretical standpoint, this study represents an encouraging update on organizational power studies, focusing on how different forms of power coexist. The novelty of this work lies in the will to frame power relationality—understood as personal power—to overcome the exercise of power as a form derived from supervisors. Furthermore, this study aims to contribute to gender studies on the role of women as being more predisposed towards forms of coercion given their natural sensitivity to relationality, which enables the establishment of bonds that produce, among their superiors, forms of positive power. Gendered power relations are important characteristics of science, technology systems, and service firms because understanding the extent to which they are perceived in organizations or the extent to which the differential value and status attached to management are gender-related is relevant to management. This study provides a relevant contribution to the literature on innovative inputs, mechanisms, and strategies to manage organizational power and raise gender awareness within service firms by leveraging relational power.