An Analysis of Informal Power in a Security Police Squadron.

It is commonly accepted that an informal power structure parallels the formal one in most organizations. The investigators found no established methods outside of interviewing for measuring the informal structure. This study represented an effort to test some instruments and methodologies for this purpose. The results obtained are highly specific to the Air Security Squadron used for the demonstration and the individuals which comprised it at the time of testing. Highly dramatic departures from the official channels were found. The inclusion to deletion ratio was found to be an important summary statistic. The nature of the departures from established channels seemed to be related to perceptions of job capacity, decision making power, and cooperativeness. The persons from the formal power structure most frequently deleted were seen as competent but uncooperative. Author