The Concept of Authority
| Pages | 152-161 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009625 |
| Date | 01 February 1968 |
| Published date | 01 February 1968 |
| Author | J.G. WILLIAMS |
| Subject Matter | Education |
152 THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL, ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME VI, NUMBER 2 OCTOBER, 1968
The Concept of Authority
J. G. WILLIAMS
Chester Barnard's insistence that authority rests on the consent of
the subordinate is difficult to reconcile with the opposing reality
that superiors do ha\e the last word. Resolution of this dilemma is
unlikely to bo found by prolonging discussions of the legitimation
of authority, which may have reached a point of diminishing
returns. Co-existence of coercion and consent may be more satis-
factorily explained in terms of Simon's concept of the subordinate's
zone of acceptance of authority and the resulting distinction be-
tween two different sets of decisional premises, one at the boundary
of this zone and the other inside the zone. An addition to Simon's
theory of the concept and analysis of compliance proposed by
Etzioni gives further insight into the interdependency of superior
and subordinate in the authority situation.
"It is a hopeless task to try to review the multitude of ideas and
definitions related to the concept of authority."1
COMMON USAGE CONCEPT
Philosophical and historical discussions of authority emphasise
its evolutionary and dynamic character and its ultimate dependence
on the "value reference system"2 or on the "integrating myths"3 of
a society. Bertrand Russell refers to the evolution of authority from
instinctive loyalty to the group to rational government endowed
with sanctions, and to the more recent replacement of the impulse
to liberty by the desire for equality.4 Miller's contrast of the
European and Fox Indian social control systems shows vividly
how these are culturally determined, and in the European case
derived from belief in an elevated deity.5 Spiro points to the historic
divine rights of Kings,6 while Hendel traces the emergence of people-
derived authority from the original God-derived assumption.7 As
Wolpert sums it up, "different kinds of authority .. . can be under-
stood only when referred to their cultural matrices" but in every
case,
"what distinguishes the character of authority is the fact that
it must find ethical santification".8
MR. J. G. WILLIAMS is Senior Lecturer in Educational Administration at the
Western Australian Institute of Technology. For some years he was a principal of
technical schools and later a superintendent of technical educational in Western
Australia. Mr. Williams holds the degrees of B.A. and B.Sc. of the University of
Western Australia, the B.Ed. of the University of Queensland and the M.Ed. of
the University of Alberta. During 1956-58 Mr. Williams visited Malaya as a
Colombo Plan Expert and in 1966-67 he received the Alberta-Australia Award.
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