Firm getting poor reaction at lost force (8)
I believe the answer is:
coercion
'force' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'firm getting poor reaction at lost' is the wordplay.
'firm' becomes 'co' (a firm is a company).
'getting' says to put letters next to each other.
'poor' indicates an anagram.
'lost' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'reaction' with 'at' removed is 'recion'.
'recion' is an anagram of 'ercion'.
'co'+'ercion'='COERCION'
(Other definitions for coercion that I've seen before include "Forceful persuasion" , "Forcible persuasion" , "The act of persuasion with the threat of force" , "Force majeure" , "Government by force" .)