AURO UNIVERSITY

Leadership Skills
Managing power politics and conflicts
Jay Bardolia Chitrank Murarka Kushal Galani Ekta Kochar Rohan Nathani Amitkumar Patel Maya Nishant Kinjal Shah 10/29/2012

Managing Power, Politics and Conflicts

Leadership Philosophy being an Entrepreneur Being an entrepreneur the leadership philosophy we decided are important are: 1. Change is the only constant well face: change is inevitable in business and we need to build our policies around the change. 2. Employees are the only sustainable strategic advantage: here though we produce high quality goods but its the employee who build, sell and support these products. 3. Listening is the key to success: listening to the CEOs strategy of various companies we will be able to decide where our company is actually moving. 4. Customers are important but they arent always true: just because customer wants, needs and expect something we should not deliver them with all the stuffs as these may sometime prove harmful for our business. 5. All strategies are flexible: As all the things in business are subject to change in this competitive world its important for us to be ready and mold our strategies according to the current scenario. 6. Make quick decisions: nothing can harm the business more than a leader who hesitates in making decisions. So its important to make quick decisions regardless of difficult and scary situation. 7. Business is marathon and we should be ready to win the race. MANAGING POWER, POLITICS AND CONFLICT Attitude and behavior of others can be influenced by the power they possess. For many people, power and politics are dirty words which signifies dominance, aggression, brute-force, autocratic control, repression and exploitation. When they are used in the right way - power and politics acts as positive forces for good, giving individuals increased freedom, influence, strength and possess the ability to mobilize people and resources to attain personal goals, work tasks and organizational objectives. Clout of Powerful leaders and managers helps in achieving more for their followers as people will work harder for his boss which is generally believed that has a real power and creditability.

In contrast employees tend to work for less for their boss who are weak and lack personal authority and creditability.

Conflict too is often regarded as a largely negative aspect of organizational life. It is derived from the Latin, conflicts, meaning striking together, shock or fight. It is defined as an interaction characterized by disagreement, strife, arguments quarrels, fights, emotional outbursts or personality clashes. It is competitive for finite resources and rewards. In turn it creates conflict which might be potential. All conflicts are not bad some of them mat act as a useful function. In turn power, conflict and politics are two faced marvels which is used for both good and evil ends. Power and politics is regarded as natural and foreseeable facts of life in organizations, as individuals and groups hunt for to gain impact and control over finite resources in order to achieve their objectives. The two faces of power and politics

Positive Assertive Social influential Persuasive Inspiring Win - Win

Negative Domineering Unsocial Coercive Exploitative Brute force Win Lose

Very few people voluntarily give up power, particularly if they have fought hard to obtain it during their careers. They might also be atrocious about losing their status, special perks and privileges. Other traditional leader/managers may 'look-down' on their followers, have faith in that they are incompetent of being vested, and do not have the ability to anything more than simply obey commands.

As we examine powerless and powerful times, were struck by one clear and consistent message: feeling powerful - literally feeling able - comes from a deep sense of being in control of our lives. When we feel able to control our own destiny, when we believe were able to mobilize the resources necessary to complete a task, then we persist in our efforts to achieve. But, when we feel that others control us, when we believe that we lack support or resources, we show no commitment to excel .Thus, any leadership practice that increases anothers sense of selfconfidence, self-determination, and personal effectiveness makes that person feel more powerful and greatly boosts the possibility of success.

Executives admit that evaluations are sometimes affected by political considerations and by conditions in the organization as a whole. Politics played a role in the evaluation process because executives took into consideration the daily interpersonal dynamics between them and their subordinates; the formal appraisal process results in a permanent written document; and the formal appraisal can have considerable impact on the subordinates career and advancement. Executive justifications for inflating the appraisal were the following. 1. To maximize the merit increases a subordinate would be eligible to receive, especially when the merit ceiling was considered low 2. To protect or encourage a subordinate whose performance was suffering because of personal problems (feeling sorry for a subordinate also resulted in an inflated appraisal) 3. To avoid hanging dirty laundry out in public if the performance appraisal would be reviewed by people outside the organization 4. To avoid creating a written record of poor performance that would become a permanent part of a subordinates personnel file

There are just five sources of power and influence in any organizational context: Referent or personal power Expert power Reward power Legitimate and coercive power

Leader/managers that use information, facts and data to support their decisions are rated far more highly by their followers, when compared to those who use either coercive or legitimate power to force through their ideas. High intrinsic motivation is one of the primary drivers of both individual and organizational excellence. First, we are better people than the bully or domineering boss. Second, we do not have to accept their abuse of power and we must not acquiesce to it. If we do, this will only encourage repetitions of this kind of behavior. Third, we can be assertive and stand up to it, because most bullies are revealed to be cowards when they are challenged. We can tell the person in question how we feel about their behavior, why it is unacceptable and why we expect their behaviour to change.

It has to be said that some of their suggestions are rather nebulous or vague, and a few may even be illegal in some countries. Power is a social game Guard your reputation Praise your leaders Make people dependent on you Avoid people who are negative, self-obsessed, humorless, unhappy or unlucky Be calm and objective Don't say more than you have too Conceal your intentions and dont take sides in haste Dont fight battles you cant win and ensure that you crush your enemies

Having described these Machiavellian power strategies it's very important to emphasize that almost all people would feel very uncomfortable being involved in these kinds of power plays and political mind-games, if they were routine features of their daily working lives . Furthermore, engagement with the dark-side of power and politics uses up a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources, be this at the individual, group or organizational level. Conflict can arise from a variety of sources, and between supervisors and subordinates, between co-workers, and between employees and customers. When a conflict situation arises, the decision of how to react is an important one. There are five possibilities for an individual to deal with conflict. 1. Dominating. When the parties involved try to achieve their own goals with little or no concern for the goals or interests of the other party. Conflict is seen as a one must win and one must lose situation. 2. Integrating. When each of the parties in the conflict attempts to find a solution that satisfies the goals of all parties involved conflict is defined as a search for a win-win solution. 3. Compromising. When there is no clear winner and loser, but each party to the conflict gives up something. Neither party achieves all their goals. 4. Avoiding. When one or both parties refuses to recognize that conflict exists or refuses to become involved in an attempt to resolve the conflict. Avoidance may be accomplished by the physical separation of the parties involved or by suppressing any open display of conflict. Neither partys goals are addressed there is no change in the underlying situation causing the conflict.