Subject: Organisation Behaviour

Section: F Group No. 7

Student Name: Gaurav Pandharinath Tale

Roll No. 1802223

The examination of power and politics in a conservation

organisation
Lisa Powell
Carol Tilt

Summary Report:

The role of power and politics in any organisation is fascinating in an organisation that
is experimenting with a new business model that fundamentally challenges the
prioritisation of profit maximisation as a primary focus. The company in this article
was selected for examination due to its unique and remarkable focus on conservation
as its primary organisational objective.
The company’s innovative business model was driven by the founder’s
“corporate vision” to manage 1 per cent of Australia’s land mass by 2025 for the
purposes of profitable conservation. The aim was to achieve sustainable conservation
goals by owning and managing sanctuaries for the preservation of threatened fauna, and
to achieve financial sustainability through ecotourism and the sale of Australian fauna
to overseas sanctuaries and zoos. As the organisation grew it became apparent that it
would need access to greater financial resources. It had developed a successful model
for conservation but was far from achieving financial sustainability. It needed
significant and ongoing capital contributions as well as successful commercial
operations to generate positive and sustainable cash flows from operating activities.
The failure of the organisation to find new sources of capital ultimately resulted in the
sale of significant assets and a complete restructure of its operations
Three distinct phases were identified over the life of the company: The first
phase lasted from the company’s inception to listing on the ASX. The second phase
lasted from listing until the point at which financial stresses emerged. The third phase
began when financial stresses emerged and finished with the restructuring of the
organisation. There were apparently two groups managing the organisation during these
three phases. The conservationist or ‘environmentalist group’ pioneered the company
and managed it to public listing and ‘economic rationalist group’ rose to prominence
after the company had listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Environmentalists were driven by outcome rather than process. They were
adamant that conservation should not be hindered by bureaucracy. This created conflict
when dealing with external authorities, and often slowed the company’s progress in
acquiring land and establishing new sanctuaries. The environmentalists’ power over
information and resource generation was demonstrated by regular and frequent
communications with investors via newsletters and prospectuses. They believed that
once a potential investor or customer understood the corporate vision, they would offer
support irrespective of financial return.
 But there was agreement by the environmentalists that growth would require a
change in management style. The corporate vision was well-respected but the founder’s
“autocratic” management style had created tensions within the organisation. The lack
of autonomy offered to individual managers, inefficient use of senior managers’ time
and rejection of alternative business strategies under this regime was apparent to staff
and had been described by one manager as “overpowering and controlling”. While
listing the company on ASX, it had taken considerable effort by the environmentalists
to list on the ASX and they welcomed input from new managers. Staff members were
positive about the introduction of new management procedures rather than strict
monitoring and tight control, they were provided with “the confidence and the backing”
to get on with the job.
A key responsibility of the economic rationalist management team was to
establish new profit centres for ecotourism. This required rapid development within a
relatively short space of time. Tighter spending controls were introduced and financial
as well as environmental outcomes were considered more carefully when allocating
resources to specific projects. It soon became clear that the economic rationalists held
very different views to the environmentalists on a variety of fundamental issues related
to the decision-making processes for the generation and allocation of resources and
understanding of the corporate vision. As a result, several of the management practices
and decisions implemented by the economic rationalists were opposed by the
environmentalists and tensions began to emerge.
Different viewpoints were also evident when the economic rationalists
attempted to improve sales turnover by removing the shareholders’ discount on ticket
prices and merchandise. The environmentalists felt that, despite receiving no dividends,
the mum and dad investors had demonstrated tremendous loyalty to the company over
the years and that, in the long run, reducing the shareholder discount would be counter-
productive. They believed it would erode the goodwill they had built up with investors
and ultimately lead to the withdrawal of their financial support. Environmentalists on
objected the counting methods used by economic rationalists that harmed the animals,
irrespective of any the improvement in count reliability.
The environmentalists were adamant that investors were primarily attracted to
the business because of the company’s core conservation purpose and success. They
feared that the economic rationalists did not understand the corporate vision, and the
significance of it in attracting potential investors, and this view was reinforced when
the campaign, based on traditional financial indicators such as profit and cash flows,
proved to be unsuccessful. The failure of the company to attract institutional investment
provided the ultimate barrier for the transition of power from the environmentalists to
economic rationalists. The lack of support from institutional investors led to a downturn
in optimism, which was both catalyst and consequence of poor performance. Desperate
attempts were made to improve the financial performance of the company with strategic
planning meetings and rewards for good performance, but this ultimately proved to be
too little too late.
The failure of this business model of conservation was disappointing not only
for the company’s employees and shareholders but also for the endangered species it
was successfully protecting. The legacy that must be taken from this project is the
lessons learned:
First, and most importantly, the fundamental goals of the organisation need to
be established and agreed.
Second, common understandings and deep meanings need to be created.
 Third, acceptance that neither a purely commercial approach to managing a
conservation business, nor managing an organisation focussed on pure conservation
ideals, is likely to be viable.
Transcript of the interview taken:
(Honouring the request of the interviewee to keep his and the company’s name to be
anonymous)
Me (M): Hello sir, good afternoon! How are you today?
Interviewee (X): Good afternoon, Gaurav. I’m doing great and hope you are doing well
too. You’re in first year of your MBA, right?
M: Yes, sir. This assignment is under Organisation Behaviour subject.
X: Oh nice. I’ve also done MBA in Project Management from University
of Sydney. I’ll try to answer to your questions in the similar language so
that you can relate it in your subject.
M: That would be very helpful, sir.
X: Shall we get to our topic of discussion directly? If you think of anything,
you can stop me in the middle.
M: Sure, sir. We can start by discussing the harmful effects of Power and
Politics in your organisation.
X: Okay. Let me give you a brief background about my domain and where
I have worked and then we’ll go one by one.
I am an Instrumentation Engineer and currently working in the Oil and
Gas Industry. So you can assume that all the experiences related to this
topic are restricted to this industry, though more or less they may be
same elsewhere. I have worked in India, Oman, Australia and Singapore.
We’ll talk about these one by one.
M: Okay, sir. I could not get better structure than this.
X: (Laughs)Okay, we’ll proceed then. See, power and politics are not
limited to manager or senior level in the organisation. It is present in
different levels in different form. May be some form is more visible to
you and some are not visible.
There are multiple effects of being a part of power and politics. If you
are on the receiving side, your confidence is hurt, you may be sacked,
you won’t get promoted. In some cases, people may make false
accusations on you about bribery or anything else.
But these things, as per my observations, are dependent on your
company and country that you are working in.
M: That brings me to my next question. If you’ve seen these things
happening, how do you tackle this at work?
X: I’ll try to generalise my answer to this question instead of explaining
you the happenings.
M: Whatever you see fit, sir.
X: Okay. I’ve started working in India so let’s start from there.
The workforce at the bottom level is at Physiological Need stage of the
Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory, if I remember that correctly.
M: You’re right, sir. You still remember everything from MBA?
X: (Laughs)Yes, Gaurav. You’ll also remember these things as and when
you get some experience about the classroom concepts.
In a company, some employees are on payroll and some are contract
based. The contract employee thinks that I do the same or more work
that the payroll guy but why I with less job security and less salary.
So, they try to suppress you. They feel that someone else is challenging
their physiological need and this created the power and politics
phenomena in them.
M: How you used to tackle such issues then?
X: India is a collectivistic society. We know about our colleagues as much
as we know about our friends. So the best way to tackle these issues is
out of the office. Go to dinner with those people, party with them. The
more they know you and understand that you are not there to take their
job, they’ll keep you out of the politics.
M: Nice solution, sir.
X: In Oman, people at the esteem stage. It is important for them to be in
power. Expatriate politics is not there, they play politics among
themselves. They won’t criticize your work as they know you won’t take
their place. Make them feel important, understand their language,
culture and they will let you do your work your way. Even if you deal
with the driver in their language, it reaches to the manager in a good way
that he is a good person, he communicated with me etc.
Coming to Australia, it is a very laid-back country. You can say they are
in belongingness stage of the hierarchy. They think Indian may take their
job because Ausies are laid-back people. But power is distributed
evenly. Saying ‘sir’ is like poking them because ‘sir’ is a very respected
position for them. They are strong headed people, they can deny you
upfront which is not the case in India. We think of alternate ways to deny
someone. But if you behave like them, challenge them, Ausies won’t
mind. They would include you.
M: You’ve very good way of dealing with people. Very impressive, sir.
X: When you rise in your career, Gaurav, its all people management. And
the experiences are because of the opportunities that I got in my
company. Currently I’m working in Singapore for short duration.
People here are close to self-actualisation stage. They know what to do.
Get cheap labour from India, Bangladesh and earn money. But they
value education very much. Among 35 years old Engineer and 30 years
old MBA, they’ll respect the MBA more. As I told you Singapore hires
from different places, they have hybrid model in the organisation. Where
your immediate manager comes from matters, whether he’s from
collectivistic society such as India or Individualistic society such as
Australia. Then you can handle accordingly.
M: I’ve a lot through this interview, sir. Thank you so much for sharing your
experiences.
X: Welcome, Gaurav. If you need anything related to this topic or anything
else in your education, you know where you can reach me.
M: Yes, sir. Thanks again for your time. Have a nice day. Bye
X: You too, Gaurav. Bye.
Name: Shivam Agrawal

Roll No. 1801097

How can you survive organizational politics?

By: Reetu Raina
Date of publication: 28 feb 2017

The article deals about the deeper understanding of the politics in the organisation and then
the way or process to stay out of it or steer from it.

The author describes organizational politics as,” Workplace politics is the process and
behaviour in human interactions involving power and authority. If we look at the definition of
politics, words like power, authority, governance and control stand out among others.”

Then the author talks about how organizational politics is destroying the potential and how
bad mouthing may decimate the potential of capable candidates.

The author states for a fact that if organisational politics has been affecting people and
workplace this much then why don’t people talk about and straighten it out.

Categorisation:

As a first step in solving vis-à-vis understanding organisational politics, author has

categorised the employees in an organisation in three buckets:

1. Competent people:
They are the people who really know their stuff. You can’t find any flaw in
what they do. They rise in the organisation only on the basis of merit and
calibre.

2. Relationship People:
The author has called them ‘networkers’. They know how to strike the right
chord with people, connect with them, nurture the relationships, and build a
 high level of trust with people. This social capital gives them the negotiation
power with higher management and eventually rise in the organisation.

3. Sponsored People:
As per jungle rule there are two species, predators and scavengers. Predators
are those who hunt and eat, Scavengers are those who feed on what is left by
predators. We can call Sponsored people as scavengers as they have no special
talent as of technical knowledge or building relationship. They just had some
high end connections through which they influence and control the
organisation.

How does the politics start?

The challenge starts arising when people belong to any of these three categories partially.
These inbetweeners start defining control and governance mechanism as per their hidden
agenda and benefit, which is mainly to survive in the ecosystem. In the absence of strong
capabilities, relationship forming power, or influence on decision-makers, these people often
resort to tactics, manipulation, and gossip to get their way. Thus, giving rise to organizational
politics.

Recommendation from the author:

The best solution to survive organizational politics is to acknowledge its presence, understand
its nature, and stay professional by adapting to the category which is closest to your natural
self. As Darwin said in his theory of survival, “it is not the strongest of the species that
survives, but the most adaptable.”

Interview transcript

The following is a summary of the conversation I had with my manager of IOCL ( Sh. Manu
Maheshwari).

Me: Sir, what are your thoughts on role of power and politics in workplace?

Manu: Shivam, as you have mentioned that this is for your study on organization behavior.
So I am going to give you my unbiased opinions on its’ pros and cons.
Let’s first talk about its pros.
See, politics have always been considered bad and unwanted but the way I see it, in some
way it is good as it brings out the best of people. Humans would not have evolved over
generations to this day if it wasn’t for competition. The basic rule is ‘Survival of the fittest’.
So when people play politics it really brings out an atmosphere of competition which is good.
Employees give their best, try to work as hard as possible, beat each other to deadline just so
to come in the eye of management, which inherently and obviously benefits the organization.
If we start talking about cons we can have a full day rant about it.
Some have healthy competition spirit in them but most people play dirty tricks. I have seen
employees spreading rumors about their colleagues because of envy or hatred. I have seen
good potential employees surrendering to the pressure of some wretches who have contacts to
the higher management. I have seen politics succumbing the organization future just because
role of power was more prominent than that of talent or skills. So this politics demon is
eating many futures and dreams as we speak of.

Me: Sir, How do you manage it?

Manu: This is the thing you have to be careful about. The way I see it you cannot do much
about higher authorities, they are what they are. But I try to inculcate good teachings in my
team. I try to keep it as flat as possible. In my team no boot licking can get you in good
words, just your talent and hard work can let you get appreciated. This is the thing which we
have to uproot from it’s very basic level so as when these employees rise to higher levels,
they can do justification to people working under them. I also preach the same to my fellow
colleagues and my other friends in corporate.
Student Name: Utkrisha Kumar
Roll No. 1802232

Research Paper Summary

The paper describes that, the learning processes are to a large extent governed by political
ideology, prescribing what valuable learning is and what is not. It demonstrates how the power
of politics manifests itself during the innovation process, as a division between the studied
organization's core and periphery. In particular the dynamics between core and periphery
regarding power differences and whether individual or groups have a fair chance to get heard.
The fundamental for understanding the power of politics and how this influence decisions, is
to acknowledge that power and knowledge are inextricably intertwined. Therefore, the power
will influence what will be known and who will know.

A common element that strikes in both of the discussed empirical cases, is how those at the
core decide the content of policies. The core is represented by individuals with high positions,
large responsibilities and decisional authority. It demonstrated that long before projects of
innovation are implemented, whether they are on a micro or macro level, their outcome
therefore also their results, has been decided. Part of the explanation is how the core has the
power to decide who to included and who to exclude. The power of politics thus encompasses
the possibility to use one's position to determine who should be involved in organizational
processes and have an influence on them, and who should not. In this way, individual interests
are promoted at the cost of others.
The use of power in the first case put extra stress on the product development work resulting
in a reduced successfulness of the R&D work and a frustrating work environment. In this way
the learning processes were governed by political ideology, prescribing what the valuable
learning was and what was not. The research presented in this paper indicates that political
issues, hidden agenda and closed networks tend to be present, in learning processes, deciding
what the result of a learning process should be. It is of importance to understand the conditions
for knowledge generation, and how employees ability and possibility, to influence what is
being learned, depend on the circumstances in which the learning process take place, what kind
of people, their background, social class, position in the company, and how they are perceived
by their environment, are part of the learning process. Only by being attentive towards the
power of politics and how this manifest itself it is possible to conduct more democratic and
open innovation projects.
 Interview Transcript

o Interviewed Mr. Arnab Talukdar, Associate Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services

Limited.

1. Does Politics and use of power exist in your organization?

Yes, It does on some levels.

2. What are the effects of this power and politics in the organization?

Power, Politics & Grouping destroy the clean work ethics & environment.
Hardworking & deserving workers don't get the due attention & recognition. It can be
termed as reservations within the workplace. It affects the mentality of individuals
and the team
and creates a gap between team members. Moreover, the talent of individuals is often
not appreciated which results in negativity amongst employees, they stop contributing
with best of their abilities which results in overall decrease in productivity of the
team.

3. How do you manage it?

I strictly adhere to the working code of ethics and make sure my team follows it. I try
my best to make sure emphasis is given to the deserving workers & encouragement
should be provided for stopping undue workforce management. Lastly, I try to
maintain a corporate relationship with everyone at work.
Student Name: Sagar Tachtode
Roll No.

Power and Politics

The exchange of our attempts about people or within a social aggregate together with the
differences and conflicts that arise is what politics is all about politics involved the use of power
The ability to threaten and impose punishment as a necessity and sufficient condition for power.
Robbins says as power may exist but not used. It is, therefore, either capacity or potential but
power is also about effectiveness. It is the Capability for behavior by limiting the alternatives
available to those affected. Politics is the combination of power and authority, their use and
projection.
The political activity involves Disagreements and differences in wall collected issues that
result in conflicts.
Sources of power in organizations
A. Formal Power
B. Levels of formal power
C. Formal Power recapitalization
D. Informal Power
Power and politics are relational and form the pivots around which group and individual
activities revolve, in many instances such as ensuring the assignments are carried out, that
procedures are followed and that existing rules are set up to extract obedience. Structures are
respected, power another ready to come on and use it about the ultimate or only instrument of
control.
It will succeed where other means of modifying behavior including material and
psychological motivators fail. A situation where an individuals self-interest is stronger than
organizational incentives, it is only the coercion that comes from power that can ensure that
the individual defers grouping interest. Organizations cannot cope without power. Rules set by
the organizations must be obeyed.
Every employee knows that his fate lies in the hands of the employer and that the employer has
the power to ensure his service are delivered at the time, in the quantity and quality, and at the
place chosen for him. This power, which derives from the ownership of the means of
production, including the instruments of labor is one of the most significant strengths that any
individual can wield over another-and by its nature represents the root of all contradictions
under capitalism.
Power and politics are integrated processes that have to be managed effectively to achieve
cohesion. Group and organizations authority structures must be fashioned in such a way that
they can withstand pressure brought on them by formal or informal power behaviors of their
members while providing channels of ventilation differences.
Some organizations seek to regulate these conditions by centralizing power. Others try to strike
by decentralizing it. The central concern is always to avoid a trend of disorganization to ensure
that there is a conducive environment for the pursuit of collective goals.

Transcription: -

Name of Interviewee: - Subhendu Pramanik

Position: -Planning Manager
Organization: - Vedanta Aluminum Limited, Jharsuguda, Odisha.

Me:- Hello Sir, myself Sagar from NITIE Mumbai.

Manager: - Yes Sagar, how are you?
Me: - I am good sir. I have some academic assignment to discuss with you. Our mam from
Organization Behavior subject has told us to have an interview with one of the senior manager
in any organization and ask regarding managing power and politics with the employees.
Manager:-Okay Sagar. See when it comes to working, we are bound to get the results to achieve
our targets. If we do not show power to the subordinates, then it becomes tough to get the work
done. So, for this, we must make use of our position and behave strictly with the subordinates
when it comes to work or any assignment. You see Sagar, Power has taken negative sense in
the time when used in context with the organization, but, it is not. Influence can be used instead
of power, but ultimately, we will be doing circumlocution.

Me: - So sir, I sense you justify the use of power.

Manager: - Yes of course. With the increase in responsibilities, you get rewarded with an
increase in power. You must limit the use of power to execute things we are accountable. You
see that use and abuse are two aspects separated by a thin line. You should be very conscious
while using the authority. When you are in a responsible position, you must know that you are
bound with expectations. People look up to you; they follow you sometimes unconsciously.
You are tested in every talk you talk and every walk you take, so to maintain your position to
influence people by being an example you must use power.

Me: Let me have your opinion on employee internal politics.

Manager: - Politics is the game everybody plays and those who lose it calls it as politics. But
people blindside the facts which were directly responsible for the outcome. The person in my
position must ensure that my subordinates do not suffer from these so-called politics.
Everything should be as transparent as possible. For myself also, I should not believe in such
things and focus on facts and reasons open-mindedly. I do advice it to you too.

Me: Well thank you, sir, for your valuable time and insights. I am sure I have learned many
lessons from this conversation. Thank you and have a beautiful day.

Manager: Nothing. It was a pleasure to talk to you after long time. Keep in touch and ask if
anything is necessary.
Name- Shuvam Saurav Sahu
Roll no- 1801106
How power and politics impacts an organizational unit in terms of
achieving the firm’s goals?
Author: Faisal Alsalamah
Date of publication: June 2015

The principle point of this research study is to explore the effects of organizational
culture on job performance and productivity in the setting of United States which is the center
of multinational organizations. This study would focus on technology industry with key
objectives being the Effect and important aspect of power and politics in organisation units.

A significant number of researches are conducted to investigate the effect of power and
politics on organizational units in terms of achieving its goals. The values and traits around the
world are varying quickly, and it also brings the change in the level of worker satisfaction and
expectation.
This study employed quantitative methods as it is a splendid tool to analyze a number
of studies. It helps in understanding the behaviors of society with utmost clarity and transparent
manner.
Example of Apple Inc was taken by the author to study the impact of pawer and politics.
Power distribution and political framework have both negative and positive effects on the
organization and its performance. Powerful CEO of the organization like Steve Jobs has power
to align the organization to achieve its goals. Steve Jobs owing to his extraordinary abilities
and high powers in the company organize Apple Inc towards lofty goals. Apple Inc is following
the autocracy culture. There is authority of single person. Previously Steve Jobs was following
the strict autocracy culture. Studies indicated that autocracy can destroy the companies and
countries.
The major influencing behavior in this study is the political behavior. This involves
attempts by someone to influence others. This worked as source for advancing towards
organizational goals. Describing in this way all the behaviors can be regarded as a political.
Apple Inc politics involves actions by individuals, teams or departments to acquire develop
and use powers. Employees are mainly concerned about office politics. It is stated that ideal
work settings are those that are free from political behavior. A report suggests that 70% of the
workers of the organization are involved in the politics. It is to be stated that in order to be
successful, employees need to be involved in politics. There are some employees, who
generally lift the negative stirs about the politics by involving in back room dealing,
manipulating, hidden agendas. Such behaviors may be detrimental for organizations. Apple Inc
is a self driven organization and employees there felt that organization is not concerned about
their benefits and then employees are less committed about their work. This may cause the drop
out in the organization productivity and performance. The proposed model suggests that
environmental elements like politics and justice have strong impact on the individuals working
in the organizations which may also affect the individual stress level.
From the above analysis it can be concluded that Apple Inc is under the conflicting
political and power issues. There is need to enhance the workplace power and politics to make
the organization more productive and progressive. The organizations are transcendently
progressive these days that posture tremendous challenges and opportunities for the leadership.
Seeing such dynamism is extremely vital to seek after the organizational key destinations that
analyze the effect of organizational culture on job performance of employees. The results show
that organizational culture essentially impacts job performance of employees and profit in the
element developing setting.

Interview Transcript:
Interviewee detail - Mayank Sharma, Senior operation Associate, Jet airways
ME (X) – Do power and politics exist in your organisation?
Mayank Sharma(Y)- Yes. It exist to some extent.
X- According to you what are the harmful effect of power and politics in your organisation?
Y- Effects can be misalignment in strategic goal and to manage it by coordinating among
different employee. It effects also includes negative employee performance and severe negative
impact towards the overall growth of the organisation.
X- Is there any positive side of it?
Y- Yes it has. If viewed from another angle where it is the motivating factor for employee
performance. If every member takes it as a challenge and work hard to nullify it, there can be
drastic improvement in overall efficiency.
X- How do you manage it?
Y- I strive to make every process transparent, IT enabled and KPI driven.
Overall Learning:
We completely agree that people management is of utmost importance as we progress in
careers. Organisation Behaviour class has taught us different topics related to this. And as seen
from the interview snippet, it is very clear that all the concepts make sense in the business
scenario. We have learnt about motivation and it makes sense in day-to-day life as well. Case
studies on Mount Everest and Konkan Railway project have demonstrated how OB concepts
work and how to analyse the situation to collect some knowledge for yourself.
Classroom activities were fun and surprisingly there was learning in those too. During
the power and politics interview, we got to know how different cultures in countries can play
a role in the career and how to tackle them. In the guest lecture by Rajesh Mehta, we learnt a
basic point that inclusiveness cannot be increased by increasing reservations, it can be
increased by changing our attitude.