Organizational Behavior, 8e

Organizational
Behavior, 8e
Schermerhorn, Hunt, and
Osborn
Prepared by
Michael K. McCuddy
Valparaiso University
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Organizational Behavior:
Chapter 15
Power and Politics
Study questions.
What is power?
How do managers acquire the power needed
for leadership?
What is empowerment, and how can managers
empower others?
What are organizational politics?
Chapter 15
Power and Politics
Study questions.
How do organizational politics affect
managers and management?

Can the firm use politics strategically?
What is power?
Power is the ability to
Get someone to do something you want done.
Make things happen in the way you want.
Influence is
What you have when you exercise power.
Expressed by others behavioral response to
your exercise of power.

What is power?
Position power.
Derives from organizational sources.
Types of position power.
Reward power.
Coercive power.
Legitimate power.
Process power.
Information power.
Representative power.
What is power?
Reward power.
The extent to which a manager can use
extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to control other

people.
Success in accessing and utilizing rewards
depends on managers skills.

What is power?
Coercive power.
The extent to which a manager can deny
desired rewards or administer punishments to

control other people.
Availability varies from one organization and
manager to another.
What is power?
Legitimate power.
Also known as formal hierarchical authority.
The extent to which a manager can use
subordinates internalized values or beliefs

that the boss has a right of command to
control their behavior.
If legitimacy is lost, authority will not be
accepted by subordinates.
What is power?
Process power.
The control over methods of production and
analysis.
Places an individual in the position of:
Influencing how inputs are transformed into
outputs.
Controlling the analytical process used to make
choices.
10
What is power?
Information power.
The access to and/or control of information.
May complement legitimate hierarchical
power.
May be granted to specialists and managers in
the middle of the information system.
People may protect information in order to
increase their power.
11
What is power?
Representative power.
The formal right conferred by the firm to
speak as a representative for a potentially

important group composed of individuals
across departments or outside the firm.
Helps complex organizations deal with a
variety of constituencies.
12
What is power?
Personal power.
Derives from individual sources.
Types of personal power.
Expert power.
Rational persuasion.
Referent power.
13
What is power?
Expert power.
The ability to control another persons
behavior through the possession of

knowledge, experience, or judgment that the
other person needs but does not have.
Is relative, not absolute.
14
What is power?
Rational persuasion.
The ability to control another persons
behavior by convincing the other person of the

desirability of a goal and a reasonable way of
achieving it.
Much of a supervisors daily activity involves
rational persuasion.
15
What is power?
Referent power.
The ability to control anothers behavior
because the person wants to identify with the

power source.
Can be enhanced by linking to morality and
ethics and long-term vision.

16
How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
Acquiring and using power and influence.
A considerable portion of any managers time
is directed toward power-oriented behavior.

Power-oriented behavior is action directed at
developing or using relationships in which

other people are willing to defer wholly or
partially to ones wishes.
17

Acquiring and using power and influence.
Three dimensions of managerial power and
influence.
Downward.
Upward.
Lateral.
Effective managers build and maintain
position power and personal power to exercise

downward, upward, and lateral influence.
18

Building position power by:
Increasing centrality and criticality in the
organization.
Increasing task relevance of own activities and
work units activities.

Attempting to define tasks so they are difficult
to evaluate.
19

Building personal power by:
Building expertise.
Advanced training and education, participation in
professional associations, and project involvement.
Learning political savvy.

Learning ways to negotiate, persuade, and understand goals
and means that others accept.
Enhancing likeability.
Pleasant personality characteristics, agreeable behavior
patterns, and attractive personal appearance.
20

Managers increase the visibility of their
job performance by:

Expanding contacts with senior people.
Making oral presentations of written work.
Participating in problem-solving task forces.
Sending out notices of accomplishment.
Seeking opportunities to increase name
recognition.
21

Additional tactics for acquiring and using
power and influence.
Using coalitions and networks to alter the flow
of information and the analytical context.

Controlling, or at least influencing, decision
premises.
Making ones own goals and needs clear.
Bargaining effectively regarding ones
preferred goals and needs.
22

Common strategies for turning power into
relational influence.
Reason.
Friendliness.
Coalition.
Bargaining.
Assertiveness.
Higher authority.
Sanctions.
23

Power, formal authority, and obedience.
The Milgram experiments.
Designed to determine the extent to which people
obey the commands of an authority figure, even

under the belief of life-threatening conditions.
The results indicated that the majority of the
experimental subjects would obey the commands
of the authority figure.
Raised concerns about compliance and obedience.
24

Obedience and the acceptance of authority.
Chester Barnard argued that:
Authority derives from the consent of the
governed.
Subordinates accept or follow a directive only
under special circumstances.
25

Obedience and the acceptance of authority
cont.
For a directive to be accepted as authoritative,
the subordinate:
Can and must understand it.

Must feel mentally and physically capable of
carrying it out.
Must believe that it is consistent with the
organizations purpose.
Must believe that it is consistent with his or her
personal interests.
26

Obedience and the acceptance of authority
cont.
Directives that meet the four criteria will be
accepted as authoritative since they fall within

the zone of indifference.
Directives falling within the zone are obeyed.
Directives falling outside the zone are not
obeyed.
The zone is not fixed over time.
27
What is empowerment, and how can

managers empower others?
Empowerment.
The process by which managers help others to acquire
and use the power needed to make decisions affecting

themselves and their work.
Considers power to be something that can be shared
by everyone working in flatter and more collegial

organizations.
Provides the foundation for self-managing work teams
and other employee involvement groups.

28

The power keys to empowerment.
Traditional view.
Power is relational in terms of individuals.
Empowerment view.
Emphasis is on the ability to make things happen.
Power is relational in terms of problems and
opportunities, not individuals.

29

The power keys to empowerment.
Ways to empower others.
Changing position power.
Expanding the zone of indifference.
30

Power as an expanding pie.
With empowerment, employees must be
trained to expand their power and their new

influence potential.
Empowerment changes the dynamics between
supervisors and subordinates.

31

Ways to expand power.
Clearly define roles and responsibilities.
Provide opportunities for creative problem solving
coupled with the discretion to act.

Emphasize different ways of exercising influence.
Provide support to individuals so they become
comfortable with developing their power.

Expand inducements for thinking and acting, not just
obeying.
32

Machiavellian tradition of organizational
politics.
Emphasizes self-interest and the use of
nonsanctioned means.
Organizational politics is defined as the
management of influence to obtain ends not
sanctioned by the organization or to obtain
sanctioned ends through nonsanctioned
influence means.
33

Alternate tradition of organizational
politics.
Politics is a necessary function resulting from
differences in the self-interests of individuals.

Politics is the art of creative compromise
among competing interests.
Politics is the use of power to develop socially
acceptable ends and means that balance
individual and collective interests.
34

Positive aspects of organizational politics.
Overcoming personnel inadequacies.
Coping with change.
Substituting for formal authority.
35

Organizational politics and self-protection.
Common self-protection strategies.
Avoiding action and risk taking.
Redirecting accountability and responsibility.
Defending turf.
36

Common techniques for avoiding action
and risk taking.

Working to the rule.
Playing dumb.
Depersonalization.
Stalling.
Routine.
Creative.
37

Common techniques for redirecting
accountability and responsibility.

Passing the buck.
Buffing (or rigorous documentation).
Rewriting history.
Scapegoating.
Blaming the problem on uncontrollable events.
Escalating commitment to a losing course of action.
38

Common techniques for defending turf.
Expanding the jobs performed by the work
unit.
Forming and using coalitions.
39

Managers may gain a better understanding
of political behavior by placing themselves

in the positions of other persons involved
in critical decisions or events.
This understanding can be facilitated with
the use of a payoff matrix analysis.

40

Political action and subunit power.
Common types of lateral, intergroup
relationships where political action occurs.

Work-flow linkage.
Service ties.
Advisory connections.
Auditing linkages.
Approval linkages.
41

Political action in the chief executive suite.
Executive behavior can sometimes be
explained in terms of resource dependencies.
Resource dependence increases as:
Needed resources become more scarce.
Outsiders have more control over needed resources.
There are fewer substitutes for a particular type of
resource controlled by a limited number of
outsiders.
42

Strategies for managing resource
dependencies.
Developing workable compromises among
competing resource dependencies.

Altering the firms degree of resource
dependence.
Redefining how the firm expects to conduct
business in the international arena.
Determining the proper level of executive pay.
43

There is growing awareness of the importance of
political strategy for business firms.

In the United States, corporate political strategy
advises managers to:
Engage in the public political process.
Turn the government from an industry regulator to an
industry protector.
Decide when and how to get involved in the public
policy process.
44

Organizational governance.
The pattern of authority, influence, and
acceptable managerial behavior established at

the top of the organization.
Significantly determined by the effective
control of key resources by members of a

dominant coalition.
45

Organizational governance implications.
The daily practice of governance is the
development and resolution of issues.

Governance is becoming more public and
open.
Imbalanced governance by some U.S.
corporations may limit their ability to manage
global operations effectively.
46

Organizational governance implications.
While governance is often closely tied to the
short-term interests of stockholders and pay of

CEOs, some firms are expanding governance
interests to include employees and
communities.
Governance should have an ethical basis.
47

A persons behavior must satisfy the
following criteria to be ethical:

The behavior must produce the greatest good
for the greatest number of people.

The behavior must respect the rights of all
affected parties.
The behavior must respect the rules of justice.
48

CEOs and employees may justify unethical
actions by suggesting that the behavior:

Is not really illegal and so could be moral.
Appears to be in the firms best interest.
Is unlikely to be detected.
Demonstrates loyalty.
49

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Organizational

managers and management?

your exercise of power.

extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to control other

depends on managers skills.

desired rewards or administer punishments to

subordinates internalized values or beliefs

speak as a representative for a potentially

behavior through the possession of

behavior by convincing the other person of the

because the person wants to identify with the

ethics and long-term vision.

How do managers acquire the

is directed toward power-oriented behavior.

developing or using relationships in which

How do managers acquire the

Effective managers build and maintain

position power and personal power to exercise

How do managers acquire the

work units activities.

How do managers acquire the

professional associations, and project involvement.

Learning political savvy.

and means that others accept.

patterns, and attractive personal appearance.

How do managers acquire the

job performance by:

How do managers acquire the

power and influence.

Using coalitions and networks to alter the flow

of information and the analytical context.

How do managers acquire the

How do managers acquire the

obey the commands of an authority figure, even

How do managers acquire the

under special circumstances.

How do managers acquire the

For a directive to be accepted as authoritative,

Can and must understand it.

How do managers acquire the

Directives that meet the four criteria will be

accepted as authoritative since they fall within

What is empowerment, and how can

and use the power needed to make decisions affecting

by everyone working in flatter and more collegial

and other employee involvement groups.

What is empowerment, and how can

opportunities, not individuals.

What is empowerment, and how can

What is empowerment, and how can

trained to expand their power and their new

supervisors and subordinates.

What is empowerment, and how can

coupled with the discretion to act.

comfortable with developing their power.

What are organizational politics?

Emphasizes self-interest and the use of

What are organizational politics?

Politics is a necessary function resulting from

differences in the self-interests of individuals.

What are organizational politics?

What are organizational politics?

What are organizational politics?