POWER &POLITICS

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.

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.

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.

What is power?
Personal power.
Derives from individual sources.
Types of personal power.
Expert power.
Rational persuasion.
Referent power.

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.

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.

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.

13-2a

Nine Generic Influence Tactics

Rational persuasion. Trying to convince someone

with reason, logic, or facts.

Inspirational appeals. Trying to build enthusiasm by
appealing to others emotions, ideals, or values.
Consultation. Getting others to participate in planning,
making decisions, and changes.
Ingratiation. Getting someone in a good mood prior to
making a request; being friendly, helpful, and using
praise or flattery.
Personal appeals. Referring to friendship and loyalty
when making a request.

13-2b

Nine Generic Influence Tactics

Exchange. Making express or implied promises and
trading favors.

Coalition tactics. Getting others to support your

effort to persuade someone.

Pressure. Demanding compliance or using
intimidation or threats.
Legitimating tactics. Basing a request on ones
authority or right, organizational rules or polices, or
express or implied support from superiors.

Three influence outcomes

Commitment will gladly do it
Compliance will grudgingly do it
Resistance will refuse in one way or
another to do it
We all know what no means? At least most

of the time. What does a yes mean?

Note results of research

Power Tactics

Power Tactics

Ways in which individuals

translate power bases into
specific actions

Influence
InfluenceTactics
Tactics
Legitimacy
Legitimacy
Rational
Rationalpersuasion
persuasion
Inspirational
Inspirationalappeals
appeals
Consultation
Consultation
Exchange
Exchange
Personal
Personalappeals
appeals
Ingratiation
Ingratiation
Pressure
Pressure
Coalitions
Coalitions

Preferred Power Tactics by Influence Direction

Upward Influence

Downward Influence

Lateral Influence

Rational persuasion

Rational persuasion

Rational persuasion

Inspirational appeals

Consultation

Pressure

Ingratiation

Consultation

Exchange

Ingratiation

Legitimacy

Exchange

Personal appeals

Legitimacy

Coalitions

EEXXHHIIBB
IITT 142
142

Factors Influencing the Choice and Effectiveness

of Power Tactics
Sequencing of tactics
Softer to harder tactics
work best
Skillful use of a tactic
Relative power of the tactic
user
Some tactics work better
when applied downward or
upward
The type of request attaching to
the tactic
Is the request legitimate?

How the request is perceived

Is the request consistent
with the targets values?
The culture of the organization
Culture affects users
choice of tactic
Country-specific cultural
factors
Local values favor certain
tactics over others

Power in Groups: Coalitions

Coalitions
Clusters of individuals who
temporarily come together to
achieve a specific purpose

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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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
Common strategies for turning power into

relational influence.
Reason.
Friendliness.
Coalition.
Bargaining.
Assertiveness.
Higher authority.
Sanctions.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

How do managers acquire the

power needed for leadership?
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.

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.

What is empowerment, and how can

managers empower others?
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.

What is empowerment, and how can

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

What is empowerment, and how can

managers empower others?
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.

What is empowerment, and how can

managers empower others?
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.

What are organizational politics?

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.

What are organizational politics?

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.

What are organizational politics?

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

What are organizational politics?

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

What are organizational politics?

Common techniques for avoiding action

and risk taking.

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

What are organizational politics?

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.

What are organizational politics?

Common techniques for defending turf.
Expanding the jobs performed by the work

unit.
Forming and using coalitions.

How do organizational politics affect

managers and management?
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.

How do organizational politics affect

managers and management?
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.

How do organizational politics affect

managers and management?
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.

How do organizational politics affect

managers and management?
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.

Can the firm use politics strategically?

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.

Can the firm use politics strategically?

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.

Can the firm use politics strategically?

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.

Can the firm use politics strategically?

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.

Can the firm use politics strategically?

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.

Can the firm use politics strategically?

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.