Mgt. 667 – Leadership Week 8

Mgt. 667 – LeadershipWeek 8 Rex Mitchell Spring 2006

2nd Reflection Papers • Good work! • Almost all: • Showed new learning • Demonstrated insights • Had good emergent questions • Made this useful for you • Many identified specific actions

Power: potential ability to influence behavior, events …get people to do things they would not do otherwise • Influence, politics: processes & actions through which potential power is used • Leadership: art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations

Engaging with Readings • What are my reactions to this: thoughts, feelings? • What do I agree with, like, want to remember and use? Why? • What do I disagree with, wish were different, would change, would expand on...? Why? • What connections & expansions can I make from my experience?

Strategies & Tactics for Using Power Effectively

Using Power Effectively • Framing • Information and analysis • Interpersonal influence • Timing • Structure • Symbolic actions

Strategies for Using Power Effectively • Framing • Information and analysis • Interpersonal influence • Timing • Structure • Symbolic actions

Framing • In addition to our earlier points, consider Pfeffer ch. 10 • Anchoring effects • Gordon Liddy example (ch. 10, p.189) • Sales • Charity fund-raising • Counteracting commitment • Twelve Angry Men film

Information & Analysis • Pfeffer ch.13, p.247) There is little doubt that information, and the certainty that it can provide, is a source of power... and can be used as part of a very important political strategy–getting one's way through analysis.

Information & Analysis As a Political Tactic • Need for appearance of rationality: Using information and analysis to justify decisions, even after the fact • Limits of facts and analysis: In complex decisions, it is very unlikely that analysis will clearly resolve the issue of what to do • Selective use of information (framing again): Leaving room for the advocacy of criteria and information that favor one's own position • Why there is often no learning or evaluation: The discovery of decision quality is both difficult and often avoided

Information & Analysis • (262) Many decisions have remote or highly indirect connections to the outcomes that are measured • (265) The connection between results and what happens to people is quite tenuous • (265) We should probably not hesitate to use information and analysis to exercise power in organizations, since the strategy is an effective one and the likelihood of our being called to account for our actions is not very great

Interpersonal Influence As a Political Tactic • Three topics in Pfeffer ch. 11: • Social proof (we are influenced by what our colleagues are saying and doing) • Use of ingratiation • The role of emotions • What else?

Interpersonal Influence: Social Proof • Momentum is very important in affecting a decision or accomplishing something. Once a social consensus begins to develop in one direction, it is difficult to change • It may be more appropriate to think of decisions as unfolding rather than being made • It is invaluable to have allies or supporters to provide social consensus re a particular position

Interpersonal Influence: Ingratiation • We prefer to say yes to the requests of people we know and like • (216) Flattery or ingratiation is a very effective technique of interpersonal influence • Sincere and accurate • Instrumental • (218) One of the more subtle but effective forms of flattery is being responsive and attentive to others • (220) ...importance of working through friends or mutual acquaintances to influence third parties

Interpersonal Influence: Emotions • Using expressed or displayed emotion can be an effective technique of interpersonal influence • However, it is not something everyone can do • There is... some skill involved in the strategic display of emotions.

Timing • Timing Is (Almost) Everything • (ch. 12, p.227) Actions that are well-timed may succeed, while the same actions, undertaken at a less opportune moment, may have no chance of success

Timing • Being early and moving first • Delay • The waiting game • Deadlines • Order of consideration • Anchoring effects • Sequence of decisions & resulting commitments • Interdependence of decisions • Propitious moments

Using Structure As a Tactic • Some managers use structure for tactical advantage • Although organizational design should be used to ensure efficient operation • (ch. 14, p.268) Divide and conquer • (271) Expansion of one's domain • (274) Use task forces and committees to institutionalize your power and diffuse responsibility for decisions, co-opt others

Symbolic Actions As aPower Tactic • Language, Ceremonies, and Settings • (ch. 15, p.279) Given the choice of influencing you through your heart or your head, I will pick the heart • Using political language, settings, and ceremonies effectively elicits powerful emotions in people, and these emotions interfere with or becloud rational analysis

Instrument 6, Use of Influence Tactics • Review your self-assessment, particularly noting relatively high or low usage items • Identify two or more tactics with which you would like to experiment – increasing or decreasing usage • Make some notes for yourself • Share with a neighbor

Power DynamicsHow Power is Lost & How Organizational Dynamics Change

Even the Mighty Fall • Pfeffer ch. 16 • In groups, each identify and summarize one point you particularly want to agree or disagree with, or expand on

Case 7, Opportunity Lost • Three questions at end of case: • Who had power in this organization? What type of power did Harry Walden have? • Do you think Roger played company politics well? If so, why didn’t he get the job? • What would you do now, if you were Roger? What political strategies could he use? • Report back & discuss

PoliticsThe Organization as Political Arena, The Leader as Politicianwww.csun.edu/~hfmgt001/politics.doc

Organizational Politics • Processes, actions, behaviors through which potential power is utilized and realized • Used to achieve power, either directly or indirectly • Informal approaches to gaining power through means other than merit or luck • Way to reconcile differences through consultation and negotiation • Neither good nor bad, intrinsically • Necessary for effective leadership

Factors Contributing to Politics • Pyramid-shaped organization design • Subjective performance standards • Environmental uncertainty and turbulence • Emotional insecurity • Greed and manipulative tendencies • Lack of congruence in goals & strategies

Some Political S & Ts • Develop power contacts & relationships • Make a good early showing • Keep informed • Control vital information • Control lines of communication • Provide favors (ingratiation) • Display loyalty • Develop reputation as expert

Rational persuasion • Manage your impressions • Bring in outside experts • Consult with & ask advice • Ask customers to tell your boss • Be courteous, pleasant, & positive • Thank-you notes • Flatter others sensibly • Develop allies & coalitions

Some Usually Unethical Tactics • Back stabbing • Purge all but loyalists • Set others up for failure • Exert undue pressure • Divide and conquer (sometimes) • Play self-serving territorial games

Avoid Political Blunders • Embarrassing boss in public • Surprising boss • Bypassing boss • Declining offers from top management

I believe use of organizational politics is necessary for a leader to acquire and retain power and to accomplish major goals • This use should be: • Appropriate • Skillful • Ethical • And should contribute to a balanced set of interests, not just that individual’s

Case 8: Comparison of Two Leaders • Each group discusses one of Q.1-3 plus Q.4 • Report back & discuss

Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders [Tom Peters] Leadership development is self-development [K&P] Love and power need not be in competition, unless we organize our thinking to make it so

We must become the change we wish to see in the world[Mahatma Gandhi] Leadership is not an affair of the head.Leadership is an affair of the heart.

Mgt. 667 – Leadership Week 8