Influence, Power, and Politics: An Organizational Survival Kit

1. Influence, Power, andPolitics: An OrganizationalSurvival Kit Chapter Thirteen

2. After reading the material in this chapter, you should be able to: LO13.1 Name five “soft” and four “hard” influence tactics and summarize Cialdini’s principles of influence and persuasion. LO13.2 Identify and briefly describe French and Raven’s five bases of power. LO13.3 Define the term empowerment and explain how to make it succeed

3. After reading the material in this chapter, you should be able to: LO13.4 Define organizational politics and explain what triggers it, and specify the three levels of political action in organizations. LO13.5 Distinguish between favorable and unfavorable impression management tactics. LO13.6 Explain how to manage organizational politics.

4. Nine Generic Influence Tactics • Rational persuasion • Inspirational appeals • Consultation • Ingratiation • Personal appeals • Exchange • Coalition tactics • Pressure • Legitimating tactics

5. Question? Tami has a tendency to use praise or flattery with her boss prior to making a request for her expense account approval every month. Tami is using which influence tactic? • Inspirational appeal • Ingratiation • Pressure • Consultation

6. Three Influence Outcomes • Commitment • substantial agreement followed by initiative and persistence in pursuit of common goals • Compliance • reluctant agreement requiring subsequent prodding to satisfy minimum requirements

7. Three Influence Outcomes • Resistance • stalling, unproductive arguing, or outright rejection

8. Practical Research Insights • Commitment is more likely when people rely on strong rational persuasion and do not rely on pressure and coalition tactics • Ingratiation improved short-term but reduced long-term sales goal achievement • Subtle flattery and agreeing with the other person’s opinion were shown to increase the likelihood of executives being recommended to sit on boards of directors

9. Practical Research Insights • Commitment is more likely when the influence attempt involves something important and enjoyable • Credible people tend to be the most persuasive • Employees are more apt to accept change when managers rely on a consultative strategy

10. How to Do a Better Job of Influencing and Persuading Others • Liking • people tend to like those who like them • Reciprocity • belief that both good and bad deeds should be repaid in kind is virtually universal • Social proof • people tend to follow the lead of those most like themselves

11. How to Do a Better Job of Influencing and Persuading Others • Consistency • people tend to do what they are personally committed to • Authority • people tend to defer to and respect credible experts • Scarcity • people want items, information, and opportunities that have limited availability

12. Social Power • Social power • ability to marshal the human, informational, and material resources to get something done

13. Five Bases or Power

14. Five Bases of Power • Reward power • obtaining compliance by promising or granting rewards. • Coercive power • obtaining compliance through threatened or actual punishment. • Legitimate power • obtaining compliance through formal authority.

15. Question? As a Division Head, Natalie is implementing pay-for-performance plans and positive reinforcement programs at Goodwill Wireless Center. Natalie is attempting to exploit which power? • Coercive • Expert • Referent • Reward

16. Five Bases of Power • Expert power • obtaining compliance through one’s knowledge or information. • Referent power • obtaining compliance through charisma or personal attraction.

17. Practical Lessons from Research • Expert and referent power had a generally positive effect • Reward and legitimate power had a slightly positive effect • Coercive power had a slightly negative effect

18. Employee Empowerment • Empowerment • “recognizing and releasing into the organization the power that people already have in their wealth of useful knowledge, experience, and internal motivation.”

19. The Evolution of Power

20. Participative Management • Participative management • process whereby employees play a direct role in setting goals, making decisions, solving problems, and making changes in the organization

21. Participative Management • Participative management helps employees fulfill three basic needs: • Autonomy • Meaningfulness of work • Interpersonal contact

22. Question? Herman is able to work more on his own now that his supervisor has given him more responsibility and authority in his job. Which need of participative management does this fulfill? • Autonomy • Meaningfulness of work • Interpersonal contact • Sovereignty

23. Empowering Leadership • Empowering leadership • involves sharing power with employees by communicating the significance of employee jobs, providing decision-making autonomy, expressing confidence in employee performance capabilities, and removing barriers to performance

24. Making Empowerment Work • Providing employee training and development. • Openly sharing information. • Utilizing participative decision making • Using contingent pay practices • Selecting employees based on their positive core self-evaluations

25. Domain of Organizational Politics • Organizational politics • intentional acts of influence to enhance or protect the self-interests of individuals or groups

26. Sources of Uncertainty • Unclear objectives • Vague performance measures • Ill-defined decision processes • Strong individual or group competition • Any type of change

27. Levels of Political Action in Organizations

28. Levels of Political Action • Coalition • an informal group bound together by the active pursuit of a single issue

29. Commonly Used Political Tactics

30. Question? Whenever things don’t go well for Duane, he is quick to shift fault to others. Which political tactic is he using? • Creating a favorable image • Praising others (ingratiation) • Attacking or blaming others • Using information as a political tool

31. Impression Management • Impression management • any attempt to control or manipulate the images related to a person, organization, or ideas

32. Favorable Impression Management • Job-focused • manipulating information about one’s performance • Supervisor-focused • praising and doing favors for one’s supervisor • Self-focused • presenting oneself as a polite and nice person

33. Question? Kendall will often do favors and run errands for her manager. She is engaged in __________ impression management. • Job-focused • Supervisor-focused • Self-focused • Organization-focused

34. Bad Impressions Many employees often make bad impressions without knowing it: • Doing only the minimum • Having a negative mind-set • Overcommitting • Taking no initiative • Waiting until the last minute to deliver bad news

35. Apologies • Apologies • form of trust repair where one acknowledges an offense and often offers to make amends. • It is a widely held norm in the United States and other cultures (e.g., Japan) to apologize when one’s actions (or lack of action) cause harm to another, whether intentional or not.

36. Purposes for Leader Apologies and Their Desired Outcomes

37. Make Politics Work for You • Create a simple slogan that captures your idea. • Get your idea on the agenda. • Score small wins early and broadcast them widely. • Form alliances with people who have the power to decide, fund, and implement.

38. Make Politics Work for You • Persist and continue to build support. • Respond and adjust. • Lock it in. • Secure and allocate credit.

39. Video Case: Dealing with Office Bullies • Can workplace bullying lead to conflict between managers and subordinates? • Why is bullying a concern to organizations? What are some of the adverse affects of bullying in the workplace? • How can office bullying be managed? Is there legal recourse for victims of bullying?

40. Video: Officials Investigate CEOs in Stock Option Scams • Jacob Alexander is being charged with securities fraud. Is this fair given how common backdating stock options seems to be? • How does a stock option work as an incentive for employees? • Would you be upset if you learned that a company you owned stock in backdated stock options? Why or why not? • How would you deal with being offered lucrative stock options if you learned that they had been backdated?