Power, Politics and Empowerment Week 8

1. Power, Politics and Empowerment Week 8

2. Learning Objectives • Define power and influence • Identify and discuss the five bases of organisation power • Identify the relationship between information and power • Identify the four contingencies of power • Discuss the advantages role of organisational politics • Interpersonal influence and politics • Ethics, power, and politics • Empowerment

3. The concept of power • Power • Involves a relationship between two people • Represents the capability to get someone to do something • Power and influence • Power is the potential to influence • Influence is power in action

4. Definitions • Power... • the capacity to influence the behaviour of others • Authority... • the right to influence another person • Influence... • the process by which people ... persuade others to follow their advice, suggestions, or orders

5. Definitions • Politics... • the management of influence to obtain ends notsanctionedby the organisation or to obtain sanctioned ends through non-sanctioned influence means

6. Dependence in the Power Relationship • While power requires dependence, it is really more accurate to say that the parties are interdependent. • One party may be more dependent than the other • But the relationship exists only when both parties have something of value to the other which results in: • Counterpower • the capacity of a person, team or organisation to keep a more powerful person or group in the exchange relationship

7. A Model of Power and Influence that gets someone to do something the way you want it done becomes influence... that when activated... provide power... Sources of Power...

8. Person A Person B’s goals Dependence in the Power Relationship cont’d.. Person B’s counterpower over Person A Person B Person A’s power over Person B

9. Power over others Contingencies of power Model of power in organisations Sources of power Legitimate Reward Coercive Expert Referent

10. Legitimate Linked to position Coercive Linked to ability to punish French & Raven’s power bases Reward Linked to ability to reward Referent Linked to admiration Expert Linked to expertise

11. Resources Decision Making Information Structural sources of power Open access to resources determines amount of power acquired Extent to which individuals or subunits affect decision making determines amount of power acquired Possession of relevant and important information needed to make decisions determines amount of power acquired

12. Information and power • Control over information flow • based on legitimate power • relates to formal communication network • common in centralised structures (wheel pattern) • Coping with uncertainty • those who know how to cope with organisational uncertainties gain power • prevention • forecasting • absorption

13. Sources of power Power over others Contingencies of power Contingencies of power Substitutability Centrality Discretion Visibility

14. Increasing non-substitutability Differentiation Controlling tasks Increasing non-substitutability Controlling labour Controlling knowledge

15. A strategic contingency model of subunit power Examples Contingency • Preventing market share decline by product development • Providing future-based predictions that are accurate • Absorbing problems from other units Coping with uncertainty Power acquired by subunit and power differentials • Being in an urgent or immediacy position • Located at center of work flow Centrality • Possessing needed skills or expertise • Possessing only talents that are available to complete job Substitutability

16. Practical Steps to Managing with Power(Pfeffer, 1992) • Decide what your goals are • Diagnose patterns of dependence &independence • What are their points of view likely to be? • What are their power bases? • What are your bases of power & influence?

17. Practical Steps to Managing with Power(Pfeffer, 1992) • Which strategies & tactics for exercising power are likely to be effective? • Based on the above, choose a course of action to get something DONE.....

18. Tactics for increasing the power base • Enter areas of high uncertainty • Create dependencies • Provide resources • Satisfy strategic contingencies

19. Position-based Person-centred exchange pressure legitimating rational persuasion personal appeals inspirational appeals consultation Strategies for increasing power

20. Politics • Political behavior in organisations are those activities that are not required as part of one’s formal role in the organisation but that influence or attempt to influence the distribution of advantages and disadvantages with the organisation.

21. Politically-oriented behaviour • Outside legitimate, recognised power system • Designed to benefit an individual or subunit, often at organisation’s expense • Intentional and designed to acquire/maintain power

22. Types of organisational politics Managing impressions Attacking and blaming Types of organisational politics Controlling information Creating obligations Cultivating networks Formingcoalitions

23. Conditions for organisational politics Personal characteristics Scarce resources Conditions supporting organisational politics Tolerance of politics Complex and ambiguous decisions

24. The Inevitability of Office Politics • Organisational philosophy. • Resource scarcity and a competitive work environment. • Subjective performance standards, unclear job definitions and desire to goof off. • Imitating power holders and win-lose

25. The Inevitability of Office Politics • Power cravings and Machiavellian tendencies of people. • Emotional insecurity of people and beliefs in external forces. • Hunger for acceptance and self-interest.

26. Machiavelli (15th century) “Everyone knows how praiseworthy it is for a ruler to keep his word, and to live with integrity, and not be cunning: nevertheless experience shows that in our times, princes have cared little about good faith, and used cunning to confuse the minds of men, have achieved great things: so that in the end they have outstripped those who founded themselves on honesty.”

27. Domains of political activity • Structural change • Interdepartmental coordination • Management succession • Resource Allocation

28. Political strategies for increasing power • Control lines of communication • Build coalitions • Use outside experts • Expand networks • Control decision premises • Image building

29. Politics... Does the exercise of power in: • Decision making • Agenda setting • The shaping of “felt” needs

30. Politics... result in: • Comprehension or Confusion/Distraction? • Trust based on False Assurance? • Consent based on Illegitimacy? • Knowledge based on Misrepresentation?

31. Political Games...& the ETHICAL use of power • Does the behaviour respect the rights of all parties? • the criterion of individual rights • Does the behaviour treat all parties equitable and fairly? • the criterion of distributive justice

32. Political Games...& the ETHICAL use of power • Does the behaviour produce a good outcome for people both inside and outside the organisation? • the criterion of utilitarian outcomes

33. Controlling political behaviour Provide sufficient resources Remove political norms Introduce clear rules Hire low-politics employees Free flowing information Increase opportunities for dialogue Manage change effectively Peer pressure against politics

34. What is empowerment? • A process enhancing feelings of self-efficacy among organizational members through: • Identification of conditions that foster powerlessness • Their removal by both formal organizational practices and informal techniques of providing efficacy information

35. Empowerment “Empowerment is the creation of conditions within organisations that result in the ability of individuals to contribute their maximum potential energy, creativity, quality efforts and effectiveness to achieving the mission and strategy of the organisation” Covey, 1992

36. The process of empowerment Identify existing conditions that lead to feelings of powerlessness 1 2 Implement empowerment strategies Remove conditions leading to powerlessness 3 Feelings of empowerment and strengthening of effort-performance expectations 4 5 Empowerment feelings are translated into behaviors