Power, Politics, and Influence

1. Power, Politics, and Influence

2. Power, Politics, and Influence • Power is the potential or ability to influence decisions and control resources. • Organizational politics refers to informal approaches to gaining power through means other than merit or luck. • Influence also deals with changing behavior, but power indicates the ability to affect outcomes with greater facility and ease than does influence.

3. SOURCES OF INDIVIDUAL AND SUBUNIT POWER • Socialized power is the use of power to achieve constructive ends. • Personalized power is the use of power primarily for the sake of personal aggrandizement and gain.

4. Power Granted by the Organization (Position Power) • Legitimate power - based on the manager’s formal position within the hierarchy. Managers can enhance their position power by formulating policies and procedures. • Coercive power - controlling others through fear of punishment or threat of punishment. The threat of a lawsuit acts as a constraint on legal power and is referred to as subordinate power. • Reward power- controlling others through rewards or the promise of rewards. The effectiveness of coercive power and reward power depends on the perceptions and needs of group members.

5. Power Stemming from the Individual (Personal Power) • Expert power - the ability to influence other because of one’s specialized knowledge, skills, or abilities. • Exercising expert power is the logical starting point for building one’s power base. • Referent power - the ability to influence others that stems from the manager’s desirable traits and characteristics. • Referent power combined with expert power is the basis for charisma.

6. Power from Providing Resources • According to the resource dependence perspective, the organization requires a continuing flow of human resources, money, customers, technological inputs, and material to continue to function. • Subunits or individuals who can provide these key resources derive power from the ability. • Being a good source of gossip is another way of providing valuable resources in many organizations

7. Power from Meeting the Expectations of Group Members: Implicit Leadership Theory • A leader can accrue power by behaving and acting in the group according to the group members’ expectation. • According to implicit leadership theory group members develop prototypes specifying the traits and abilities that characterize an ideal business leader. • Group members have both prototypes and anti-prototypes (what they want the leader not to be). • The leadership prototypes are sensitivity, intelligence, dedication, charisma, strength, and attractiveness. • The anti-prototypes are tyranny and masculinity (cold and non-relationship oriented). • A study showed that when the leader fit the subordinates’ implicit leadership theory, the leader-member exchange was better.

8. EMPOWERMENT OF GROUP MEMBERS • Distributing power throughout the organization has become a major strategy for improving productivity, quality, and satisfaction • Empowerment is the process of sharing power with group members, thereby enhancing their feeling of self-efficacy. • Participative management is the general strategy for empowering workers.

9. EMPOWERMENT OF GROUP MEMBERS • Empowerment can be regarded as shared leadership as opposed to vertical leadership • To bring about empowerment, managers must remove conditions that keep employees powerless, such as authoritarian supervision or a job over which they have little control.

10. EMPOWERMENT OF GROUP MEMBERS • Empowered workers must want more responsibility, managers must share information, and management must provide more structure as teams move into self-management. • Teams must gradually replace the traditional organizational hierarchy. Empowered individuals and teams may be told what needs to be done, but should be free to determine how to achieve the objectives

11. ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS - Factors Contributing to Political Behavior • Organizations are political in nature, such as harboring various coalitions • The pyramidal shape of organizations creates competition for power, with downsizings intensifying the struggle • The need for power propels many people toward political behavior • Machiavellianism, a tendency to manipulate others for personal gain

12. Ethical and Positive Political Tactics • Develop power contacts through networking. Contacts with powerful people help you succeed. You may need some face time with your contacts. • Manage your impression. Impression management refers generally to behaviors geared toward establishing a favorable impact on others. Insincere tactics can backfire. 3. Control vital information. Control generally refers to keeping the information covert until it is made public

13. Ethical and Positive Political Tactics • Keep informed. Successful managers and professionals develop a pipeline to help them keep abreast, or ahead, of developments within the firm. • Be courteous, pleasant, and positive. Be the first to be hired and the last to be fired! 6. Ask satisfied customers to contact your manager. Positive feedback from a customer carries a lot of weight.

14. Ethical and Positive Political Tactics • Avoid political blunders. Politically insensitive acts erode power and block power acquisition. 8. Sincere flattery. A powerful tactic for ingratiating yourself to others is to flatter them honestly and sincerely.

15. Unethical and Negative Political Tactics • Backstabbing. Unfortunately this devious act is quite popular during a downsizing. • Embrace-or-demolish. Executives with miserable ethics will often remove from the premises rivals who suffered past hurts from their efforts. 3. Stealing credit. Although widely practiced, workers detest having others steal credit for their ideas.

16. Unethical and Negative Political Tactics • Territorial games. • Also known as turf wars, territorial games involved protecting and hoarding resources that give one power, such as information, relationships, and decision-making authority. • Good mouthing an incompetent to make him or her transferable. • The manager gives an outstanding performance evaluation to an incompetent or trouble maker within the group, so he or she becomes more marketable in the company. • Placing a weak manager under you to help you secure your position. • A high-level manager recruits a lame person to a managerial position reporting to him or her, so the recruit is not a threat to replace the hiring manager.

17. ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCE TACTICS • In addition to using power and political tactics to get people to their way of thinking, managerial workers use a variety of influence tactics. • The influence agent chooses which tactic seems more appropriate for a given situation.

18. ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCE TACTICS • Leading by example - the manager influences group members by serving as a positive model of desirable behavior. • Assertiveness - being forthright in one’s demands. 3. Rationality - appealing to reason and logic.

19. ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCE TACTICS • Ingratiation - getting someone else to like you, often through the use of political skill. • Exchange - influencing others by offering to reciprocate if they meet your demands. • Inspirational appealand emotional display centers on the affective domain. 7. Joking and kidding - used to influence others on the job, especially to avoid harsh criticism.

20. ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCE TACTICS • Study showed that the most effective tactics were: • rational persuasion • inspirational appeal • consultation. • The least effective were: • pressure • coalition formation • appealing to legitimate authority. • Any influence tactic can trigger resistance if it is inappropriate or applied unskillfully

21. Control of Dysfunctional Politics and Ethical Considerations • Objective measures of performance • Meshing individual and organizational objectives • Open communication about resource allocation • To test ethics, turn each political or influence tactic inward. Also, ask if tactic helps attain organizational goals.