Power and Organizational Politics

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Power and Organizational Politics
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Politics

• Politics refers to the use of power and authority
  to influence organizational outcomes.

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Definitions
Power-- the capacity to ensure the outcomes one
wishes and to prevent those one does not
wish. Influence-- the capacity to affect
others. Authority-- the capacity to give
commands, enforce obedience, take action, or make
final decisions.
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Historical Views of Politics

• Maciavelli (early 1500s) The Prince
• Assume that people are ungrateful, fickle, and
  deceitful
• The purpose of political leadership is to secure
  and maintain power
• A good leader is independent and dominates people

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Historical Views of Politics

• Maciavelli (early 1500s) The Prince
• The End Justifies the Means
• The leader can be ruthless if necessary
• Machiavellian means characterized by cunning,
  duplicity, or bad faith

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Historical Views of Politics

• Webers forms of power
• Charismatic
• Traditional
• Legal-Rational
• The Iron Cage of Rationality
• Compulsion of Fairness

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Changing Perspectives on Workers and Organizations

• A social-psychological view of power
• Power is not necessarily open coercion,
  influence, or control
• Power is the perception of others that the power
  wielder could exercise coercion, influence, or
  control if he or she chose to do so
• How much power you have is based on how much
  power think you have! Power must be granted

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Questioning Power and Authority

• 1960s Radicals
• Organizational politics is outmoded and
  unproductive
• Traditionally executive power is based on the
  idea of ownership
• 1990s the idea of Servant Leadership and
  Empowerment

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Questioning Power and Authority

• Power is the opposite of dependency
• Organizations seek to minimize dependency by
• Seeking prestige
• Engaging in cooperative strategies
• Contracting
• Co-opting

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Recognizing Organizational Politics

• Use of power increases when structure is
  decentralized, resources are scarce, there is
  disagreement on goals, and there is uncertainty
  about technologies
• In other words
• When resources are limited, goals and processes
  are unclear, Power Politics are very likely

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Recognizing Organizational Politics

• Three Faces of Power
• First Face Overt Coercion
• Second Face Exclusionary Actions avoid
  challenges
• Third Face Hegemonic control convince me that
  what you want is what I want

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Balancing Power

• Four styles to balance or equalize power
• 1 decrease needs or demands
• 2 increase alternative sources of getting what
  you want
• 3 increase others needs or demands for us
• 4 decrease other peoples alternative sources
  (special expertise)
• Options 1 and 2 create psychological distance
• 3 and 4 result in a stronger work commitment

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Structural Aspects of Power

• Opportunity
• Mobility
• Perceived political power
• Dependency
• Influence
• Rewards
• Numerical Representation

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Power Politics

• Positive or Destructive Force?
• Power politics help organizations to adapt and
  interact with the environment appropriately
• Managers are dependent upon workers
• Workers have limited time, energy, and talent
• Power is needed to manage these
• Some use power for personal and not
  organizational goals
• How to handle power
• Limit access to decision makers
• Alter decision criteria to performance
• Offer financial incentives to discourage
  political activity

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Empowerment

• Empowerment is the development of personal power
  of those in the organization to achieve their
  goals
• Power is traditionally seen as a relational
  construct (delegation or sharing power)
• Power as a motivational construct creating
  motivation and feeling of personal efficacy

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Empowerment

• Conditions of moving from Powerlessness to
  Empowerment
• Conditions leading to feelings of powerlessness
• Strategies to increase personal efficacy
  (participative management)
• Feedback
• Reinforcement of empowerment
• Persistence of new behavior

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Empowerment

• Empowerment cannot be granted but has to be taken
  by the individual
• The conditions for empowerment can be fostered

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Ways of Acting

• Consider all your sources of power
• Make yourself indispensable
• Take charge of your own empowerment
• Use power constructively and effectively
• Devote energy to clarifying goals
• Support and foster empowerment of others
• Be aware and think about how political issues
• Be nice