The Political Hour with Charlene Hunter Galt

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The Political Hour with Charlene Hunter Galt

• Coming to you from the floor of a Nonpartisan
  Convention with an update on Power, Conflict, and
  Coalition.

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Chapter 9Power, Conflict, and CoalitionHSA
6303Bolman Deal

• Jessica Savitch (Maria Davis)
• Charlene Hunter Galt (Maurine Reed)

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Learning Objectives

• Coalitions and the political frame.
• Whats in a name?
• Power is not necessarily a bad word.
• The root of conflict.

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Political Processes

• Why they wont go away, and how they can be
  better understood and managed
• Beginning with the Challenger
• Tension between the authorities and partisans
• Multiple sources of power
• Organizational politics

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Political Assumptions

• Organizations are coalitions of diverse
  individuals and interest groups
• There are enduring differences among coalitions
  members in values, beliefs, information,
  interests, and perceptions of reality.
• Most important decisions involve allocating
  scarce resourceswho gets what.
• Scarce resources and enduring differences make
  conflict central to organizational dynamics and
  underline power as the most important asset.
• Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining,
  negotiation, and jockeying for position among
  competing stakeholders

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Now on to More about Coalitions and The Political
Frame

• I see you down there, Jessica, on the convention
  floor. Looks like you are talking with Senator
  Joe Biden. Whats taking place?

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After all, Jessica, Whats in a Name?

• To what extent is it arbitrary, in conventional
  accounting, that we call wage payments costs
  and dividend payments profit rather than the
  other way around? Why is it that in
  quasi-genetic moments we are inclined to say that
  in the beginning there was manager, and he
  recruited workers and capital?...
• Cyert and March

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After all, A Rose by Any Other Name, Still Spells
Money!!!

• The emphasis on the asymmetry has seriously
  confused the understanding organizational goals.
  The confusion arises because ultimately it makes
  only slightly more sense to say that the goal of
  a business enterprise is to maximize profit than
  to say that its goal is to maximize the salary of
  Sam Smith, assistant to the janitor.
• The Rosenauer Rose

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A Chat with Hilary

• By the way Jessica, didnt I see you earlier with
  Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton from NY?
• Four Relational Concepts
• Quasi-resolution of conflict
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Problemistic search
• Organizational learning

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Power is Not Necessarily a Bad Word

• Sources of Power
• Information and expertise
• Access and control of agendas
• Personal power
• Distribution of Power
• Overbounded and underbounded Systems

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The Root of Conflict

• -Senator Elizabeth Dole-NC
• Senator John Cornyn-TX
• Conflict is natural and inevitableThe focus of
  the political frame is not on resolution of
  conflict but on strategy and tactics.

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Moral MazesThe Politics of Getting Ahead

• Power
• Conflict
• Self-interest
• Political games

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The Moral Maze of Chief ExecutiveCompensation

• The corporate ethics scandals of 2001-02
  reinforced a recurrent suspicion that the morals
  of the marketplace amount to nor morals at all.

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Conclusion

• In ancient Rome every returning victorious
  General was feted with a sumptuous parade and a
  slave who accompanied him in his chariot for the
  sole purpose of whispering in his ear the fact
  that all power is fleeting.