POWER INFLUENCE AND

INFORMATION
Raman
 THE FIRST PERSPECTIVE ON POWER

One way of viewing power is that it is 'relation among people'. Power is the ability of one person to
achieve compliance by others who change how they behave as a result of the power being exerted.
It can be seen in systems of those are positioned to dominate where few people have significant
power. As such, power is direct, with identification of an issue and a singular response to this. It is, in
essence, about making decisions.

In governmental power, this can be seen when the government makes a decision, typically through
law-making, that requires obedience by the broader population. Such decisions may be debated
openly with opportunity for consultation and challenge along the way. Despite this openness, the
focus is still on decision.

This can be seen as an 'open face', where it is clear who is making the decision and why they are
making it. As this can be seen, it is more likely to be trusted and consequently obeyed with little
question.
 THE SECOND PERSPECTIVE ON POWER

The second way of visualising power as an expression of decision making within a complex system. In this
situation, power is not just about making decisions, but also about setting the agenda that leads to decisions.
In other words, if you can control the context within which decisions are made, then you can influence those
decisions.
In governmental power, this can be seen in decisions made 'behind closed doors' and in the 'corridors of
power', where who is deciding and why is seldom clear.
Decisions taken behind close doors and the agenda being driven on a fuzzy fusion of subjective prejudices
and facts and apparently being good for you. This can lead to problems as other people suspect that there
are corrupt elements to the choice, such as those based on political agendas and personal gain.
 INSIDIOUS POWER

The third perspective of power is to make people believe that something is good
for them Controlling the overall narrative and securing wilful compliance , that
of even more subtle aspect of manipulating the psychology of anyone and
everyone affected. Changing or telling what employees must believe and what is
good for them and instituting mechanisms and processes that align their
behaviour without them even knowing that such a process is in place.
 POWER IS DENCENTRED

It is subtle
It is represented in deeds as in actions by ways of thinking and talking
Aligning everyones actions and words to what the organisation thinks
It is an expression of formal and informal practices that take place within the
organisation that no body questions
It happens within and across the organisational hierarchy
 MARKETING MANUFACTURING
AREAS OF POTENTIAL GOAL CONFLICT
MARKETING VS. MANUFACTURING
Operative goal is Operative goal is
Goal Conflict customer satisfaction production efficiency
Conflict Area Typical Comment Typical Comment

Breadth of product line: Our customers The product line is too

demand variety. broad, all we get are
short, uneconomical runs.
New product introduction: New products are our Unnecessary design changes
lifeblood. are prohibitively expensive.

Production scheduling: We need faster response. We need realistic customer

Lead times are too long. commitments that dont
change like the wind direction

Physical distribution: Why dont we ever have We cant afford to keep huge
the right merchandise inventories.
in inventory?

Quality: Why cant we have Why must we always offer 12-6

reasonable quality options that are too
at low cost? expensive and offer little
customer utility?
Sources: Based on Benson S. Shapiro, Can Marketing and Manufacturing
 ORGANISATIONAL POWER SOURCES

LEGITIMATE POWER--- DRAWS FROM AUTHORITY GRANTED BY THE

ORGANISATION TO THE FORMAL POSITION A MANAGER HOLDS
REWARD POWER--- ABILITY TO DECIDE COMPENSATION FOR EXAMPLE
COEIRCIVE POWER--- FORCE IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT
REFERNET POWER-CHARISMA ADMIRATION ADULATION
EXPERT POWER---KNOWLEDGE CERTIFICATION
 POWER VERSUS AUTHORITY

POWER
Ability to influence others to bring about desired outcomes. When A is dependent on Bs
positional means, emotions and materially a power relationship emerges where a person
with greater resources or the ability to withhold them means that B has greater power and
can achieve compliance with As request.

AUTHORITY
Flows down the vertical hierarchy and is the force for achieving outcomes
Prescribed by the formal hierarchy
Vested in the position held
 WHY AUTHORITY
1. Authority is vested in organizational positions. People have authority

because of the positions they hold, not because of personal

characteristics or resources.

2. Authority is accepted by subordinates. Subordinates comply because

they believe position holders have a legitimate right to exercise
authority. In most organisations, employees accept that supervisors
can legitimately tell them what time to arrive at work, the tasks to
perform while theyre there, and what time they can go home.

3. Authority flows down the vertical hierarchy. Authority exists along the
formal chain of command, and positions at the top of the hierarchy
9 are vested with more formal authority than are positions at the
bottom.
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INFORMATION FLOW AND INFLUENCING
DECISIONS
 WHAT ARE THE TYPICAL CONSEQUENCES
OF POWER
Silent movement, sudden developments and no body can question them
Large budget departmental increases and salary increases
Manoeuvre the system even if it does not logically seem right to secure favourable
production schedules
Get your folks in right positions by influencing key stakeholders.
Get items on the agenda at policy meetings
 VERTICAL SOURCES OF POWER
DOWNWARD FLOW
Formal Position-rights responsibilities accruing to top positions set goals strategise and
direct activities

Resources-create dependencies by their allocation and rewards.

Control of Decision Premises and Information

Fealty and Loyalty structures

Network Centrality-loyal subrodinates to learn and listen in to events and developments

in organization increase power by having multiple tursted dependent people favours
privileges and loyalty
 HORIZONTAL SOURCES OF POWER

Relationships across departments, divisions, units and employees and

informal understandings.
Horizontal power is not defined by the formal hierarchy or the
organization chart.
Each department makes a unique contribution to organizational success.
Some departments will have greater say and will achieve their desired
outcomes, whereas others will not.
 WHAT ARE STRATEGIC CONTINGENCIES

Strategic Contingencies groups most responsible for key

organization issues.
Strategic contingencies are events and activities both inside and
outside an organization that are essential for attaining organisational
goals BY Providing strategic value
Departments involved with strategic contingencies for the
organization tend to have greater power.
Departmental activities are important when they provide strategic
value by solving problems or crises for the organization.
Power Sources five power sources that departments may possess
 FIVE POWER SOURCES

DEPENDENCIES
FINANCIAL RESOURCES
CENTRALITY OR PRIMARY RELEVANCE OR ROLE IN ORGANISATION IMPACTS
FINAL OUTPUT OF ORGANISATION
NONSUBSTITUTABLITY DEPARTMENTS FUNCTION CANANOT BE PERFOMED BY
OTHE READILY AVIALABLE RESOURCES CRYSTAL MANUFACTURING
COPING WIWTHH UNDERTAINTY-FORECASTING POWER AND INFORMATION
ACCESS, PREVENTION AND ABSORBTION TO MITIGATE CONSEQUENCES [IR
DEPARTMENT]
FIVE POWER SOURCES
 POLITICIAL PROCESSES

Politics is the use of power to influence decisions toward goals

Organisational Politics - activities to acquire, develop, and use power
to influence goals ACCORDING TO DESIRED OUTCOMES
Contextual possibilities of political activity:
Structural Change--- STRUGGLE TO RETAIN EXISTING POWER BASE
Management Succession-NETWORKS OF TRUST AND IMPLICIT
UNDRSTANDINGS AND NON ENCROACHMENT
Resource Allocation-----ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE, BUDGET
ALLOCATION
PARALLEL STRUCTURES
RATIONAL VERSUS POLITICAL MODEL
The rational model where behavior is not random or accidental
Goals are clear and choices are made logically

The political model involves push and pull debate regarding

goals
Organization groups have separate interests and goals

18
2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 POWER AND POLITICS

CONFLICT POWER AND POLITICS ARE NATURAL OUTCOMES IN

ORGANISATIONS
There are two views for organizations: rational and political models
There are vertical and horizontal sources of power AS YOU MAY RECALL
Certain characteristics make some departments more powerful than
others
Managers need political skills
Managers should enhance and facilitate collaboration to reduce conflict
 SOME ASSUMPTIONS REFER TEXT BOOK

MANAGERS HAVE NEGATIVE VIEW TOWARDS POLITICS NOT QUITE THEY SPEAK
SOMETHING AND OFTEN END UP DOING SOMETHING ELSE
POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR IS COMMON IN ALL ORGANISATIONS
MANY MANAGERS THINK POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR OCCURS AT THE UPPER RATHER
THAN LOWER ORGANISATIONAL LEVELS
POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR ARISES IN CERTAIN DECISION DOMANS SUCH AS
STRUCTURAL CHANGE, BUT IS ABSENT IN OTHER DOMAINS SUCH AS HANDLING
EMPLOYEE GRIEVENCES.
 POLITICS ACCORDING TO DAFT

Organisational Politics is defined as the activities undertaken either implicitly or

explicitly through words, struggles for establishment of one truth which becomes a
taken for granted practice or deeds to acquire develop leverage power and other
resources opportunistically , or strategically to obtain the preferred outcome when
there is disagreement regarding the choices.
 PROCES FRAMEWORK

ANTECEDENT CONDITIONSUNCERTAINTY DISAGREEMENT

THE RATIONAL MODEL---- ACTORS GATHER DATA AND REACH AGREEMNT
THE POLITICAL MODEL-ACTORS COULD EVEN WITHOLD DATA AND PURSUE
TATICS TO INCREASE POWER BASE OR DELOY POLITICAL TACTICS FOR USING
POWER AND HIT BELOW THE BELT.
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT AND USE OF
RATIONAL VS. POLITICAL MODEL
Sources of When Conflict Is
Potential
When Conflict Is
Low, High,
Inter-group Rational Model Organization
Conflict Variables Political Model
describes describes
organization organization
Consistent across Inconsistent, pluralistic
Goals within the organization
Goal participants
Power and Decentralized, shifting
Incompatibility coalitions and interest
Centralized
Control groups
Differentiation
Disorderly, result of
Task Orderly, logical,
Decision bargaining and interplay
Interdependence rational Process among interests
Limited
Resources Norm of efficiency
Rules and Free play of market forces,
conflict is legitimate and
Norms expected

Extensive, systemic Ambiguous, information used

accurate
Information and withheld strategically
12-23
 THE MIXED MODEL

ALTERNATING CONTEXTUAL CIRCUMSTANCES MAY LEAD ONE MODEL TO

DOMINATE ANOTHER MODEL.
RATIONAL MODELS STABLE ENVIRONMENT-DAFT IS WRONG.
 DESIGN PREREQUSITES

There are two views for organizations: rational and political models
There are vertical and horizontal sources of power
Certain characteristics make some departments more powerful
than others
Managers need political skills
Managers should enhance collaboration to reduce conflict
POWER AND POLITICAL TACTICS IN
ORGANIZATIONS

Tactics for Tactics for

Increasing the Political Tactics for Enhancing
Power Base Using Power Collaboration
1. Enter areas of 1. Build coalitions 1. Create integration
high uncertainty devices
2. Create 2. Expand networks 2. Use confrontation
dependencies and negotiation
3. Provide 3. Control decision 3. Schedule inter-
resources premises group consultation
4. Satisfy strategic 4. Enhance legitimacy 4. Practice member
contingencies and expertise rotation
5. Make preferences 5. Create
explicit, but keep superordinate goals
power implicit

12-26
 NEGOTIATING STRATEGIES

Win-Win Strategy Win-Lose Strategy

1. Define the conflict as a mutual 1. Define the conflict as a win-lose
problem situation
2. Pursue joint outcomes
2. Pursue self outcomes
3. Find creative agreements that satisfy
both groups 3. Force other group into submission
4. Use open, honest, and accurate 4. Use deceitful, inaccurate
communication communication
5. Avoid threats 5. Use threats
6. Communicate flexibility 6. Communicate rigidity

12-27

Source: Adapted from David W. Johnson and Frank P. Johnson,

Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills (Englewood Cliffs,
N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975), 182-83.
 INTERDEPARTMENTAL CONFLICT IN
ORGANIZATIONS
Groups may be dispersed across the organization
Intergroup conflict requires three ingredients:

1. Group Identification
2. Observable Group Differences
3. Frustration

28 Conflict is similar to competition but more

severe
 HORIZONTAL CONFLICT AND VERTICAL
CONFLICT
CONFLICT THAT HAPPENS AMONG GROUPS OR DEPARTMENTS AT THE SAME
LEVEL IN THE HIERARCHY SUCH AS BETWEEN LINE AND STAFF
PRODUCTION MAY DISPUTE QUALITY CONTROL WHEARAS QUALITY CONTROL
MAY WANT PRODUCT QUALITY AT THE COST OF OUTPUT EFFICIENCY
VERTICAL CONFLICT ON THE OTHER HAND ARISES OVER ISSUES OF CONTROL
POWER GOALS AND WAGES HEADQUARTERS, REGIONAL PLANTS-COMPANY
OWNED OUTLETS AND FRANCHISEES IN THE SAME GEOGRAPHCIAL AREA.
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT
Goal Incompatibility-Operative goals

Differentiation-cognitive emotional orientations

amongst managers in different functional domains
which lead to understanding the infrastructure of
actor networks-work and a set of subjective
assumptions.

Task Interdependence-increased friction conflict

possibilities.

Power distribution and differentiation-explicit and

implicit unsaid

Limited Resources

30

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 EMPOWERMENT.

Downward flow of information

Deploying employee knowledge and reinforcing their self-efficacy
Giving them power to make substantive decisions
Rewarding them on the basis of company performance
Uddevala and Kalmar google.
 INFORMATION
INFORMATION IS THE KEY ATTRIBUTE TO THE SUCCESS OF AN ORGANISATIONAL
SYSTEM
RECALL THAT IT IS THE INTERCONNECTED WEB OF RULES, POLICIES AND
INFORMATION THAT FORMULATE THE SYSTEM THAT INTURN MAKES THE
STRUCTURE COME TO LIFE WITHOUT WHICH ORGANISATIONAL STRUCUTRE IS
MEANINGINGLESS.
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION FLOW IS CRITICAL TO THE INTERNAL
COHERENCE AND SURVIVAL OF THE ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND THE
FUNCTIONING OF THE SYSTEM
INFORMATION AT THE RIGHT TIME AT THE RIGHT QUANITY AND QUALITY AND
RELEVANCE IS ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL FOR ANY MANAGER
ONE CAN EXERCISE POWER B Y WITHHOLDING INFORMATION.
 INFORMATION COULD BE OF THE
FOLLOWING KINDS
CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION WHICH EMERGES OUT OF OPERATIVE SITUATIONS AND
HAS TO BE PROCESSED
PLANNED OUTCOMES OF DECISIONS WHICH ARE DISSEMNATED WITHIN AND ACROSS
THE SYSTEM
PROGRAMMED DECISIONS WHICH FLOW AS A LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE OF THE
IMPLEMNETATION OF STRATEGIES
NON PROGRAMED ADHOC DECISIONS THAT ARISE OUT OF INDIVIDUAL REACTING TO
SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES OR EITHER THE GRAPEVINE
THEN THER IS INFORMATION THAT KEEPS THE STRUTURE TOGETHER PROVIDES
COORDINATION AND TRANSMITS CONTROL
 LET US BOLL DOWN THE KINDS OF
INFORMATION AVAILABLE
Transaction processing systems- Automated the organizations routine,
day-to-day business transactions- payroll processing, sales invoices, leave
application, clearing of supplier bills through BACS[bankers automated
clearing services].
Data warehousing integrates and synthesizes all of a companys data to
allow
Users to access the data directly--- Example Intranet and IIM Kashipur
student login and Raven in University of Cambridge---
https://raven.cam.ac.uk/

Business intelligence or data mining implies a systematic analysis[Daft is a

bit outdated here] of a companys data in order to make better strategic
decisions--- Performance pie charts, trackers, flow diagrams, sales
analytics.
 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL
APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY

35

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 MANAGERIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

A management information
system provides information for
managerial decision making
through its support by the
organisations transaction
processing systems and internal
as well as external databases.
 TWO OTHER TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

An information reporting system provides mid-level managers with reports that summarize
data for day-to-day decision making on issues such as production scheduling== total
production required versus total production so far tennis score court boards.
Executive information system converts complex data into pertinent information for top
management to have rapid access to key decision making information such as worldwide
customer buying trends- WHAT CAR TO PRODUCE, WHAT MODEL TO LAUNCH TO
DISRUPT THE MARKET- SCORPIO NEITHER A JEEP NOR AN SUV BUT POSSIB

A decision support system relies on decision models and integrated databases [detergent
sales in Mysore versus Banda and various other behavioural data mining databases] so
users can pose a series of what if questions to test alternatives.
 KPIS OR LEAN DASHBOARDS
An executive dashboard or a business performance
dashboard, is a software program that presents key business
information in graphical, easy-to-interpret form and alerts
managers to any deviations or unusual patterns in the data.
Benchmarking means the process of continually measuring
products, services, and practices against tough competitors
or other industry leaders.
Six Sigma is a highly ambitious quality standard that specifies
a goal of no more than 3.4 defects per million parts.
 SETTING A REVERSE LOOP

The feedback control model consists of setting

standards of performance, measuring actual
performance and comparing it to the
standards, and correcting or changing
activities as needed for the organization, the
department and the individual.
 MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS

Formal routines, reports, and procedures

Formalized information based activities
Controls include:
Budgets, financial reports
Reward systems
Quality control systems

Managers must define standards and measure performance

40

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.