Unit 7: Politics, Power

and Influence
 PM Power Politics & Influence

 Further reading for this subject:

Peter Morris: The management of projects, Thomas Telford.

Chapter 8.

Peter Fewings: Construction Project Management- An

integrated approach, Taylor and Francis:
Chapter 6

Hans Themhain et al: Influence styles of Project Managers: Some project

performance correlates. (available at:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/254975?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
 PM Politics, Power and Influence

 Politics !!- Good or Bad?

 The nature of project organisation and organisational strategy.

 Project Management authority and the relationship with project

organisation.

 The need to lead the team and pay attention to all those
involved.

 Good PM depends on Excellent Leadership.

 Politics- Good or Bad?

Discussion Questions:

 Why might the discipline of PM be concerned with the subject

of politics?

 How important is the role of politics in effective project

management?
 Politics in PM- Good or Bad?

 When the ‘politics’ word is mentioned, the tendency is to think of

Government and political parties- at present, these don’t necessarily
conjure strongly positive reactions. Alternatively, you might associate the
term with ‘office politics’.

 Thinking of Politics in connection with PM, the focus is not on Government or

political affiliation or belief, or on corruption! But rather on how leaders must
seek to influence individuals and organisations and win support for their
goals.

 In construction, the project may be less extensive and overwhelming than

in a Government scenario and the PM’s sphere of influence may be
drastically smaller than that of a Prime Minister (even if both titles shorten to
PM!)
 BUT, to be effective, the PM must be the President, Prime Minister and Leader
of their project…..
 PM Influence

Five main sources of influence that can be used by project

managers to gain project support. These are:-
 Authority
 Reward Power
 Punishment Power
 Expert Power
 Referent Power
 Authority

 The level of authority afforded to the PM will play a major role in defining the
scope of their leadership.

 Authority and Responsibility must correspond

 The project organisation diffuses or distributes authority

 Authority provides the power to directly instruct resources to be committed

to complete necessary activities.

 The problem faced by most PM’s in almost all construction project

organisations is that they are afforded relatively little formal (OR contractual
OR legitimate) authority.

 Therefore, the PM must be a skilled leader so that they can develop the
scope of the informal authority that they can use to motivate and build a
team that can overcome deficiencies in organisational design caused by
procurement or industry culture.
 Reward power

 The ability to gain support for the project purely because

the project participants value the reward that they
believe the project manager is capable of securing for
them.
 The rewards include: promotion, salary increase,
recognition, interesting assignments, training,etc.
 Direct reward power
 Indirect reward power
 Punishment Power

 the power or influence to block or withhold the rewards

 Best to be avoided as it leads to negative work

environment

 Project contributors will do the strict minimum to avoid

punishment

 Can be exercised rarely when project objectives are

compromised (contractual sanctions)
 Expert Power

 the ability to gain support or influence because the

contributors have respect for the project manager’s
knowledge and expertise
 Technical
 Managerial
 Referent Power

 the ability to gain support or influence for a project

because the contributors identify with the personality or
some other attribute of the project manager
OR
 The project is attractive to them (project identification)
 Leadership

 Leadership includes:-

 Giving meaning and purpose to work

 Winning and empowering followers

 Inspiring and infusing organisations with a value and ideology.

 Motivating people, both within and outside the project organisation to

accept a project’s goals and to work enthusiastically towards the
achievement of these goals.

 Getting others to do what you want!

 Motivating people towards getting things done willingly

 Leadership

 The PM must use leadership and political skill in order to

develop an effective power base, perhaps largely
dependent on informal authority (or power), to instruct
and direct the resources needed to get the project
done.

 Leadership and political skill (or relational or influential

skill) are critical - so that the level of informal authority
and seniority afforded to the PM can be elevated to the
status necessary to override cultural and procurement
problems so the project can be delivered successfully.
Leadership Style

 Leadership Style I
(formal authority, reward and
punishment power)

 Leadership Style II
(expert and referent power)
 Leadership Style

 project managers cannot rely on the use of

referent/expert power alone and do indeed need a
degree of formal authority reward power and punishment
power.

 There is no best leadership style that works in different

projects and project management situations or scenarios.

 Leadership style used can significantly impact the project

success or failure regardless of what systems, processes
or tools are implemented
Types of project participant that
the PM must pay attention to.

Allies
Opponents
Bedfellows
Fence Sitters
Adversaries
Managing Upwards and
Outwards

 Credibility

 Priority

 Visibility

 Accessibility
PMBOK Guide
 Conclusion
 The political management of project contributors is essential for
success.

 The aim is always to secure support for the project and for its
objectives.

 The PM must identify the range and extent of the sources of influence
available to them so that they can secure an appropriate leadership
position to drive the project and to direct its resources effectively.

 The PM must recognise that the project participants need to be

politically managed (or manipulated!) towards achieving the desired
outcomes and that different approaches are needed dependent on
how the contributor sees the project.

 The PM must politically manage the employer (client), the stakeholders

and the external environment of the project, as well as their project
peers if the propensity for success is to be increased.