Chapter 10 - Ethical Power and

Politics

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Copyright 2010 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Power

Power A persons ability to influence others to do something they would not otherwise do. Power is needed to reach objectives in all organizations, and affects performance. To be effective in an organization, you must understand how power is used. Two sources of power are position power and personal power.

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Power

Position power - Derived from top-level management and is delegated down the chain of command. Personal power

Derived from the follower. Everyone has it to varying degrees. It is largely attributed to ones personality and interpersonal skills.
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Bases of Power
Coercive Power Connection Power
Involves threats and / or punishment to influence compliance. Is appropriate to use in maintaining discipline when enforcing rules. Based on the users relationship with influential people. To increase your connection power, expand your network of contacts with important managers who have power. Based on the users ability to influence others with something of value to them. Based on the users position power. The use of legitimate power is appropriate when asking people to do something that is within the scope of their jobs.

Reward Power Legitimate Power

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Bases of Power
Referent Power
Based on the users personal power. The use of referent power is particularly appropriate for people with weak, or no, position power. To gain referent power, develop your relationship with others; stand up for them.

Information Based on the users information being desired by others. Power

Expert Power
Based on the users skill and knowledge. Expert power is essential to people who have to work with people from other departments and organizations. To become an expert, take all the training and educational programs your organization provides.

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Bases of Power

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Bases of Power

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Bases of Power

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Bases of Power

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Bases of Power

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Bases of Power

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Influencing tactics

Your power is your ability to influence others, but you need to have persuasion skills To help persuade people, you can use influencing tactics that focus primarily on personal power. To influence someone, you have to understand the persons values, attitudes, beliefs, and motivation.
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Influencing tactics

Reading people is a key interpersonal skill; it has four parts:

Put yourself in the place of the person you want to persuade. Get the other persons expectations right. Incorporate the information about the other persons expectations into your persuasive presentation. Keep the focus on the other persons expectations when trying to persuade.

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Influencing tactics

Five influencing tactics are

Ingratiation Rational persuasion Inspirational appeal Personal appeal Legitimization

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Ingratiation

You are friendly and give praise to get the person in a good mood before making your request. Works best as a long-term influencing strategy to improve relationships. Must be sincere to be effective.

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Rational Persuasion

Includes logical arguments with factual evidence to persuade the person that the behavior will result in meeting the objective. It works well when you share the same objective and create a true winwin situation.

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Inspirational Appeal

Attempts to arouse follower enthusiasm through internalization to meet the objective. Works well with people whose behavior is more influenced by emotions than by logical thinking.

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Personal Appeal

You request the person to meet your objective based on loyalty and friendship. Important when you have weak power. More commonly used with peers and outsiders than with subordinates or bosses.

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Legitimization

You rely on organizational authority that a reasonable request is being made and that the person should meet your objective. Is used when you dont have position power. Is used when you have legitimate authority or the right to make a particular type of request.
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Organizational Politics

Politics The process of gaining and using power. Political behavior is used to develop relationships that are necessary to get the job done. The three primary political behaviors commonly used in organizations are: networking, reciprocity, and coalition building.
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Organizational Politics

Networking

Developing relationship alliances with key people for the purpose of politicking. Creating obligations and debts, developing alliances, and using them to accomplish objectives. A network of alliances that help you achieve a specific objective.

Reciprocity

Coalition Building

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Ethical and Unethical Politics

Ethical politics includes behavior that benefits both the individual and the organization. Unethical politics includes behavior that benefits the individual and hurts the organization.

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Codes of Ethics

A code of ethics establishes guidelines that clearly describe ethical and unethical behavior. To be ethically successful,

Unethical behavior should not be justified. Audit the ethical behavior of employees and confront and discipline who are unethical. Top managers should lead by ethical example.

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Etiquette

The socially accepted standard of right and wrong behavior. Is very important to career success. Organizations do not have any formal training in etiquette.

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Etiquette Skills

Job Interview Etiquette

Table Manners E-mail Etiquette Telephone Etiquette Meeting Etiquette Hoteling Etiquette
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Vertical Politics

Relations with your boss

Your relationship with your boss will affect your job satisfaction and can mean the difference between success or failure on the job. Common expectations of bosses include loyalty, cooperation, initiative, information, and openness to criticism.

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Vertical Politics

Regaining Your Bosss Trust

Apologize immediately, face-to-face, speaking slowly to sound truly remorseful. Accept responsibility for what you did or said. Empathize with the discomfort you caused. Offer a credible explanation for the deed. Vow not to repeat the mistake again, stating your plan to prevent it, or ask your boss for suggestions on avoiding it again.
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Vertical Politics

Relations with subordinates

Develop manageremployee relations Be friendly with employees while still being effective managers. The open-door policy The practice of being available to employees.

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Horizontal Politics

Relations with peers

To be successful, you must cooperate, compete with, and sometimes even criticize your peers.

Relations with members of other departments

Develop good human relations through being cooperative and following the guidelines set by the organization.
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Do Power, Politics, and Etiquette Apply Globally?

Power is perceived and exercised differently around the globe. Power distance A method of understanding global differences.

Centers on the extent to which employees feel comfortable interacting across hierarchical levels. Reflects expectations of centralized or decentralized decision making.
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Do Power, Politics, and Etiquette Apply Globally?

In high power distance cultures:

Using strong power and politics is acceptable because leaders are expected to behave differently from people in low ranks and differences in rank are more apparent.

In low power distance cultures

Using strong power and politics is not acceptable, because power is expected to be shared with employees through empowerment.
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