◦ What is power?

◦ How do managers acquire the power needed for

leadership?
◦ What is empowerment, and how can managers
empower others?
◦ What are organizational politics?
◦ How do organizational politics affect managers and
management?
 Power is the ability to …
◦ Get someone to do something you want done.
◦ Make things happen in the way you want.
 Influence is …
◦ What you have when you exercise power.
◦ Expressed by others’ behavioral response to your
exercise of power.
 Power is
◦ The capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B
acts in accordance with A’s wishes
◦ Exists as a potential or fully actualized influence over a dependent
relationship
 Influence is
◦ What you have when you exercise power
◦ Expressed by other’s behavioural response to your exercise of
power
 Dependency is
◦ B’s relationship to A when A possesses something that B requires
◦ The greater B's dependence, the more power A has
 Individual Sources of Power

Organisational Power
◦ Legitimate power
◦ e.g. Milgram experiments
◦ Reward power
◦ Coercive power

Personal Power
◦ Expert power
◦ Referent power
Political Power
◦ Information
◦ e.g. executive secretaries
◦ Affiliation (borrowed)
◦ Group
 Coercive Power
 A power base dependent on fear of negative
results
 The extent to which a manager can deny desired
rewards or administer punishments to control other
people.
 Availability varies from one organization and manager
to another.
Reward Power
 Compliance achieved based on the ability to
distribute rewards that others view as
valuable
 The extent to which a manager can use
extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to control
other people.
 Success in accessing and utilizing rewards
depends on manager’s skills.
 Legitimate Power
 The formal authority to control and use
resources based on a person’s position in the
formal hierarchy
 Also known as formal hierarchical authority.
 The extent to which a manager can use subordinates’
internalized values or beliefs that the “boss” has a
“right of command” to control their behavior.
 If legitimacy is lost, authority will not be accepted by
subordinates.
 Power that comes from an individual’s
unique characteristics – these are the most
effective
 Expert Power:
◦ Influence based on special skills or knowledge
◦ The ability to control another person’s behavior
through the possession of knowledge, experience,
or judgment that the other person needs but does
not have.
◦ Is relative, not absolute
 Referent Power:
◦ Influence based on possession by an individual of
desirable resources or personal traits
◦ The ability to control another person’s behavior by
convincing the other person of the desirability of a
goal and a reasonable way of achieving it.
◦ Much of a supervisor’s daily activity involves
rational persuasion.
 Information e.g. executive secretaries
 Affiliation - borrowed
 Group
 The General Dependency Postulate
◦ The greater B’s dependency on A, the greater the
power A has over B
◦ Possession/control of scarce organizational
resources that others need makes a manager
powerful
◦ Access to optional resources (e.g., multiple
suppliers) reduces the resource holder’s power
 Dependency increases when resources are:
◦ Important
◦ Scarce
◦ Nonsubstitutable
 Rational persuasion.
◦ The ability to control another person’s behavior by
convincing the other person of the desirability of a
goal and a reasonable way of achieving it.
◦ Much of a supervisor’s daily activity involves
rational persuasion.
 Acquiring and using power and influence.
◦ A considerable portion of any manager’s time is
directed toward power-oriented behavior.
◦ Power-oriented behavior is action directed at
developing or using relationships in which other
people are willing to defer wholly or partially to
one’s wishes.
 Acquiring and using power and influence.
◦ Three dimensions of managerial power and
influence.
 Downward.
 Upward.
 Lateral.
◦ Effective managers build and maintain position
power and personal power to exercise downward,
upward, and lateral influence.
 Building position power by:
◦ Increasing centrality and criticality in the
organization.
◦ Increasing task relevance of own activities and work
unit’s activities.
◦ Attempting to define tasks so they are difficult to
evaluate.
Building personal power by:
◦ Building expertise.
 Advanced training and education, participation in
professional associations, and project involvement.
◦ Learning political savvy.
 Learning ways to negotiate, persuade, and understand
goals and means that others accept.
◦ Enhancing likeability.
 Pleasant personality characteristics, agreeable behavior
patterns, and attractive personal appearance.
 Managers increase the visibility of their job
performance by:
◦ Expanding contacts with senior people.
◦ Making oral presentations of written work.
◦ Participating in problem-solving task forces.
◦ Sending out notices of accomplishment.
◦ Seeking opportunities to increase name recognition.
 Additional tactics for acquiring and using
power and influence.
◦ Using coalitions and networks to alter the flow of
information and the analytical context.
◦ Controlling, or at least influencing, decision
premises.
◦ Making one’s own goals and needs clear.
◦ Bargaining effectively regarding one’s preferred
goals and needs.
Common strategies for turning power into
relational influence.
◦ Reason.
◦ Friendliness.
◦ Coalition.
◦ Bargaining.
◦ Assertiveness.
◦ Higher authority.
◦ Sanctions.
 Power, formal authority, and obedience.
◦ The Milgram experiments.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOUEC5YXV8
U)
 Designed to determine the extent to which people
obey the commands of an authority figure, even under
the belief of life-threatening conditions.
 The results indicated that the majority of the
experimental subjects would obey the commands of
the authority figure.
 Raised concerns about compliance and obedience.
 Obedience and the acceptance of authority.
◦ Chester Barnard argued that:
 Authority derives from the “consent of the governed.”
 Subordinates accept or follow a directive only under
special circumstances.
 Obedience and the acceptance of authority —
cont.
◦ For a directive to be accepted as authoritative, the
subordinate:
 Can and must understand it.
 Must feel mentally and physically capable of carrying it
out.
 Must believe that it is consistent with the
organization’s purpose.
 Must believe that it is consistent with his or her
personal interests.
 Obedience and the acceptance of authority —
cont.
◦ Directives that meet the four criteria will be
accepted as authoritative since they fall within the
“zone of indifference.”
◦ Directives falling within the zone are obeyed.
◦ Directives falling outside the zone are not obeyed.
◦ The zone is not fixed over time.
1. Technically Incompetent
2. Self-Serving/Unethical leaders
3. Micromanagement of subordinates
4. Arrogant leaders
5. Explosive and Abusive
6. Inaccessible leaders
Empowerment.
◦ The process by which managers help others to
acquire and use the power needed to make
decisions affecting themselves and their work.
◦ Considers power to be something that can be
shared by everyone working in flatter and more
collegial organizations.
◦ Provides the foundation for self-managing work
teams and other employee involvement groups.
 The power keys to empowerment.
◦ Traditional view.
 Power is relational in terms of individuals.
◦ Empowerment view.
 Emphasis is on the ability to make things happen.
 Power is relational in terms of problems and
opportunities, not individuals.
 The power keys to empowerment.

◦ Ways to empower others.

 Changing position power.

 Expanding the zone of indifference.

 Power as an expanding pie.
◦ With empowerment, employees must be trained to
expand their power and their new influence
potential.
◦ Empowerment changes the dynamics between
supervisors and subordinates.
Ways to expand power.
◦ Clearly define roles and responsibilities.
◦ Provide opportunities for creative problem
solving coupled with the discretion to act.
◦ Emphasize different ways of exercising influence.
◦ Provide support to individuals so they become
comfortable with developing their power.
◦ Expand inducements for thinking and acting, not
just obeying.
 The General Dependency Postulate
◦ The greater B’s dependency on A, the greater the power
A has over B.
◦ Possession/control of scarce organizational resources
that others need makes a manager powerful.
◦ Access to optional resources (e.g., multiple suppliers)
reduces the resource holder’s power.
 What Creates Dependency
◦ Importance of the resource to the organization
◦ Scarcity of the resource
◦ Nonsubstitutability of the resource
Power Tactics
Influence Tactics:
Ways in which • Legitimacy
individuals translate
• Rational persuasion
power bases into
specific actions. • Inspirational appeals
• Consultation
• Exchange
• Personal appeals
• Ingratiation
• Pressure
• Coalitions
Coalitions
• Seek to maximize their
Clusters of individuals size to attain influence.
who temporarily come • Seek a broad and diverse
together to a achieve a constituency for support
specific purpose. of their objectives.
• Occur more frequently in
organizations with high
task and resource
interdependencies.
• Occur more frequently if
tasks are standardized
and routine.
Sexual Harassment
◦ Unwelcome advances, requests for sexual
favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a
sexual nature.
Political Behavior
Activities that are not required as part of one’s
formal role in the organization, but that influence, or
attempt to influence, the distribution of advantages
or disadvantages within the organization.

Legitimate Political Behavior

Normal everyday politics.

Illegitimate Political Behavior

Extreme political behavior that violates the implied
rules of the game.
“Political” Label “Effective Management” Label
1. Blaming others vs. Fixing responsibility
2. “Kissing up” vs. Developing working relationships
3. Apple polishing vs. Demonstrating loyalty
4. Passing the buck vs. Delegating authority
5. Covering your rear vs. Documenting decisions
6. Creating conflict vs. Encouraging change and innovation
7. Forming coalitions vs. Facilitating teamwork
8. Whistle blowing vs. Improving efficiency
9. Scheming vs. Planning ahead
10. Overachieving vs. Competent and capable
11. Ambitious vs. Career-minded Source: Based on T. C. Krell, M. E.
Mendenhall, and J. Sendry, “Doing
12. Opportunistic vs. Astute Research in the Conceptual Morass
of Organizational Politics,” paper
13. Cunning vs. Practical-minded presented at the Western Academy
of Management Conference,
14. Arrogant vs. Confident Hollywood, CA, April 1987.
EXHIBI
15. Perfectionist vs. Attentive to detail
T 13–3
Avoiding Action:
• Overconforming
• Buck passing
• Playing dumb Avoiding Blame:
• Stretching • Buffing

• Stalling • Playing safe

• Justifying
• Scapegoating
Avoiding Change:
• Misrepresenting
• Prevention
• Self-protection
Impression Management
The process by which
individuals attempt to IM Techniques:
control the impression • Conformity
others form of them.
• Excuses
• Apologies
• Self-Promotion
• Flattery
• Favors
• Association
Utilitarianism Rights Justice
 Machiavellian tradition of organizational
politics.
◦ Emphasizes self-interest and the use of
nonsanctioned means.
◦ Organizational politics is defined as the
management of influence to obtain ends not
sanctioned by the organization or to obtain
sanctioned ends through nonsanctioned influence
means.
 Alternate tradition of organizational politics.
◦ Politics is a necessary function resulting from
differences in the self-interests of individuals.
◦ Politics is the art of creative compromise among
competing interests.
◦ Politics is the use of power to develop socially
acceptable ends and means that balance individual
and collective interests.
 Positive aspects of organizational politics.
◦ Overcoming personnel inadequacies.

◦ Coping with change.

◦ Substituting for formal authority.

 Organizational politics and self-protection.
◦ Common self-protection strategies.

 Avoiding action and risk taking.

 Redirecting accountability and responsibility.

 Defending turf.
 Common techniques for avoiding action and
risk taking.
◦ Working to the rule.
◦ Playing dumb.
◦ Depersonalization.
◦ Stalling.
 Routine.
 Creative.
Common techniques for redirecting
accountability and responsibility.
◦ Passing the buck.
◦ Buffing (or rigorous documentation).
◦ Rewriting history.
◦ Scapegoating.
◦ Blaming the problem on uncontrollable events.
◦ Escalating commitment to a losing course of
action.
 Common techniques for defending turf.
◦ Expanding the jobs performed by the work unit.

◦ Forming and using coalitions.

 Managers may gain a better understanding of
political behavior by placing themselves in
the positions of other persons involved in
critical decisions or events.
 This understanding can be facilitated with the
use of a payoff matrix analysis.
 Political action and subunit power.
◦ Common types of lateral, intergroup relationships
where political action occurs.
 Work-flow linkage.
 Service ties.
 Advisory connections.
 Auditing linkages.
 Approval linkages.
 Political action in the chief executive suite.
◦ Executive behavior can sometimes be explained in
terms of resource dependencies.
◦ Resource dependence increases as:
 Needed resources become more scarce.
 Outsiders have more control over needed resources.
 There are fewer substitutes for a particular type of
resource controlled by a limited number of outsiders.
 Strategies for managing resource
dependencies.
◦ Developing workable compromises among
competing resource dependencies.
◦ Altering the firm’s degree of resource dependence.
◦ Redefining how the firm expects to conduct
business in the international arena.
◦ Determining the proper level of executive pay.