POWER AND POLITICS

IN
ORGANISATIONS
Presentation By : Group 1
Abhijeet Pethkar (01)
Abhimanyu Vyas(02)
Abhishek Singh(03)
Abhishek Mahajan(04)
Abhishek Saini(05)
Aditi Jain (06)
AGENDA

 Power and Bases of Power

 The Dependency Postulate
 Power Tactics
 Political Behavior
 Power and Leadership
 POWER AND BASES OF
POWER
 What is Power?

 Bases of Power

A) Formal power
 Coercive Power

 Reward Power

 Legitimate Power

 Information Power

B) Personal Power
 Expert Power

 Referent Power

 Charismatic Power
 .

s tu l a te
c y P o
pe nde n
D e
The
The General Dependency Postulate

The greater B’s dependency on A, the greater

the power A has over B

Dependency is inversely proportional to alternative

sources of supply.
 What creates dependency?

Dependency is increased when the resource you

control is –

Important
Scarce
Nonsubstitutable
Importance

If nobody wants what you’ve got, it’s not going to created

dependency

Scarcity
Possession of scarce resource such as important knowledge
makes high-ranking member dependent on low -ranking member

Nonsubstitutability
The more that a resource has no viable substitutes, the more
power that control over that resource provides
Power and Dependence

Person B’s
Person
counterpower over
Person A A

Person Person
B B’s Goals
Person A’s power
over Person B
.

A C T I CS
W ER T
PO
 Power Tactics
 Ways in which individuals translate power bases into
specific actions

 Certain standardized ways are followed

 Research conducted on 165 managers resulted into a

finding giving the following 7 tactical diensions or
strategies
POWER TACTICS
HOW POWER HOLDERS GET WHAT THEY
WANT.

1. Reason
2. Friendliness
3. Coalition
4. Bargaining
5. Assertiveness
6. Higher Authority
7. Sanctions
 Use of Power Tactics: From Most to
Least Popular
Most Popular
When Managers When managers
influence Superiors influenced subordinates
Reason Reason
Coalition Assertiveness
Friendliness Friendliness
Bargaining Coalition
Assertiveness Bargaining
Higher Authority Higher Authority
Sanctions

Least Popular
Additionally…4 contingency variables

 Manager’s relative power

 Manager’s objective
 Expectation of target person’s willingness
to comply
 Organization Culture
.

e h a v i or
i t ic a lB
Pol
Politics: Power in Action
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.
Politics Is in the Eye of the
Beholder
“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. Whistleblowing vs. Improving efficiency
9. Scheming vs. Planning ahead
10. Overachieving vs. Competent and capable
11. Ambitious vs. Career-minded
12. Opportunistic vs. Astute
13. Cunning vs. Practical-minded
14. Arrogant vs. Confident
15. Perfectionist vs. Attentive to detail
Factors That Influence Political
Behaviors
Employee Responses to
Organizational Politics
Avoiding
AvoidingAction
Action: :
Defensive Behaviors
• • Overconforming
Overconforming
• • Buck
Buckpassing
passing
• • Playing Avoiding
AvoidingBlame
Blame: :
Playingdumb
dumb
• • Stretching • • Buffing
Buffing
Stretching
• • Stalling • • Playing
Playingsafe
safe
Stalling
• • Justifying
Justifying
• • Scapegoating
Scapegoating Avoiding
AvoidingChange
Change: :
• • Misrepresenting
Misrepresenting • • Prevention
Prevention
• • Self-protection
Self-protection
Impression Management (IM)
Impression Management
The process by which IM
IMTechniques
Techniques: :
individuals attempt to • • Conformity
Conformity
control the impression
• • Excuses
others form of them. Excuses
• • Apologies
Apologies
• • Self-Promotion
Self-Promotion
• • Flattery
Flattery
• • Favors
Favors
• • Association
Association
Is A Political Action Ethical?

Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism Rights
Rights Justice
Justice
.

rs h i p
e a de
nd L
e r a
Pow
What is Leadership??
 The word leadership can refer to the process of leading, the concept of
leading and those entities that perform one or more acts of leading. In our
day to day life, leadership can be viewed as either actual or potential.

 Leadership emerges when an entity as “leader” contrives to receive

deference from other entities who become “followers”.

 Actual leader gives guidance or direction, as in the phrase “the emperor has
provided satisfactory leadership”.

 Potential leader has the capacity or ability to lead, as in the phrase “she
could have exercised effective leadership”; or as implies in the concept “born
to lead”.
Suggested Qualities of Leadership
 Studies of leadership have suggested qualities that people often associate with
leadership. They include the following qualities:

 Guiding others through providing a role model and through willingness to serve others
first

 Talent and technical/specific skill at some task at hand

 Initiative and entrepreneurial drive

 Charismatic inspiration - attractiveness to others and the ability to leverage this esteem
to motivate others

 A clear sense of purpose (or mission) - clear goals - focus – commitment

 Optimism - very few pessimists become leaders

 Results-orientation - directing every action towards a mission

 Ability to encourage and nurture those that report to them – delegate in

such a way as people will grow

 Role models - leaders may adopt a persona that encapsulates their

mission and lead by example

 Self-awareness - the ability to “lead” (as it were) one’s own self prior to
leading other selves similarly

 Rejection of determinism - belief in one’s ability to “make a difference”

Leadership and Management
 Some commentators (for example, Cogner 1992) link leadership closely with
the idea of management; some would even regard the two as synonymous. If
one accepts this premise, one can view leadership as

1 centralized or decentralized
2 broad or focused
3 decision-oriented or morale-centered
4 intrinsic or derived from some authority

 According to Hersey and Blanchard (1982: 3), “Leadership occurs any time
one attempts to influence the behavior of an individual or group regardless of
the reason. Management is a kind of leadership in which the achievement of
organizational goals is paramount”.
 Zaleznik (1977) for example, delineated differences between
leadership and management. He saw leaders as inspiring visionaries,
concerned about substance; while he views managers as planners who
have concerns with process.

 Bennis (1989) further drew the following distinctions between the two
groups:
 Managers administer, leaders innovate
 Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why
 Managers focus on systems, leaders focus on people
 Managers do things right, leaders do the right things
Leadership Styles

 Directive Leader: Directive Leaders are characterized by having firm view about
how and when things should be done. As such they leave little leeway for subordinates
to display independence, believing that they should adhere to the methods and
schedules as originally laid down.

Delegative Leader: The style of Delegative Leaders is characterized by delegating

work to subordinates. Subordinates will generally be assigned work rather than have
active input into how projects should be conducted.

Participative Leader: Participative leaders are primarily concerned with getting the
best out of a team as a whole. Hence, they encourage contributions from all members
of a team and believe that by pooling ideas and coming to a consensus view the best
solutions to problems will naturally arise.
Leadership Styles (Cont.)
 Consultative Leader: The Consultative Leadership Style combines elements of
both participative and directive leadership orientations. They value group
discussion and tend to encourage contributions from the separate members of the
team. Consultative Leaders typically make the final decision as to which of the
varying proposals should be accepted.

 Negotiative Leader: Negotiative Leaders motivate subordinates by encouraging

them, through incentives etc., to work towards common objectives. Hence, through
a process of negotiation attempts will be made to arrive at some mutually equitable
arrangement with the other members of the team so as to motivate them to work in
a particular way. Negotiative Leaders tend to rely on their skills of persuasion to
achieve their stated goals.
Managers V/s Leaders
 Managers maintain, leaders develop
 Managers rely on control, leaders inspire trust
 Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer term
perspective
 Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo
 Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on
the horizon
 Managers imitate, leaders originate
 Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own
person
 Managers copy, leaders show originality
Contrasting Leadership and Power
 Leadership  Power
 Focuses on goal  Used as a means for
achievement achieving goals
 Requires goal  Requires dependency by
compatibility with the followers on the
followers
leader
 Focuses influence
downward
 Used to gain lateral and
upward influence
 Research Focus
 Leadership styles and
 Research Focus
relationships with  Power tactics for
followers gaining compliance
References
 Organization behavior by Kinicki , 3rd Edition.
 Organization behavior by Stephen P. Robbins,
Timothy A.Judge , 13th edition
 Organization behavior by T Ashraf
 Y O U !!
TH A N K