Presentation on:

Power and politics in Organisation

 Presented By:
A 20 Diwakar Sharma A 17 Chandan Mishra
A 21 Kalpesh Gadaria A 16 Bhavya Barbie
A 24 Somnath Goudar A 25 Rahul Hardas
A 23 Gaurav Khanna A 19 Swapnil Dekate
A 18 Pritesh Chhajed A 14 Ashish Sheth

 Presented To:
Prof. Harshali
POWER AND POLITICS IN ORGANIZATION

•Introduction
•Bases of power

•Power of tactics

•Empowerment

• Politics: power in action

•Legitimate and Illegitimate power dimensions

•Opinion about organizational politics

•Factors contributing to political behavior

•Countering the effects of political Behavior

 Introduction

Power is the ability to make things happen in the way an individual wants, either
by self or by subordinates. The essence of power is the control over the
behavior of others.
-----(French & Raven, 1962)
Managers derive power from organizational sources(called position power) and
individual sources (called personal power)
Power refers to the capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B,
So that B acts in the accordance to A’s wish, the greater B’s dependency on A,
the greater A’s power in relationship. Therefore power is the function of
dependence.
….(Robbins,2003)
Contrasting Leadership and power
 With respect to an organization, leadership and power are
related to each other.
 Leaders use power to achieve group goals.
Differences between leadership and power
 Leadership and power differ on the basis of
Goal compatibility: Power does not require goal
compatibility whereas leadership require some match between
goal of the leader and the followers.
Direction of influence: Leadership focuses on
downward influence on one’s followers also focuses on the
importance of lateral and upward influence pattern.
And now
 Bases of power
 Dependency: The Key to power
 Power Tactics
 Empowerment
 Politics: Power in action
Bases of power
Base of power

Formal power Informal power

Expert power Rational persuasion

Coercive power Information power

Referent power

Reward Legitimate power

power
Dependency: The Key to power
 The general equation of dependency is
 The more B is dependent on A, the more power A has over B.
If a person has anything that the other person wants, then he
has more power over him.

 Dependency is inversely proportional to the source of supply.

More the supply of resources, less is dependency and vice
versa.
that’s why most suppliers have more than one suppliers,
rather than depending on a single supplier.
Factors responsible for dependency
 Three factors are responsible for dependency:

Importance: The more important a thing, more dependency it

creates.
Scarcity: More scarce a resource, more dependency it creates.
Non-substitutability: When a resource has no practical substitute,
the dependency on that resource increases.
Power Tactics
 Using power to achieve the desired effect over other people is a
challenge faced by most of the managers.
 The most common strategies to implement relational effect are..
1. Reason: Use of facts and data to present your ideas logically.
2. Friendliness: Use of flattery, creation of goodwill, acting
humble, and being friendly.
3. Coalition: Getting the support of other people in the
organization.
4. Bargaining: Use of negotiation.
5. Assertiveness: Use of forceful approach
Conti…
6. Higher authority: Getting the support of higher
level members of the organization.
7. Sanctions: Use of rewards and punishments
derived by the organization.
•Individual use the above strategies according to the
situational factor.

•The manager’s relative power also affect the selection of

techniques in two ways:
• Manager with greater power use more techniques than manger with
less power.
• Manager with power use aggressiveness more frequently than
manager with less power.
•Manager use many power tactics like
• When they want benefits from a superior, they use friendliness.
• When they want superiors to accept new ideas, the user friendliness.
• Managers use reason to make employees accept new ideas and
friendliness to obtain favor.
Empowerment

 The process by which manager give others the power

to make decisions affecting their work and themselves
is known as empowerment.
 The concept of empowerment is part of the
decentralized structures found in today’s organizations.
 The trend is to form organizations that are flexible and
are able to take faster decisions.
 Empowerment is the key foundation of self-managing
work teams.
Politics: Power in Action

 Politics are those activities that are not a part of an

individual’s formal role in the organization, but
affect the advantage and disadvantages within the
organization.

 Organizational politics is the influence to obtain

results not allowed by the organization or to obtain
allowed results with the help of means that are not
allowed .
Legitimate and Illegitimate power dimensions

 Legitimate political behavior is the normal

everyday politics like complaining to supervisor,
forming coalitions, etc.
 Illegitimate politics behavior is the behavior that
violates rules like sabotage(doing damage), whistle
blowing(speaking bad about the organization).
 A majority of organizational political actions are
legitimate.
Opinion about organizational politics:

1. According machiavelli’s philosophy- politics in

terms of self interest and the use of non-
authorized means.
2. The second opinion treats politics as necessary
function resulting from differences in the self-
interests of individuals.
Factors contributing to political behavior

 Individual factors
 Organizational factors
Countering the effects of political Behavior

 To deal with the effect of politicking individuals

may use following three strategies:

1. Avoid action and risk taking

2. Redirect accountability and responsibility
3. Defend their turf
 Research has proved that perception of organizational
politics are negatively to job satisfaction.
 The perception of politics leads to anxiety or stress.
 When this becomes unbearable , employees leave the
organization.
 High political skills individuals often have improved
performance.
 Low political skills individuals often respond with
defensive behaviors –reactive and protective behaviors
to avoid action , change or blame.
Maccoby’s Four Political
 The Craftsman: Craftsman are the least political. They are
technical specialist who like details and accuracy. The
person is usually quiet , sincere , modest and practical.
 The Jungle Fighter: They are active politicians. They

believe employees should be used to get ahead in the

company. They want success at any cost. There are two
types of jungle fighters:
Foxes: The foxes make their nests in the organization and
plan from this safe base.
Lions: They capture others territories and build empires.
Conti…..
Company men or women: These are traditional or moderate
people. They have a desire for affiliation and may not
show a lot of political bare more behavior. Such people are
concerned for humans. They are more involved with
security than success and may miss opportunities that
arise.
The Gamesman: The Gamesman are competent politicians.
They see business as a game and take calculated risks. The
gamesmen are charismatic , grow when there are
challenges and competition and motivate employees with
enthusiasm.
ANY QUERY ?
THANK YOU