Power and Politics

1. What is power?

2. How does one get power?

3. How does dependency affect power?

4. What tactics can be used to increase power?

5. What does it mean to be empowered?

6. How are power and harassment related?

7. Why do people engage in politics?


Power and Politics

• Power
  – A capacity that A has to influence the behaviour of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes
  • Dependency: B’s relationship to A when A possesses something that B requires

• Politics
  – Behaviour to influence, or attempt to influence the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the organization.

Leadership and Power

Measuring Bases of Power

• Coercive power
  – The person can make things difficult for people, and you want to avoid getting him or her angry.
  • Power that is based on fear.
• Reward power
– The person is able to give special benefits or rewards to people, and you find it advantageous to trade favors with him or her.
• Legitimate power
   – The person has the right, considering his or her position and your job responsibilities, to expect you to comply with legitimate requests.

Measuring Bases of Power

• Expert power
  – The person has the experience and knowledge to earn your respect, and you defer to his or her judgment in some matters.
• Referent power
  – You like the person and enjoy doing things for him or her.

Evaluating the Bases of Power

• Coercive power tends to result in negative performance responses from individuals, decreases satisfaction, increases mistrust, and creates fear.
• Legitimate power does not have a negative effect, but does not generally stimulate employees to improve their attitudes or performance, and it does not generally result in increased commitment.
• Reward power may improve performance in a variety of situations if the rewards are consistent with what the individuals want as rewards.
• Expert power relies on trust that all relevant information is given out honestly and completely.

Dependency: Key to Power

• Importance
  – The things you control must be important
• Scarcity
  – A resource must be perceived as scarce
• Non-substitutability
  – The resource cannot be substituted with something else

Increasing Dependency

• To increase the dependency of others on you, you need to
  – Control things viewed as important
  – The resources must be viewed as scarce
  – The resource must have few or no substitutes (nonsubstitutability)

Popularity of Power Tactics: From Most to Least Popular

Empowerment: Giving Power to Employees

• The freedom and the ability of employees to make decisions and commitments
• Managers disagree over definition of empowerment
  – Empowerment as delegating decision making within a set of clear boundaries
versus
  – Empowerment as “a process of risk taking and personal growth”

Conditions for True Empowerment

• Clear definition of the values and mission of the company
• Company must help employees acquire the relevant skills
• Employees need to be supported in their decision making, and not criticized when they try to do something extraordinary
• Employees need to be recognized for their efforts

 Characteristics of Empowered People

• Sense of self-determination
  – Employees are free to choose how to do their work; They are not micromanaged
• Sense of meaning
  – Employees feel that their work is important to them; They care about what they are doing
• Sense of competence
  – Employees are confident about their ability to do their work well; They know they can perform
• Sense of impact
  – Employees people believe they can have influence on their work unit; Others listen to their ideas

Sexual Harassment

• The Supreme Court of Canada defines sexual harassment as
  – Unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature in the workplace that negatively affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for the employee

Examples of Sexual Harassment

• Disagreement as to what specifically constitutes sexual harassment
• Includes
  – Unwanted physical touching
  – Recurring requests for dates when it is made clear the person isn’t interested
  – Coercive threats that a person will lose her or his job if she or he refuses a sexual proposition

Examples of Sexual Harassment

• More subtle forms (harder to interpret)
  – Unwanted looks or comments
  – Off-colour jokes
  – Sexual artifacts such as nude calendars in the workplace
  – Sexual innuendo
  – Misinterpretations of where the line between “being friendly” ends and “harassment” begins

Political Behaviour

• Those activities that influence, or attempt to influence, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the organization.
– Legitimate: normal everyday behaviour
– Illegitimate: extreme political behaviours that violate the implied rules of the game

Why Do We Get Politics?

• Organizations are made up of groups and individuals who have differing values, goals and interests
• Resources in organizations are limited
• Performance outcomes are not completely clear and objective

 How Political Is Your Workplace?

Factors Influencing Political Behaviour

What Individual Factors Contribute to Politics?

• High self-monitors
• Internal locus of control
• High mach
• Organizational investment
• Perceived job alternatives
• Expectations of success

What Organizational Factors Contribute to Politics?

• Reallocation of rewards
• Promotion opportunities
• Low trust
• Role ambiguity
• Unclear performance evaluation system
• Zero-sum reward practices
• Democratic decision-making
• High performance pressure
• Self-serving senior managers

Types of Political Activity

• Attacking or blaming others
• Controlling information
• Forming coalitions
• Networking
• Creating obligations
• Managing impressions

Impression Management

• The process by which individuals attempt to control the impression others form of them
• More likely used by high self-monitors than low self-monitors
  – High self-monitors try to read the situation

Impression Management (IM) Techniques

• Conformity
  – Agreeing with someone else’s opinion in order to gain his or her approval.
• Excuses
  – Explanations of a predicament-creating event aimed at minimizing the apparent severity of the predicament.
• Apologies
  – Admitting responsibility for an undesirable event and simultaneously seeking to get a pardon for the action.
• Acclamations
  – Explanation of favorable events to maximize the desirable implications for oneself.
• Flattery
  – Complimenting others about their virtues in an effort to make oneself appear perceptive and likable.
• Favours
  – Doing something nice for someone to gain that person’s approval.
• Association
  – Enhancing or protecting one’s image by managing information about people and things with which one is associated.

Making Office Politics Work

• Nobody wins unless everybody wins
• Don’t just ask for opinions—change them
• Everyone expects to be paid back
• Success can create opposition

Summary and Implications

• Power is a two-way street.
• Few employees relish being powerless in their jobs and organization.
• People respond differently to various power bases.
  – Employees working under coercive managers are unlikely to be committed,
  – and more likely to resist the manager.
• Expert power is the most strongly and consistently related to effective employee performance.

Summary and Implications

• The power of the manager may also play a role in determining job satisfaction.
• The effective manager accepts the political nature of organizations.
• The more political that employees perceive an organization, the lower their satisfaction.
• Regardless of level in the organization, some people are more politically “astute” than others.
• The politically naive and inept tend to feel continually powerless.

OB at Work
For Review

1. What is power? How do you get it?
2. Contrast power tactics with power bases. What are some of the key contingency variables that determine which tactic a power holder is likely to use?
3. Which of the five power bases lie with the individual? Which are derived from the organization?
4. State the general dependency postulate. What does it mean?
5. What creates dependency? Give an applied example.

For Review

6. How are power and politics related?
7. Define political behaviour. Why is politics a fact of life in organizations?
8. What factors contribute to political activity?
9. Define sexual harassment. Who is most likely to harass an employee: a boss, a co-worker, or a subordinate?

For Critical Thinking

1. Based on the information presented in this chapter, what would you do as a recent university graduate entering a new job to maximize your power and accelerate your career progress?
2. “Politics isn’t inherently bad. It is merely a way to get things accomplished within organizations.” Do you agree or disagree? Defend your position.
3. You’re a sales representative for an international software company. After four excellent years, sales in your territory are off 30 percent this year. Describe three impression management techniques you might use to convince your manager that your sales record is better than should be expected under the circumstances.

For Critical Thinking

4. “Sexual harassment should not be tolerated at the workplace.” “Workplace romances are a natural occurrence in organizations.” Are both of these statements true? Can they be reconciled?
5. Which impression management techniques have you used? What ethical implications, if any, are there in using impression management?

Breakout Group Exercises

• Form small groups to discuss the following topics
1. Describe an incident where you tried to use political behaviour in order to get something you wanted. What tactics did you use?
2. In thinking about the incident described above, were your tactics effective? Why?
3. Describe an incident where you saw someone engaging in politics. What was your reaction to observing the political behaviour? Under what circumstances do you think political behaviour is appropriate?

Working With Others Exercise
Instructions for Role Play

• Working in your group, read the instructions for the assignment
• You have 15 minutes to develop a 3 minute role play, using the source of power assigned to your group
• You MUST stick to the time limit
• Working in your assigned group, read the instructions for the assignment
• You have 15 minutes to develop a 3 minute role play, using the source of power assigned to your group
• You MUST stick to the time limit

Role Play Scenario

• You are the leader of a group that is trying to develop a website for a new client. One of your group members, who was assigned the task of researching and analysing the websites of your client’s competition, has failed twice to bring the analysis to scheduled meetings, even though the member knew the assignment was due. Consequently, your group is falling behind in getting the website developed. As leader of the group, you have decided to speak with this team member, and use your specific brand of power to influence the individual’s behaviour.

Sources of Power

• COERCIVE: depends on fear. It is the ability to punish or withhold privileges.
• REWARD: Based on one's control over things that others desire such as vacations, raises, promotions and office locations.
• LEGITIMATE: person holding power has right to it because of position or role. Thus the person has a formal right to direct others in certain matters and the subordinates have a duty to obey those directions.
• EXPERT: the perception by others that one has superior judgment or knowledge on some topics, often specialized in nature. Unlike information power, this power base does not involve sharing of the facts or reasoning behind a decision.
• REFERENT: develops out of subordinates' admiration for leader and his/her desire to model behaviour and attitudes after that person. The person builds feelings of support, liking, admiration and respect with subordinates.

Mean Responses to Type of Influence
Discussion Questions

• Which kind of influence is most likely to immediately result in the desired behaviour?
• Which will have the most long-lasting effects?
• What effect will using a particular base of power have on the ongoing relationship?
• Which form of power will others find most acceptable? least acceptable?
• In which kinds of situations is each kind of power most effective and useful? least effective and useful?

Purpose of Exercise

• Observe different types of power, and see how they affect you
• Develop an understanding for which types of power are more likely to achieve positive (or negative) effects
  – Which gets the desired behaviour
  – Which has most long lasting effect
  – How does it affect relationship
  – Which is most acceptable

Concepts to Skills: Politicking

• Frame arguments in terms of organizational goals
• Develop the right image
• Gain control of organizational resources
• Make yourself appear indispensable
• Be visible
• Develop powerful allies
• Avoid “tainted” members
• Support your manager