Power and Politics: Chapter 7, Stephen P. Robbins and Nancy Langton, Organizational Behaviour, Third Canadian Edition

Chapter 7
Power and Politics
Chapter 7, Stephen P. Robbins and Nancy Langton, Organizational Behaviour, Third Canadian Edition.
Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Power and Politics
Questions for Consideration
Questions for Consideration
• What is power?
• How does one get it?
• What does it mean to empower employees?
• How can we be effective at office 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
Power Leadership
• Does not require goal • Requires goal
acceptance agreement
• Focuses on intimidation • Focuses on downward
influence
• Maximizes importance of • Minimizes importance of
lateral and upward lateral and upward
influence influence
• Power focuses on tactics • Leadership research
for gaining compliance focuses on answers
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.
Leaders’ Use of Power
• The least effective power bases are the
ones most likely to be used by managers
– Coercive, legitimate, and reward
– Easiest to implement
• Effective leaders use referent and/or
expert power
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
When Managers When Managers
Influenced Influenced
Superiors* Subordinates
Most Popular Reason Reason

Coalition Assertiveness
Friendliness Friendliness
Bargaining Coalition
Assertiveness Bargaining
Least Popular Higher authority Higher authority
Sanctions
*The dimension of sanctions is omitted in the scale

that measures upward influence.
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
Coalitions
• Two or more individuals who combine their
power to push for or support their demands
• Predictions about coalition formation
– Coalitions seek to maximize their size
– Coalitions more likely to be created when there is
greater task and resource dependence
– Coalitions more likely when tasks are routine
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
Factors Influencing Political
Behaviour
Individual factors
• High self-monitors
• Internal locus of control
• High Mach
• Organizational investment
• Perceived job alternatives
• Expectations of success
Favourable outcomes
Political behaviour
Low High • Rewards

Organizational factors • Averted punishments
• Reallocation of resources
• Promotion opportunities
• Low trust
• Role ambiguity
• Unclear performance
evaluation system
• Zero-sum reward practices
• Democratic decision making
• High performance pressures
• Self-serving senior managers
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.
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.

Power and Politics: Chapter 7, Stephen P. Robbins and Nancy Langton, Organizational Behaviour, Third Canadian Edition

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Power and Politics: Chapter 7, Stephen P. Robbins and Nancy Langton, Organizational Behaviour, Third Canadian Edition

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Chapter 7

Power and Politics

Most Popular Reason Reason

*The dimension of sanctions is omitted in the scale

Low High • Rewards

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