Management Skills in IT@VGU-BIS2013

Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang

POWER &
POLITICS

Group 8: Phan Thi, Hong – Pham Minh, Huyen – Nguyen Quoc, Viet
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You may have heard that

“Power corrupts, and absolute

power corrupts absolutely,”
But

Power is not always bad.

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 Objectives
• Identify the contrast leadership and power as well as
contrast the five bases of power.

• Explain the role of dependence in power

relationships.

• Identify nine power or influence tactics and their

contingencies.

• Identify the causes and consequences of political

behaviors.

• Apply impression management techniques.

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 Outline
• Summary of Theory
o Power and Dependency
o Politics: Power in Action
o Key Take Away

• Case Study
o Summary of Case Study
o Analysis of Case Study

• Q&A

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POWER & DEPENDENCY

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 Definition of Power

A capacity that A has to influence the

behavior of B so that B acts in
accordance with A’s wishes.

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 Leadership & Power

• Focuses on goal achievement. Requires goal

Goal compatibility with followers.
Compatibility • Used as a means for achieving goals. Requires
follower dependency.

Direction of • Focuses on the downward influence on followers.

Influence • Used to gain lateral and upward influence.

• Focuses on leadership styles and relationship

Research Focus with followers.
• Emphasizes tactics for gaining compliance.

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 Sources of Power
Coercive Power

Formal
Reward Power
Power

Legitimate Power
Bases of
Power

Expert Power

Personal
Power

Referent Power

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Dependence – the Key to Power

the greater B’s dependence on A, the

more power A has over B.

Dependence increases when the resource you control is

• Important
• Scarce
• Non-substituable

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What Creates Dependence? – Importance

Downy brand generates > $1

billion in sales a year for the
consumer products giant P&G.

Marketers?
Engineers

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 Power Tactics
Power tactics are ways in which individuals
translate power bases into specific actions.

• Rational persuasion
• Inspirational appeals
• Consultation
Personal Power • Personal appeals
(“softer” tactics) • Ingratiation

• Exchange
• Coalitions
• Legitimacy
Formal Power • Pressure
(“harder” tactics)

Fig. 1 – Nine distinct influence tactics 12

 Effectiveness of Power Tactics
• The effectiveness of some influence tactics depends on the
direction of influence (shown in Exhibit 13-1).
• Other factors that affect the effectiveness of influence include:
• the sequencing of tactics
• a person’s skill in using the tactic
• and the organizational culture.

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 Effectiveness of Power Tactics
• Should begin with “softer” tactics. If these fail, you can
move to “harder” tactics.

• A single soft tactic is more effective than a single hard

tactic.

• Combining two soft tactics or a soft tactic and rational

persuasion is more effective than any single tactic or
combination of hard tactics.

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POLITICS: POWER IN ACTION

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 Power in action
When people get together in groups,
power will be exerted.

When employees in organizations

convert their power into action,
we describe them as being
engaged in politics
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 Organizational Politics
Political behavior
“Activities that are not required as part of a
person’s formal role in the organization
but
that influence, or attempt to influence,
the distribution of
advantages and disadvantages
within the organization”

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 Organizational Politics
Political behavior
examples

• Withholding key information from decision makers

• Spreading rumors
• Leaking confidential information to the media
• Exchanging favors with others in the organization for mutual
benefit
• Lobbying on behalf of or against a particular individual or
decision alternative

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 Factors Contributing to Political Behavior

• Not all groups or organizations are equally

political.
– In some organizations, politicking is overt and
rampant
– While in others politics plays a small role in
influencing outcomes
• Why this variation?
– Factors that appear to encourage political behavior
• Individual Factors
• Organizational Factors
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Factors Contributing to Political Behavior

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How Do People Respond to
Organizational Politics?

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 Impression Management
“The process by which individuals attempt to
control the impression others form of them”

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 Impression Management (IM)
Techniques
• Conformity
– Agreeing with someone else’s opinion to gain his or her approval is a form of ingratiation.
– Example: A manager tells his boss, “You’re absolutely right on your reorganization plan for the
western regional office. I couldn’t agree with you more.”

• Favors
– Doing something nice for someone to gain that person’s approval is a form of ingratiation.
– Example: A salesperson says to a prospective client, “I’ve got two tickets to the theater tonight that I
can’t use. Take them. Consider it a thank-you for taking the time to talk with me.”

• Excuses
– Explanations of a predicament-creating event aimed at minimizing the apparent severity of the
predicament is a defensive IM technique.
– Example: A sales manager says to her boss, “We failed to get the ad in the paper on time, but no one
responds to those ads anyway.”

• Apologies
– Admitting responsibility for an undesirable event and simultaneously seeking to get a pardon for the
action is a defensive IM technique.
– Example: An employee says to his boss, “I’m sorry I made a mistake on the report. Please forgive me.”

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 Impression Management (IM)
Techniques
• Self-Promotion
– Highlighting one’s best qualities, downplaying one’s deficits, and calling attention to one’s achievements is a
self-focused IM technique.
– Example: A salesperson tells his boss, “Matt worked unsuccessfully for three years to try to get that account. I
sewed it up in six weeks. I’m the best closer this company has.”

• Enhancement
– Claiming that something you did is more valuable than most other members of the organizations would
think is a self-focused IM technique.
– Example: A journalist tells his editor, “My work on this celebrity divorce story was really a major boost to our
sales”

• Flattery
– Complimenting others about their virtues in an effort to make oneself appear perceptive and likeable is an
assertive IM technique.
– Example: A new sales trainee says to her peer, “You handled that client’s complaint so tactfully! I could never
have handled that as well as you did.”

• Exemplification
– Doing more than you need to in an effort to show how dedicated and hard working you are is an assertive
IM technique.
– Example: An employee sends e-mails from his work computer when he works late so that his supervisor will
know how long he’s been working

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 Summary and Implications for
Managers
• As a manager who wants to maximize your power, you will
want to increase others’ dependence on you
• Try to avoid putting others in a position where they feel they
have no power
• An effective manager accepts the political nature of
organizations
• Those who are good at playing politics can be expected to get
higher performance evaluations and, hence, larger salary
increases and more promotions than the politically naive or
inept

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THE CASE

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 Case summary
Samantha Parks
is the owner and CEO of
Sparks

New York agency that develops advertising, promotions, and

marketing materials for high-fashion firms
 Case summary
Samantha Parks
overseeing most projects from start to finish

The firm has grown

it necessary to delegate more

and more decisions to her associates
 Samantha Parkschain
has been approached by a hairstyling

wants a comprehensive redefinition of its

entire marketing and promotions look

Should
Samantha
manage this project

her traditional way delegate

major parts to her employees
You need to stay Why do you have to "sweat
very close to your the small stuff“? “Outsource”
creative core and to your employees and …
watch out these
'creative’ guys, they
just want to take off
your bread.

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1. If you were Samantha Parks, how would you prioritize which
projects or parts of projects to delegate?

Without GOOGLE!!
End products

Advertising, promotions,
Core products and marketing materials
for high-fashion firms.

Develop Fashion
Core business
projects & products

High quality services

Core competency depends on IP -
intellectual proprietary

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2. What makes her decisions so hard: How can she deal with
these concerns without giving up too much control?
“I hire good people,
creative people, to run
these projects, and I
worry that they will see
my oversight and
authority as interfering
with their creative
process.”

Divide the tasks into smaller

chunks and discuss on the
level of reporting and
interfering of tasks.

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 Use RACI model in this case to explain why they need to
Should control projects and to what certain they should involve in.
executives try
to control
projects to
maintain their
position of
authority?

Do they have a
right to control
projects and
keep in the loop
on important
decisions just so
they can remain
in charge? 33
4. What are some tasks in “Give me a fulcrum,” Archimedes is
reported to have said, “and a place to
an organization that a top stand—and I will move the world.” The
executive should never tools I have suggested can be our
fulcrum—it is here we take our
delegate to others? stand—let us move the world down
the road to peace.

John Fitzgerald
Kennedy (1917-1963)
President of the United States (1961-1963)
Presidential campaign speech proposing
the United States Peace Corps
San Francisco, California, USA
November 2, 1960
(As reported by The New York
Times, November 3, 1960, page 32)
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Thank you!

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 References
• Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, Organizational
Behavior, Pearson Education, Inc., 2013

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http://langmai.org/tang-kinh-cac/vien-sach/thien-tap/quyen-luc-dich-thuc 38