Using Power, Politics &

Collaboration
Tactics for Increasing Power
Political Tactics for using power
Tactics for enhancing collaboration

Tactics for Increasing Power

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Enter areas of high uncertainty

Greater Dependencies
Provide Scarce Resource
Satisfy Strategic Contingencies

Enter areas of high

uncertainty
Department Managers identify and take steps to remove
Key Uncertainty; the departments power base will be
enhanced.
Most tasks are resolved by Trial & Error. This provides
experience and expertise, which cannot be easily duplicated
by other departments.
Example:While Apple is adopting closed innovation
model,Samsungadopts an open innovation in order to
build their external innovation strengths through Samsung
Accelerator program. The initiative aims to build a
collaboration between designers, innovators, and thinkers to
focus on different solutions. The program provides office
spaces, statical capital, and product support to
entrepreneurs to help them to build software and services.

Greater Dependencies
The Department that the organization is dependent on for
information, materials, knowledge or skills holds power over
others.
Helping out other departments, creates a sense of obligation to
respond in favor at a future date.
eg. engineers as a group would be more powerful at Matsushita
than at Procter & Gamble. These inferences appear to be
generally valid. An organization such as Matsushita, which is
heavily technologically oriented, is highly dependent on its
engineers to maintain its products technical advantages and
quality. And, at Matsushita engineers are clearly a powerful group.
At Procter & Gamble marketing is the name of the game, and
marketers are the most powerful occupational group.

Provide Scarce Resource

Departments that accumulate resources
and provide them to an organization in the
form of money, information or facilities will
be powerful.
Example: Sales Departments in industrial
firms.

Satisfy Strategic Contingencies

Organizations face Contingencies that are
new or existing ones not being satisfied.
This creates room for departments to
move into those critical areas and increase
its importance and power.

Political Tactics for using power

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5)

Build Coalitions & Expand Networks

Assign Loyal People to Key Positions
Control Decision Premises
Enhance Legitimacy & Expertise
Make a Direct Appeal

Build Coalitions & Expand Networks

Talking to other department managers to
persuade them to hear your point.
Build networks across hierarchical &
functional boundaries by:
o Reaching out to establish contact with
managers across hierarchical & functional
boundaries
o Coopting Dissenters

Assign Loyal People to Key Positions

Hiring, transferring & promoting loyal
people to key positions, who are
sympathetic towards the department, thus
help in achieving departmental goals.
Example: Hiring of the administrative staff
for the new U.S government.

Control Decision Premises

Limiting information provided to other
managers.
Limiting decision process. Example, the
items and their sequence of discussion
put on an agenda for an important
meeting.

Enhance Legitimacy and expertise

Exerting influence in areas in which they
have recognized legitimacy and expertise.
Identifying external consultants or other
experts within an organization to support
their cause .

Make a Direct Appeal

Managers should bargain aggressively
(sufficient forcefulness) and be persuasive
to achieve desired outcomes.
Goals and needs should be made explicit.

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2)
3)
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5)

Tactics for Enhancing

Collaboration

Greater Integration Devices

Use of Confrontations & Negotiations
Schedule intergroup Consultation
Practice Member Rotation
Create Shared Mission & Superordinate
Goals

Greater Integration Devices

Teams, task forces and managers who
span boundaries between departments
can be used as integration devices.
The integrators has to understand each
groups problems & move both groups
towards a solution that is mutually
acceptable. Example, Labor-Management
teams: to solve union-management issues.

Use of Confrontations & Negotiations

Confrontation- when parties directly
engage and try to work out their
differences.
Negotiation- the bargaining process that
occurs during confrontation.

Schedule intergroup Consultation

Intervention by top management or by
consultants from outside the organization
to intervene as a third party in intense &
enduring internal conflicts. Also called
Work place mediation.
Department workshops also help in
resolving conflicts.

Practice Member Rotation

Rotation individuals from one department
can be asked to work in another
department temporarily or permanently
Advantages:
o individual learns about the culture and
goals of the other department,
o individual can explain problems and goals
of their own department to the others,
o its a slow but effective process.

Create Shared Mission & Superordinate Goals

Top management can create a shared

mission that requires cooperation among
departments.
To be effective:
o superordinate goals must be substantial,
o Employees must be granted time and
incentives to work cooperatively to pursue
superordinate goals rather than
departmental goals only.

MBTI (Personality Test)

MBTI is the Myers-Briggs type indicator;
the most widely used personality
inventory in the world. Personality, for the
purpose of the test, includes the behavior,
traits and character of an individual based
on the theories developed by the
psychologist Carl Jung.
About 80% of Fortune 100 companies rely
on these types of tests tobuild stronger,
more effective teamsand healthier
organizations.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

MBTI is the Myers-Briggs type indicator; the most widely
used personality inventory in the world. Personality, for the
purpose of the test, includes the behavior, traits and
character of an individual based on the theories developed
by the psychologist Carl Jung.
About 80% of Fortune 100 companies rely on these types of
tests tobuild stronger, more effective teamsand healthier
organizations. Well known companies like Apple, AT&T,
Citicorp, Exxon, General Electric, General Motors etc. are
using the MBTI instrument on a regular basis
https://mbtitraininginstitute.myersbriggs.org/

Helps
Organizati
ons with

Assembling teams
Facilitating communication
Motivating employees
Less conflict, greater efficiency
Leadership development

Tactics for Enhancing

Greater Collaboration
Teams, task forces and managers who

Integration
Devices
Use of
Confrontations &
Negotiations
Schedule
intergroup
Consultation
Practice Member
Rotation
Create Shared
Mission &
Superordinate

span boundaries between departments

can be used as integration devices.
Confrontation- when parties directly
engage and try to work out their
differences. Negotiation- the bargaining
process that occurs during
confrontation.
Work place mediation-Intervention by
top management to intervene as a third
party in intense & enduring internal
conflicts.
individual learns about the culture and
goals of the other department
individual can explain problems and
goals of their own department to the
others,
superordinate goals must be substantial
& Employees must be granted time and
incentives to work cooperatively to
pursue superordinate goals rather than

MBTI data to build stronger more

successful organizations:

Assembling teams
Facilitating communication
Motivating employees
Less conflict, greater efficiency
Leadershipdevelopment
Leading well