Unit 11

Power and Politics

Dr. Smita Choudhary
Dr

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 Contents
Introduction
Bases of power
Power tactics
Empowerment
Power in groups: coalitions
Politics: power in action

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 Introduction
 Power is the ability to make things happen in the way an
individual wants, either by self or by the subordinates. The
essence of power is 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 accordance with A’s wishes. The greater
B’s dependence on A, the greater is A’s power in the
relationship. Therefore power is a function of dependency.
---- (Robbins, 2003)

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 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 requires some match between goals of the leader
and the followers.
 Direction of influence: Leadership focuses on downward influence
on one’s followers but power also focuses on the importance of
lateral and upward influence pattern.

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Learning Objectives
After this unit, you will be able to understand:
Bases of power
Power in groups: coalitions
Politics: power in action

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 Bases of Power
Bases of Power

Formal Power Informal Power

Coercive power Information Power Expert Power Rational Persuasion

Reward Power Legitimate Power Referent Power

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 Formal Power
 It is based on an individual’s position in an organization.
 It is derived from the person’s ability to force or reward
others or from the formal authority he has because of his
strategic position in the organizational hierarchy.
 For example, a manager may transfer, demote or fire a
subordinate who does not act as he wants.
 Formal power is of four types
 Coercive power
 Reward power
 Legitimate power
 Information power

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 Coercive Power
 This is the power due to fear.
 It is based on application or
threat of application of
 Physical pain
 Creating frustration by limiting the
movements
 Controlling basic physiological or
safety needs.
 In an organization, any person
who has the power to dismiss,
suspend, or demote another
person can use his power.

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 Reward Power
 It is the opposite of coercive power.
 It is the degree to which a manager can use rewards to
control other people.
 Examples of rewards are
 Money
 Promotions
 Compliments
 Enriched jobs
 A manager’s success in utilizing rewards to influence
others depends on his skills.

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 Legitimate Power
 It is the degree to which a manager can use
subordinate’s beliefs that the boss has a right of
command to control their behavior.
 This is the special power of a manager because
subordinates believe that it is acceptable for a
person at managerial position to have the right
to command.
 The elements of legitimate power are
 It is the power received due to a person’s
position in the hierarchy.
 Positions of authority include coercive and
reward powers.
 It includes the acceptance of authority of a
position by members of an organization.

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 Information Power
 This power is the result of access to and control over
information.
 When a person has information, others become dependent
on him. (For example, managers have data that
subordinates do not have).
 Higher the person in the hierarchy, more information
would be accesses by him.

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 Personal Power(Informal)
 It is the power of an individual and does not depend on
his/her position.
 The bases of personal power are
 Expertise
 Rational
 Persuasion
 Reference

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 Expert Power
 It is the ability to control another person’s behavior through
knowledge and experience that the other person does not
have, but needs.
 A subordinate obeys his supervisor because the boss knows
better about what to do and how to do than the subordinate.
 But in this hi-tech environment, the boss may depend on
juniors for technical support.

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 Rational Persuasion
 It is the ability to control others’ behavior by making him
accept the attractiveness of an offered goal and a practical
way of achieving it.
 It involves
 Explaining the attractiveness of the expected results
 Showing how to achieve these outcomes

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 Referent Power
 It is the ability to control others’
behavior because the person wants to
be like the person having the power.
 A subordinate follows his boss
because he wants to become like his
boss.
 This may happen because the
subordinate likes the boss personally
and tries to do things the way his
boss wants him to do.
 The subordinate tries to avoid
anything that would harm his
relationship with the boss.

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 Charismatic Power
 It is an extension of the referent power.
 It evolves from an individual’s personality and
interpersonal style.
 Others follow because they can
Express attractive visions
Take personal risks
Demonstrate follower sensitivity

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 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 sources 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.

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 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.

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 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 (Kipnis
et. Al, 1984):
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 a forceful approach
6. Higher authority: Getting the support of higher level members of the
organization.
7. Sanctions: Use of rewards and punishments derived by the
organization.

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  Individuals use the above strategies according to the situational
factors.
 The manager’s relative power also affects the selection of
techniques in two ways:
 Managers with greater power use more techniques than managers with
less power.
 Managers with power use aggressiveness more frequently than managers
with less power.
 Managers use many power tactics like
 When they want benefits from a superior, they use friendliness.
 When they want superiors to accept new ideas, they use friendliness.
 Managers use reason to make employees accept new ideas and
friendliness to obtain favor.

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 Empowerment
 The process by which managers 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.

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 Changing Position Power

 When an organization tries to empower its employees, it

should change the existing pattern of power.
 The main issues that should be taken care of during
empowerment are
 People in lower ranks should be trained on how to work in the
empowered position.
 Power should be used correctly and the authority, responsibility and
accountability process should be clearly defined.
 When power is given to lower level, they should be given knowledge of
how to use this power otherwise it can create problems in the
organization.

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 Power in Groups: Coalitions
 Individuals who lose power or are not able to increase their
power individually, they form a coalition.
 Coalition is an informal group, whose purpose is to achieve
a single purpose.
 The predictions about coalition formation are
 Coalitions in organizations try to maximize their size.
 More coalitions are likely to be created when there is more task and
resource interdependence.
 Coalition formation also depends on the actual tasks that the workers
perform. When the group performs routine tasks, chances of
formation of coalition are more.

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 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
advantages 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.
 From the above definition, the following points are clear:
 Political behavior is not a part of an individual’s job requirements.
 It includes efforts to influence the goals, criteria or processes used
for decision making.
 It includes many political behaviors like refusing to give important
information to decision makers, spreading rumors, leaking
confidential information, etc.

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 Legitimate and Illegitimate Power Dimensions (Farrell &
Peterson, 1998)
Legitimate political behavior is the normal everyday politics
like complaining to supervisor, forming coalitions, etc.
Illegitimate political 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.

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  An analysis of literature on organizational politics shows that
there are two opinions about organizational politics:
 The first opinion is built on Machiavelli’s philosophy and
defines politics in terms of self interest and the use of non-
authorized means.
 Organizational politics is defined as the management of influence to
obtain ends not authorized by the organization or to obtain authorized
ends through non-authorized means.
 The second opinion treats politics as necessary function
resulting from differences in the self-interests of individuals.

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 Factors Contributing to Political Behavior
1) Individual factors
 Some personality traits, needs and other factors are related to
political behavior. They are
 Employees who are high self-monitors, have an internal locus
of control are more likely to show political behavior.
 The high self-monitor is more sensitive to social signals and is
more skilled in political behavior than the low self-monitor.
 Individuals with an internal locus of control try to manipulate
or control situation in their favor.
 The Machiavellian personality does not believe that politics is
an unethical action.

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 2) Organizational Factors
 Organizational factors responsible for affecting political
behavior are
 Cultures that have low trust, unclear performance evaluation
system, high pressure for performance, show high degree of
political behavior.
 When organizations cut back to improve efficiency, people
may take political actions to maintain their existing status quo
(the tendency of being in the same situation).
 Promotion decision also encourage political behavior.
 Political behavior is more when there is less trust within the
organization.
 If employees’ roles are not clear, it leads to political behavior.

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 Countering the Effects of Political Behavior

To deal with the effects of politicking, individuals may use the

following three strategies:

 Avoid action and risk taking

 Redirect accountability and responsibility
 Defend their turf

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 Avoidance
Avoidance is very common in controversial areas.
The most common reaction is to work to the rules.
Employees are safe when they strictly follow the
rules, policies, and procedures and show no
deviations or exceptions.

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 Redirecting Responsibility
 Politically sensitive individuals
will always protect themselves
from accepting blame for the
negative results of their actions.
 Many techniques are used for
redirecting responsibility.
 “Passing the buck” is a common
method that employees and
managers use.
 They define the task in such a
way that it becomes someone
else’s responsibility.

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 Defending Turf
 It results from the coalition nature of organizations.
 The organization is a collection of competing interests held
by various departments and groups.
 As each group tries to increase its influence, it starts to
encroach on the activities of other groups

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  Research has proved that perception of organizational politics
are negatively related 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.

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 Maccoby’s Four Political Types
 In his book "The Gamesman", Michael Maccoby describes four
types of organizational politicians. They are:
1. The Craftsman: Craftsmen are the least political. They are
technical specialists who like details and accuracy. The person is
usually quiet, sincere, modest and practical.
2. The Jungle Fighter: Jungle fighters 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:
a) Foxes: The foxes make their nests in the organization and plan
from this safe base.
b) Lions: They capture others’ territories and build empires.

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 c) Company men or women: These are traditional or moderate
people. They have a desire for affiliation and may not show a
lot of political behaviour. Such people are concerned for
humans. They are more involved with security than success
and may miss opportunities that arise.
d) The Gamesman: The gamesmen 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.

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 Check Your Learning

1. What are the different types of power categorized under Formal Power?
Ans.1 Coercive, Reward, Legitimate, Informational.

2. What are the common power and influence tactics?

Ans-2:Reason,Friendliness,coalation,bargaining,assertiveness,higher

authority, sanctions.

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 Thanks

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