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Overview

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 Power

Power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to

influence others

(a) It is only the POTENTIAL to influence others

(b) Power is based on the target’s perception that the
power holder controls a valuable resource that
can help the target achieve his or her goals
(c) Power involves asymmetric dependence of one
party on another party
(d) The less powerful party has some degree of
power called countervailing power
(e) All power relationships depend on some minimum
level of trust
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Power

Sources of Power over

Power others
Legitimate Power
Contingencies of
Reward Power
Power
Coercive Power
Expert Power Substitutability

Referent Power Centrality

Discretion
(Power of social
network) Visibility

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 Sources of Power: Five Bases of Power

• Agreement that people in specific positions can request a set of behaviors

from others
Legitimate Power • Zone of indifference -- A limited domain of behaviors
• Norm of reciprocity – a form of legitimate power; an informal rule of conduct
that we are expected to follow
• Information control -- (a) controlling resource and (b) shaping perceptions
through selective distribution of information

Reward Power • Derived from a person’s ability to control the allocation of rewards valued
by others and to remove negative sanctions (i.e., negative reinforcement)

Coercive Power • The ability to apply punishment

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 Sources of Power: Five Bases of Power

• Derived from within the power holder by possessing knowledge and skills
Expert Power valued by others
• An important form of expert power is the perceived ability to manage
uncertainties in the business environment
• Three ways to cope with uncertainty:
 Prevention – prevent environmental changes from occurring
 Forecasting – predict environmental changes
 Absorption – Absorb or neutralize the impact of environmental shifts

• People have referent power when others identify with them, like them, or otherwise
Referent Power respect them.
• Power originates within power holder
• Associated with charisma

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 Contingencies of Power

The number of alternative sources available for a critical

Substitutability resource; controlling access to the resource increases non-
substitutability

The degree and nature of interdependence between the

Centrality power holder and others

People who control valued resources will yield power only

Visibility when others are aware of these sources of power; power
increases with visibility

The freedom to exercise judgment – to make decisions

Discretion without referring to a specific rule or receiving permission
from someone else
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 Power of Social Networks

Social networks
– Social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to
each other through different forms of interdependence
Social capital
– Goodwill and resulting resources shared in a social network
Networks offer three power resources:
• Information (expert power)
• Visibility
• Referent power

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 Power of Social Networks

Strong ties
– Close-knit relationships
– Offer more plentiful resources quickly, but less unique
Weak ties
– Acquaintances
– Offer unique resources, but more slowly
Many ties
– Resources increase with number of ties
– Social network technologies (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

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Power of Social Networks

Social Network Centrality

Three factors in centrality:

1. Betweenness – connected between others
2. Degree centrality – number of connections
3. Closeness – stronger connections

Structural hole – the gap between clusters

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 Influencing Others: Hard Influence Tactics

• Any behavior that attempts to alter someone’s attitudes and behavior

Influence • Power in motion

Hard influence tactics -- Force behavior change through position power (legitimate, reward, and
coercion)

Silent
Silent authority
authority Assertiveness
Assertiveness Informational
Informational control
control Coalition
Coalition formation
formation Upward
Upward appeal
appeal
• Silent application of • Vocal authority – applying • Power holder reframes a situation • Pooling the power and • Getting support from
authority legitimate and coercive by distributing information
resources of others people with higher
• Requester’s legitimate power selectively
• Coalition’s mere existence can authority
power & target’s role • Constantly reminding • Power holder withholds
be a source of power by • Relying on the authority
expectations targets of their obligations information that is more critical or
symbolizing the legitimacy of of the firm’s policy and
• Most common form of • Frequently monitoring favorable
an issue values
influence in high power targets’ work • Coalitions tap into the power
distance cultures • Using threats to force of the social identity process
compliance

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 Influencing Others: Soft Influence Tactics
Soft Influence Tactics -- Rely on personal sources of power (referent, expert) and appeal to the
target person’s attitudes and needs.
Persuasion
• Use facts, logical arguments, and emotional
appeals to influence
• The most widely used and acceptable influence
strategy in organizations
• Effectiveness depends on characteristics of the
persuader, message content, communication
channel, and the audience being persuaded
• Inoculation effect -- when listeners generate
counterarguments to the anticipated persuasion
attempts
• Face-to-face communication increases the
persuader’s credibility and the richness of this
channel
Impression Management Exchange
• Mostly through self-presentation, i.e.,
• The promise of benefits or
crafting our public image to communicate
resources in exchange for
an identity of being important, vulnerable,
compliance
threatening, or pleasant
• Negotiation is an integral
• A common strategy for people trying to get
part of exchange influence
ahead in the workplace; “personal brand”
activities
• Ingratiation -- Any attempt to increase
• Norm of reciprocity –
liking by, or perceived similarity to, some
building up of “exchange
targeted person
credits” by helping others in
• Forms of ingratiation: the short term for reciprocal
• Flatter your boss in front of others
benefits in the long term
• Ask your boss for advice
• High levels of ingratiation – Apple
polishing, brown-nosing
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 Influencing Others: Consequences
Commitment
• The strongest outcome of
influence
• When people identify with
the influencer’s request and
are highly motivated to
implement it even in the
absence of extrinsic
sources of motivation
Compliance
• When people are motivated
to implement the
influencer’s request for
purely instrumental reasons
• Presence of external
sources to motivate the
desired behavior
Resistance
• When targets oppose
or refuse to engage in
the behaviour desired
by the influencer
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 Influencing Others: Contingencies
Influencer’s strongest
sources of power
• Those with expertise tend to
have more influence using
persuasion
• Those with a strong legitimate
power base may be more
successful in applying silent
authority
The relative position of
target person
• Employees may face adverse
career consequences by
being too assertive with their
bosses
• Supervisors who engage in
ingratiation and impression
management tend to lose the
respect of their subordinates
Personal, organizational,
and cultural values
• People with a strong power
orientation may feel more
comfortable using
assertiveness
• People who value conformity
may make greater use of
upward appeals
• Competitive organizational
culture may encourage more
use of information control and
coalition formation
• Collegial organizational culture
may encourage influence
through persuasion
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Influencing Others

Use of Power: Attitude or

Influence Tactics Behavioral Change
Influencer’s power base
Hard Influence Tactics Relative Position
Silent authority Personal, organizational and
cultural values
Assertiveness Resistance
Informational control
Coalition formation
Upward appeal
compliance
Soft Influence Tactics
Persuasion
Impression Management
Commitment
Exchange

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 Organizational Politics

Behaviors that others perceive as self-serving tactics for

Organizational personal gain at the expense of other people and possibly
Politics contrary to the interests of the entire organization.

Conditions that encourage organizational politics:

1. Scare resources in the workplace – people rely on political tactics to safeguard their
resources
2. Ambiguous or complex rules, or the absence of formal rules – Political tactics help
people get what they want when decisions lack structural guidelines
3. Organizational change -- Change creates ambiguity and threatens employees’ power
and valued resources
4. Tolerance and reinforcement of political behaviour in organizations
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 Organizational Politics

Ways to Minimize Organizational Politics

1. Introduce clear rules and regulations to specify the use of scarce

resources
2. Establish effective organizational change practices
3. Manage group norms to curtail self-serving influence activities
4. Leaders serve as role models of organizational citizenship
5. Give employees more control over their work and keep them
informed of organizational events.

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