Chapter 13: Power, Influence, Politics

Power

Power

refers to a person's or group's potential to influence another person or group to do something that would not otherwise have been done.

Need for power

Wanting to control and influence others, or to be responsible for others

Leadership motive pattern

a high need for power (with high impulse control) and a low need for affiliation

grounded in a need for power and is generally associated with high managerial performance

Position power

Based on one's position in the organization influence tactics

Three types of Position Power

• legitimate power

• reward power

• coercive power

Legitimate power

A position power based on a person's holding of the managerial position rather than anything the manager is or does as a person

Reward power

A position power that involves the use of rewards to influence and motivate followers

Coercive power

A position power based on fear or a desire to avoid punishment

Personal power

Based on the person's individual characteristics, stays with a person regardless of his or her job or organization

4 Types of Personal Power

• expert power

• informational power

• referent power

• persuasive power

Expert power

A personal power based on an individual's knowledge or expertise

Informational power

Power derived from control over information

Referent power

Another type of personal power based on a manager's charisma or attractiveness to others

Persuasive power

Ability to use logic and facts to persuade others to adopt one's ideas or perspectives.

Legitimate, Reward, Coercive

These types of power rely on external motivation and obligatory obedience.

These are making the use of power, rather than leadership

Expert and Referent Power

What do expert leaders usually use? (What types of power)

Abuse of power

Using any type of power to demean, exploit, or take advantage of another or influencing someone to do something the person later regrets

Empowerment

Sharing power with employees and giving them the authority to make and implement at least some decisions

Conditions that enhance a subunit's power (4)

• Resource Scarcity

• Centrality

• Substitutability

• Uncertainty

Resource Scarcity

• resources are scarce, power differences across subunits are likely to be magnified

• power is greater for subunits that control scarce resources that are vital to the organization as a whole

• when resources are plentiful, subunit power differences are often reduced.

Centrality

• the extent that they influence the work of many other subunits (e.g., budget approval power)

• when their impact is more immediate (e.g., a performance decline in that unit would be felt faster by the organization as a whole)

• when the subunit has a critical impact on the firm's key product or service.

Substitutability

• the extent that others inside or outside of the organization can also perform its responsibilities.

• The labor market has a big influence on substitutability; when a subunit's skills become scarce in the labor market, the power of that subunit increases

• If a subunit's work can be outsourced, that unit's power decreases because the threat of outsourcing can counter its influence attempts.

Uncertainty

The subunits most capable of coping with uncertainty or of guiding the organization through a period of increased uncertainty tend to have greater power.

Influence tactics

How people translate their power to affect the behavior of others

Types of Influence Tactics (9)

• Coalition tactics

• Consultation

• Exchange

• Ingratiation

• Inspirational appeals

• Legitimating tactics

• Personal appeals

• Pressure

• Rational persuasion

Coalition tactics

Engaging the help of others to persuade someone to do something; referring to the support of others to convince someone to agree to a proposal or to change his or her attitude toward something

Consultation

Requesting someone's advice to solve a problem or mutually setting goals to increase a follower's commitment to the leader's decision; being willing to modify the goals or solution based on the person's concerns and suggestions to sustain commitment

Exchange

Offering to exchange something of value now or in the future for someone's cooperation; usually used after other tactics have failed due to the higher cost

Ingratiation

Flattering or praising people to put them in a good mood or to make them more likely to want to help, or using humor; seen as more credible when used early rather than after other influence attempts have failed

Inspirational appeals

Appealing to someone's aspirations, values, and ideals to gain his or her commitment, or increasing people's confidence that they can do something in order to increase motivation

Legitimating tactics

Enhancing one's formal authority to make a certain request by referring to rules, precedents, or official documents; should be used early if doubts about the request's legitimacy are expected

Personal appeals

Asking someone to do something "because we're friends" or asking for a personal favor

Pressure

Using coercion or persistent follow-up or reminders to gain influence; risks undesirable side effects such as resentment

Rational persuasion

Using logic and facts to persuade someone

Responses to Influence Attempts (4)

• commitment

• compliance

• passive resistance

• active resistance

Commitment

Endorsing and becoming an actively involved participant as a result of the influence attempt

Compliance

Going along with what the influencer wants without being personally committed

Passive resistance

Rejecting the influence attempt but not getting in the way of what the influencer is trying to do

Active resistance

Rejecting the influence attempt and actively trying to stop the influencer from doing what he or she is trying to do, or trying to change the influencer's attitudes

the most effective influence tactics

• rational persuasion

• inspirational appeals

• consultation

pressure

the least effective influence tactic

Upward influence

Influencing superiors

6 primary upward influence tactics

• Ingratiation

• Exchange

• Rationality

• Assertiveness

• Coalition formation

• Upward appeals:

Rationality

using logic, planning, reason, and compromise

Assertiveness

using aggression, nagging, and verbal confrontations or giving orders

Coalition formation

seeking the support of other organization members to show a united front

Upward appeals

making informal or formal appeals to organizational superiors for intervention

Shotgun

• This style uses the most influence and emphasizes assertiveness and bargaining

• tend to have less job tenure and the greatest needs to obtain personal benefits and "sell" their ideas about how the work should be done

• attempt to obtain what they want by using many different tactics.

• associated with the highest levels of job tension and personal stress

Tactician

• This style uses an average amount of influence and emphasizes reason.

• tend to direct organizational subunits involved in nonroutine work that gives them a skill and knowledge power base.

• tend to have considerable influence in their organizations over budgets, policy, and personnel and rely heavily on reason and logic to gain compliance.

• associated with the lower levels of job tension and personal stress

Bystander

• uses little influence with superiors.

• tend to direct organizational units doing routine work and generally have little organizational power

• tend to have few personal or organizational objectives that require compliance from others, they generally exert little influence.

• Between 30 and 40 percent of managers are classified as

• these

Ingratiator

• This style primarily uses a friendliness strategy but also uses the other influence strategies to some extent.

• The name of this style reflects the dominant mode by which these managers exercise influence

• top managers who use these behaviors toward their CEO, including flattery, expressing confirming opinions, and performing favors, are more likely to receive board

• appointments at firms where their CEO is either a director or knows members of the board

Organizational politics

Social influence attempts directed at those who can provide rewards that will help promote or protect the self-interests of the actor

Causes of Political Behavior (4)

• Conflict

• Uncertainty

• Scarcity of Valued Resources

• Rewarding of Political Behavior

Impression management

The process of portraying a desired image or attitude to control the impression others form of us

Self-monitoring

• Having a high concern with others' perceptions of us and adjusting our behavior to fit the situation

• People who score high on this personality trait usually engage in impression management behavior and are good at reading situations and adjusting their behavior accordingly to maintain their desired image

• Low scorers tend to present consistent images of themselves regardless of the situation