OB-Power, Politics, and Ethics vs Morals

What is Power?

-The capacity (how do I grab more power) to influence (leader) others who are in a state of dependence
-Social Exchange Theory
-Power of perception
-N-pow (pos or neg)

Social Exchange Theory

-According to SET, resource dependency occurs when an individual needs something that another person possesses
-Therefore person with the need is dependent ont he other guy)
-Power or influence occurs when the person with need gets the resources but always in exchange for something
-Slack/alternative resourcing is the reason power doesn't always work (Alternative funding, new job, lottery)

Power of perception

-I gotta perceive that i have power
-Must believe boss can actually give me the promotion

5 basic types /bases of power I will see played out.

Structural:
-Legitimate power
-Reward power
-Coercive power
Personal:
-Referent Power
-Expert Power

Structural vs Personal

-Structural: power organization gives/assigns to you
-Personal: sources of power that come from characteristics on the individuals
-more long term impact

Structural: Legitimate power

-Power derived from a persons position or job in organization (e.g. President of your company asks you to do something)
-Same thing as formal power
-Given authority to control others
-Assigned the right to give order
-Based on members acceptance of the right of another to direct

Structural: Reward Power

-What motivation theory sits at the base of reward and coercive power (reinforcement theory)
-Power derived from the ability to provide position outcomes and prevent negative outcomes (e.g. you accept overtime because you want your boss to promote you)
-Have the ability to reward you

Structural: Coercive Power

-Power derived from the use of punishment and threat
-Controlling people through fear (E.g. you arrive to work 15 minutes early because you know your boss will be very agitated if you're late)
-Don't want to work for
-Power is from punishment and fear tactics
-Closest to n-pow nega nd closest to pathological

Personal: Referent Power

-Power derived from being well liked by others (e.g. people will do a favour for you because you are highly respected, admired and are seen as a role model by others)
-I follow them because I like them so much
-Charisma, personality, something special about you, closest to "I identifying with you"
-Something more than attraction

Personal: Expert Power

-Power derived from having special information or expertise that is valued by an organization
-e.g. everyone at work comes to you with questions about data analytics because you have an EMBA in Digital Transformation from McMaster
-Information that you hold/expertise: status, credentials, KSAs

How do People Obtain Power? (Kanter 1977, Pfeffer, 1992)

1. Doing things right-all three things need to happen at the same time:
-Extraordinary activities (non-routine positions)-find something unusual and attach yourself to it, be extraordinary, find a mission
-Visible Activities-publicize it, people need to know about your activities (double edge sword)
-Relevant Activities-if nobody sees work as relevant to current problems it will not add to your influence, they will not think you have any power
2. Cultivating the Right people
-Develop informal relationships with the right people (outsiders, subordinates, peers, superiors)
-Networking 360

Cultivating Workplace power

1. Diagnose who has formal power (Jessica)
2. Diagnose who has informal power (donna)
-figure out how to get closer to the people in power
3. Get people with power on your side
-Spend time with them, flatter them, network with them
4. Get access to unexploited resources
-What are some unexploited resources that can be used (dinners, resources, etc.) allow you to put yourself in the centre

What are all of the activities that would be seen by someone using empowerment

-handing problems
-authority giving
-initiative giving
-builds peoples skills
-providing opportunities

Empowerment

-Giving people the authority, opportunity, and motivation to take initiative and solve organizational problems
-Giving people the freedom and ability to make decisions and commitments
-Puts power where it is needed to make it effective
-People who are empowered have a strong sense of self-efficacy

Degrees of Empowerment

-No discretion: routine, repetitive, tasks assigned, operate according to the rules rather than initiative)
-Participatory Empowerment: Autonomous work groups, given some authority)
-Self-management: Full decision making power, management has faith in employees carrying out organization missions and goals
refer to drawn graph in notes*

Characteristics of Empowered People

-Self-determination
-Sense of meaning
-Sense of Competence
-Sense of Impact

Self-determination

-Free to choose how to work, not micro managed

Sense of meaning

-Their work is important to them, they care about what they are doing

Sense of Competence

-Confident about their ability to do their work well, know they can perform (self-efficacy)

Sense of Impact

-Believe they can have influence on their work unit, others listen to their ideas (task significance)

6+2 Influence Tactics

-Assertiveness
-Ingratiation
-Exchange
-Upwards Appeals
-Coalition Formation
-Rational Persuasion

-Effort
-Attractiveness

Assertiveness

-ordering, nagging (don't like), being directive, setting, deadlines

Ingratiation

-using flattery and acting friendly

Exchange

-Doing behaviours or offering to trade favours, scratch my back, ill scratch yours

Upwards Appeal

-Making formal or informal appeals to superiors for intervention (also inspirational appeals and personal appeals)
-good at talking to those above you (don't jump people, follow chain of command or people will be pissed)

Coalition Formation

-Seeking united support from other organizational members ex. Union

Rational Persuasion

-Using facts and data to make a logical or rational presentation of ideas, logos-logic, rationale

Effort

-direct relationship between effort a person is willing to exert and the power he can command
-The more effort, the more seen, people can see you are working over hours, in hopes of being seen, it could backfire as being seen as inefficient

Attractiveness

-people who are viewed (charisma, energy, smart, approachable)as attractive are more likely to obtain access to critical stake holders and once gain access they are more likely to succeed in promoting their cause

What determines which influence tactics you would use?

-Types of power (coerciveness, assertiveness)
-Whom you are trying to influence (E.g. Subordinates)

Who wants power?

-Those high on McClelland's Need for Power
-McClelland argues that the most effective managers. ("institutional managers)
-Have high N-pow
-Use their power to achieve organizational goals
-Adopt a participative or "coaching" leadership style
-Are relatively unconcerned with how much others like them
-The most effective is the institutional power Manager
-Institutional power Manager: use their power for completion of goals, for the good of the institution, not all about self-gain, power holders agenda, usually coaching, participative and don't care whether you like them, humility, servant, usually have healthy ego
-Personal power Managers:all about personal gain/agenda-unhealthy ego
-Affiliative Power Managers: More concerned with being liked than with exercising power

3 Things Institutional Power Players are Superior at

1. Giving people sense of responsibility and accountability
2. Always eye on the ball-clarifying priorities of institution
3. Great at instilling team spirit

Subunit Power

-The degree of power held by various organizational subunits, such as departments

How do Subunits obtain power? The Strategic Contingency Model of Power

-a view that sees power as something that accrues (gets handed to, falls in the laps of, drops to you) to an organizational subunit(firefighter units, paramedics) (person, team, group of people, department) that cope with critical organizational problems (9/11)

Strategic Contingencies

-Critical factors affecting organizational effectiveness that are controlled by a subunit
-Scarcity of resources
-Uncertainty
-Centrality
-Substitutability

Scarcity of Resources

-Whoever has plenty of something, ex. Money, gets the power

Uncertainty

-Those subunits able to deal with uncertainty automatically get power

Centrality

-Activities that are more central to a (decision making) work flow will gain for power

Substitutability

-A subunit will have relatively little power in others outside or inside the organization can perform the same thing/activities

Organizational Politics

-Politicking: playing politics
-Conflict of Interest: Disconnect between what you signed up to do vs what you end up doing
-Whistle blowers: Those who blow the whistle on evil activity
-Do you know how to play politics.
-Pursuit of self-interest (All about you) in an organization, whether or not this self-interest corresponds to organizational goals
(Conflict of interest).
-Self-conscious and intentional.
-Would be countered if detected by those with different agendas ("whistle-blowers").

Observable Characteristics of Political Skills

-Social Astuteness: Tuned in to other peoples needs/motives

-Interpersonal influence: convincing and persuasive

-Apparent sincerity

-Networking ability: good at establishing critical relationships with stakeholders to accomplish goals. Not what you know but who you know

Be aware of 2 Political Skills

-Machiavellianism
-Defensiveness-reactive politics

Machiavellianism

-Based on cynicism-cynical beliefs on human nature
-High MACH-convincing liars
-Can manipulate/take advantage of humans
-Not an influence tactic-a chosen style-like this all the time
-Narcissism, egocentric, all about you
-Pathological cultures-high MACH

Defensiveness

-Reactive politics
-When bad things happen
-Scapegoating, stalling, when good things happen they go look at me, self-serving bias

Developing Political Skill Networking

Networking: really good at establishing good relationships with critical stakeholders in order to accomplish your goals
-Maintaining contact
Socializing
-Engaging in Professional activities
-Participating in community activities
-Increasing internal visibility

Whats the difference between ethics and morals: Ethics/business Ethics

-An acceptable set of standards/behaviours-what is right vs wrong
-Established by a body ex, sporting coaches, company code of ethics, industry rules and regulations (systematic thinking)
-Standards of conduct/standards of right versus wrong in business settings
-What you say you believe in/live by
-"above the water line"

Whats the difference between ethics and morals: Morals/business morals

Three ways to see this:
-Very little dissonance (Rare, ethics=morals, what i say is what i do, ex. do not cheat)
-Morals<Ethics (I said i would play by these rules but I didn' t)
-Morals>Ethics (above the average, e.g. leader in organization, industry ethics give certain level of desks and chairs -you say not good enough and get better chairs)
-Embedded and personal/your "internal compass"
-That which drives how you actually behave
-"below the water line"

Ethical Conduct

-Zero tolerance: ethics=morals
(e.g. someone is harassing which goes against code of conduct they are immediately fired)
-Themes and associated behaviours:
-Honest communication
-fair treatment
-special consideration

Honest communication

-not necessarily the whole truth, but what they dop say is the truth

Fair treatment

-Fairness in hiring, firing, compensation schemes, training and development.

Special consideration

-Helping long-term employee in trouble
-Giving preference to hiring the disabled
-Giving business to a loyal or troubled supplier.

Ethical Misconduct

-Not demonstrating zero tolerance.
-Directly going against your code.
-Behaviours Examples:
-Violation of environmental regulations.
-Allow falsification of expense reports.
-Abusive behaviour in work place that is not dealt with

Bounded Ethicality

-The psychological process by which people engage in behaviour that violates their own ethical standards"

-similar to rational and bounded decision making

-People are prone to ethical blind spots; they fail to process information that signals that a course of action might be unethical

-Do it because they feel pressure (Ex. time pressure)

-People know that they are doing wrong

-People operating under bounded ethicality would likely act differently upon further reflection

7 Causes for Unethical Behaviour

-Gain
-Performance Pressure
-Role Conflict
-Strong Organizational identification
-Competition
-Personality
-Organization Industry and Culture

Gain

-Ego drive
-opportunity to satisfy needs
-Opportunity is the best/biggest predictor of behaviour
-Ex. Sick kid, million dollar drug deal

Performance Pressure

-Usually time pressure-stress
-Challenge stress

Role Conflict

-Conflicted about the what or how that causes you to think there is no other answer
-What/how-didn't know what to do-so this is what i chose
-Job/task assignment etc.

Strong Organizational Identification

-I had to do it for the company-had to save the company/product/reputation/etc.
-Only way to survive

Competition

-Only so much: lab space, people, funding, etc.
-Do what you wouldn't usually do for something you need

Personality

Big 5 Variables:
-External locus of control: more driven by what others tell them to do
-Low emotional stability
-Low conscientiousness

-High N-Pow-neg people-might get caught
-High MACH-liars, manipulators, puppeteers, cynical, are likely to do underhanded unethical acts
-Those with strong external values (money), come earlier to unethical behaviours (single bottom line)

Organization industry and Cultures

-Culture of industry (take the bribe we all do, or never)
-Country culture

4 Categories of Corporate Social Responsibility (Archie Carols pyramid of CSR)

-Economic
-Legal
-Ethical
-Philanthropic

Economic

-Required of business society (be profitable)
-Record for economically responsible for promises to shareholders, track record

Legal

-Required of business by society (obey all laws, adhere to all regulations)
-Track record, operated according to law, industry legislation, hiring legislation, purchases, emissions

Ethical

-Expected of business by society (Avoid questionable practices)
-Giving above and beyond in house

Philanthropic

-Desired/expected of business by society (be a good corporate citizen)
-We give back to the community, corporate, national
-Anonymously: doing for the true value not reputation