Power and Politics Presentation 1 - Organizational Behavior Michael Hitt https://www.amazon.com/Organizational-Behavior-Michael-Hitt/dp/1118809068 2 - Organizational Behavior Mary Von Glinow https://www.amazon.co.uk/Organizational-Behavior-Mary-Von-Glinow/dp/0077862589

1. Power and Politics
Dr. Farahani
Hamidreza Siminpour
Organizational Behavior
AUT – Fall 98

2. What is Power?
 Power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others
 Power is generally defined as the ability to achieve desired outcomes
 Power can also be thought of as the ability of one person to get another person to do
something
 Often, power is thought to be negative but …
 Power in several level

3. Where Power comes from?
 The most basic prerequisite of power is that one person (or
group) believes he or she is dependent on another person (or
group) for a resource of value.
 Ethical, Computational

4. Countervalling power
• The capacity of a person, team, or organization to keep a more
powerful person or group in the exchange relationship.
• Example manager and employee

5. Why is power required?
 Providing direction
 Get fast access to decision makers
 Assisting in the management process
 Structure to organizations
 Assist to employees in performing better
 Articulate the goals

6. Bases of Individual Power
 Legitimate Power
 Reward Power
 Coercive Power
 Expert Power
 Referent Power

7. Legitimate Power
 Power derived from position.
 also known as formal authority.
 Legitimate power extends to employees
 not just managers
 Limited
 Example : President George W

8. Reward Power
 Power resulting from the ability to provide others with desired outcomes.
 Reward power is derived from the person’s ability to control the
allocation of rewards valued by others and to remove negative sanctions
 Reward power is not limited to formal sources
 Example : Superviser

9. Coercive Power
 Power resulting from the ability to punish others.
 Coercive power is usually considered a negative form of power
 Like reward power, coercive powercan be derived from informal as well as
formal sources.

10. Expert Power
 Expert power arises from special expertise or technical knowledge
that is valuable to others or the organization.
 Expert power is limited by the degree to which this expertise is
irreplaceable.
 For the most part, legitimate, reward, and coercive power originate
from the position. In contrast, expert power originates from within
the person
 Example: Associate use certain software
 if others learn to use the software

11. Referent Power
 Power resulting from others desire to identify with the referent.
 Referent power is the most resilient type of power because it is
difficult to lose once it has been achieved.
 For example, it has been found that executives who have prestigious
reputations among their colleagues and shareholders have greater
influence on strategic decision-making processes in their firms.
 In addition, referent power can be used to
influence a wide range of behaviors.
 Leadership and charisma

12. Information and Power
 Information is power.
 In one form, people gain information power when they control
(through legitimate power) the flow of information to others
 This right to control information flow is a form of legitimate power.
 Prevention
 Forecasting
 Absorption

14. An Example of Power
 The past CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner
 First, Eisner had a great deal of legitimate power. He was both the
chairman of the board of directors and the CEO
 power to hire and fire executives and board members
 lavishing attention on board members, important investors
 Eisner was also a genius at using information
 he controlled communication between executives and board
members
 divide those who might oppose him and to make
himself indispensable
 restricting the power of other

15. Contingencies of Power
 Substitutability
 Centrality
 Discretion
 Visibility

17. Substitutability
 Substitutability refers to the availability of alternatives
 Power is strongest when someone has a monopoly over a valued
resource.
 power decreases as the number of alternative sources of the critical
resource increases.
 Example: Technology is potentially a substitute for production
employees and, consequently, reduces union power.

18. Centrality
 Centrality refers to the degree and nature of interdependence
between the power holder and others.
 how many people would be affected?
 how much time would pass before they were affected?

19. Discretion
 The freedom to exercise judgment to make decisions without
referring to a specific rule or receiving permission from someone
else
 first-line supervisors may seem that they have legitimate, reward,
and coercive power over employees, but this power is often
curtailed by specific rules.
 Middle managers have little power, only what senior managers are
allowed to give them.

20. Employees may react negatively to use of
power
 Decreased trust in the organization
 Increased employee dissatisfaction
 Increased conflict within the organization
 Decreased morale and effort
 Increased employee turnover

21. Influencing Others
 power is only the capacity to influence others.
 Influence, on the other hand, refers to any behavior that attempts
to alter someone’s attitudes or behavior
 The first five are known as “hard” (legitimate, reward, and
coercion).
 The last three are called “soft”
(referent, expert)

24. Organizational Politics
 Behavior that is directed toward furthering one’s own self-interests
without concern for the interests or well-being of others.
 Political behavior can occur at several levels
 such as an individual who attempts to take sole credit for a project
that was jointly completed

25. Political Tactics
 Rational persuasion
 Consultation
 Personal appeal
 Ingratiation
 Inspirational appeal
 Exchange
 Coalition
 Legitimizing
 Pressure

26. Scope of Political Activity
 Structural change in the organization
 Coordination between organizational units
 Replace Manager
 Resource allocation and budgeting

27. Thank You