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Meaning of Power & Politics Power

1. Power is the ability to influence and control the behavior of others, and is the base of internal and external control. Politics involves using power to create change for society. 2. There are five bases or sources of power: reward, coercive, referent, expert, and legitimate power, which focus on the relationship between managers and subordinates. 3. Political behavior in organizations refers to non-required activities that influence the distribution of advantages, and is rational behavior for the user of power. Success depends on justified political behavior.

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Rakibul Hafiz Khan
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475 views4 pages

Meaning of Power & Politics Power

1. Power is the ability to influence and control the behavior of others, and is the base of internal and external control. Politics involves using power to create change for society. 2. There are five bases or sources of power: reward, coercive, referent, expert, and legitimate power, which focus on the relationship between managers and subordinates. 3. Political behavior in organizations refers to non-required activities that influence the distribution of advantages, and is rational behavior for the user of power. Success depends on justified political behavior.

Uploaded by

Rakibul Hafiz Khan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MEANING OF POWER & POLITICS


Power
Power is the ability to influence others in the society. Power is defined as the
probability of imposing ones will on the behavior of others. The essence of
power is to control over the behavior of others. Power is the base of internal
and external control.

Politics
Politics is the game of showing power and bring a change which is better for
the society. Politics is closely related with power. Only powerful people can
play politics and get away with it. Whenever we say "There is a lot of politics in
this organization" - we mean that decisions are made on the basis of the
point of view of the powerful rather than what is just and fair. That means, in
case of politics there is always a probability of misuse of power.

TYPES OR BASES OR SOURCES OF POWER


There are certain bases of power from which we can know about the power
culture of the organization. The bases or sources of power focus on the
interpersonal relationship between manager and the subordinates. John R. P.
French and Bertram Raven had identified five several bases of power:

1. Reward Power
Reward power is the ability to provide monetary, social, political or
psychological rewards to others for compliance. This source of power
depends on the person's having the ability and resources to reward others.
The opposite of coercive power is reward power.

2. Coercive Power
Coercive power Is the ability to provide monetary or other punishment for
noncompliance. This source of power depends on f ear. The person with
coercive power has the ability to inflict (impose) punishment or aversive
consequences on the other person or to make threats that the other person
believes will result in punishment or undesirable outcomes.

3. Attraction Or Referent Power


Attraction power is the ability to elicit compliance from others because they
like you. Its base is identification with a person who has desirable resources or
personal traits. Referent power explains why celebrities are paid millions of
dollars to endorse products in commercials.
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4. Expert Power
Expert power is the ability to elicit compliance from others because of
technical expertise, either actual or reputed. It is more of a personal power
rather than organizational power and is the ability to control another person's
behavior through the possession of knowledge and expertise that the other
person needs and does not possess himself.

5. Status Or Legitimate Power


Status power is the compliance-gaining ability derived from a legitimate
position of power in a company. The power a person receives as a result of
his or her position in the formal hierarchy of an organization is known as
legitimate or status power.

POWER TACTICS
Simply power tactics is the way by which one use power. Power tactics is to
learn how employees translate their power bases into specific actions.
Recent research indicates that, there are standardized way by which power
holders attempt to get what they want. The findings identified seven tactical
dimensions or strategies. These are as follows-

1. Reason
Use of facts & data to make a logical or rational presentation of ideas.

2. Friendliness
Use of flattery, creation of goodwill, acting humble and being friendly prior to
making a request.

3. Coalition
Getting the support of other people in the organization to back up the
request.

4. Bargaining
Use of negotiation through the exchange of benefits or favors.

5.Assertiveness
Use of a direct & forceful approach such as demanding compliance with
request, repeating reminders, ordering individuals to do what is asked and
painting out that rules require compliance.
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6. Higher Authority
Getting the support of higher levels in the organization to back up requests.

7. Sanction
Use of organizationally derived rewards & punishments in relevant sectors .

MEANING OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOR

Political behavior is the rational behavior of the user of power. Political


behavior in organization is defined as those activities that are not required as
part of one's formal role in the organization, but that influence, or attempt to
influence, the distribution of advantages and disadvantage within the
organization. Success and failure of the organization largely depends on the
justified political behavior of the personnel.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT (IM) TECHNIQUES

Impression management (IM) is a subject that only quite recently has gained
the attention of OB researchers. All intended to make them more attractive
to others as being perceived positively by others should have benefits for
people in organizations. So the process by which individuals attempt to
control the impression others form of them is called impression management.
There are some techniques used in impression management. Commonly
used techniques are as follows-

1. Conformity
This is one of the main techniques of Impression management. Conformity
means agreeing with someone else's opinion in order to gain his or her
approval.

2. Excuses
Another technique of Impression management is excuses. Explanations of a
predicament creating event aimed at minimizing the apparent severity of
the predicament (unfortunate position) is known as excuses.

3. Apologies
Apology is one of the effective techniques of Impression management.
Apologies refers to admitting responsibility for an undesirable event and
simultaneously seeking to get a pardon for the action.
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4. Acclaiming
Another technique of Impression management is acclaiming. Acclaiming
means making explanation of favorable events to maximize the desirable
implications for one.

5. Flattery
Complimenting others about their virtues in an effort to make one’s
appearance perceptive and likable is known as flattery.

6. Favors
This is one of the effective techniques of Impression management. Favor
refers to doing something nice for someone to gain that person's approval.

7. Association
The last technique of Impression management is association. This is the
technique of enhancing or protecting one's image by managing information
about people and things with which one is associated.

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