POWER AND POLITICS

3.0 INTRODUCTION

3.1. OBJECTIVES

3.2 ORGANISATIONAL POWER

3.2.1 DEFINITION

3.2.2 TYPES OF POWERS

3.3 SOURCES AND CHARACTERISTICS

3.4 EFFECTIVE USE OF POWER

3.5 ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS

3.6 FACTORS AND IMPACT

3.7 UNIT END EXERCISES

3.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

3.9 SUGGESTED READINGS

3.0 Introduction:

In this unit we are going to study in detail the organizational power and politics.

3.1 Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to:
 Know the meaning and sources of power
 Understand how people use power
 Discuss how people use political behaviour in organisations
 Understand the techniques of political behaviour

3.2 ORGANISATIONAL POWER :

Power is easy to feel but difficult to define. It is the potential ability of a person or group
to influence another person or group. It is the ability to get things done the way one
wants them to be done. Both formal and informal groups and individuals may have
power; it does not need an official position or the backing of an institution to have power.
Influence can take many forms. One person has influenced another if the second
person’s opinions, behaviour or perspectives have changed as a result of their interaction.
Power is a factor at all levels of most organisations. It can be a factor in almost any
organisational decision.
Power and Authority
Sometimes power and authority are used synonymously because of their objective
of influencing the behaviour of others. However, there is difference between the two.
Power does not have any legal sancity while authority has such a sanctity. Authority is
institutional and is legitimate. Power, on the other hand, is personal and does not have
any legitimacy. But still, power is a crucial factor in influencing the behaviour in
organisational situation.

3.3 Sources/Bases of Power

 John R.P. French and Bertram Raven identified five bases or sources of power:
legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent power.
Figure:

Legitimate Coercive
Power Power

Reward Referent
Power Power
Expert
Power

1. Legitimate Power:
A person’s position within organisation provides him with legitimate power. The
organisation gives managers the power to direct the activities of their subordinates.
Legitimate power is similar to formal authority and hence it can be created, granted,
changed or withdrawn by the formal organisation. The structure of the organisation also
identifies the strength of the legitimate authority by position location. For instance,
higher-level positions exercise more power than lower-level positions in a classical
hierarchial organisational structure. Organisations vary in how much legitimate power
they grant to individuals. In such organisations, everyone knows who has the most power
and few people challenge the power structure.

2. Reward Power:
This type of power is the extent to which one person has control over rewards that
are valued by another. The greater the perceived values of such rewards, the greater the
power. Organisational rewards include pay, promotions and valued office assignments.
A manager who has complete control over such rewards has a good deal of power.
Manager who uses praise and recognition has also a good deal of power.
3.Coercive Power:
People have coercive power if they have control over some form of punishment
such as threat of dismissal, suspension, demotion or other method of embarrassment for
the people. Perhaps, a manager can cause psychological harm also to an employee. A
manager’s coercive power increases with the number and severity of the sanctions over
which the manager has control. Although the use of coercive power is often successful in
the short run, it tends to create resentment and hostility and therefore is usually
deterimental to the organisation in the long run.
4. Expert Power:
It is more of personal power than organisational power. Expert power is that
influence which one wields as a result of one’s experience, special skill or knowledge.
This power occurs when the expert threatens to withhold his knowledge or skill. Since
any person who is not easily replaceable has more power as compared to those who are
easily replaceable. If the sub-ordinates view their superior as competent, and
knowledgeable, naturally they will obey and respect the superior. To the extent, that a
low-ranking worker has important knowledge not available to a superior, he is likely to
have more power.
5. Referent Power:
A person who is respected by certain others for whatever reason has referent
power over those people. A person with referent power may have charisma and people
who respect that person are likely to get emotionally involved with the respected person
and identify with, accept and be willing to follow him or her. People with referent power
are often imitated by others with the star’s actions, attitudes and dress. This imitation
reflects the rising star’s power over the imitations.
3.4 Effective use of power
An individual manager may have power derived from any or all of the five bases
of power and the manager may use that power in different ways. Therefore, good
managers must try to analyse the sources of their power and be careful how they use that
power.
The work of Gary Yukl provides both a way to predict the consequences of certain
uses of power and guidelines for using power. The following table lists the five sources
of a leader’s power and some of the variables that are likely to lead to three general types
of employee responses or outcomes - commitment, compliance and resistance - when the
leader uses the power. For instance, the table shows that a leader’s use of referent power
will lead employees to be committed to the leader’s project if they see that the project is
important to the leader. However, a leader who relies on coercive power is very unlikely
to have committed employees.
Using Legitimate Power
The use of legitimate power is seldom challenged in an organisation; when a
superior asks a sub-ordinate to do something, the sub-ordinate usually complies without
resistance. However, the way the superior makes the request and follows it up are very
important for ensuring the sub-ordinate’s future compliance and the growth of the
superior’s referent power. Though the secretary does what the boss asks, still the boss
could be cordial and polite when making requests and should whenever possible explain
why a particular task needs to be done. The secretary who understands the importance of
a task will be more likely to work enthusiastically on it.
The boss must follow normal procedures and make sure the request is appropriate.
For instance, a vice-president whose secretary is busy should not assume that he or she
can just ask a supervisor’s secretary to drop all other work and type a letter. Such by
passing of the normal chain of command can cause hard feelings among all the people
involved.
Most of these suggestions imply that managers must be sensitive to employees
concerns. Managers who are insensitive to their employees may find that their legitimate
power dwindles and that they must resort to coercive power.
Using Reward Power
The manager, before giving a reward, must be sure that the employee has actually
done the job and done it well. Employees must know that they get rewarded for good
work.
Using Coercive Power
For some people, using coercive power is a natural response when something goes
wrong. But often employees resist coercive power, resent it and losing respect for people
using that type of power. Hence, coercion is now generally recognised to be the most
difficult form of punishment to use successfully in an organisation.
Managers who wish to maintain their credibility should make threats only when
they intend to carry through on them and should never threaten a punishment that they
cannot bring about. A good manager will be such that the punishment fit the crime. For
instance, warning an individual who uses copying machine to make personal copies but
firing someone who steals equipment from the organisation. Public punishment makes
everyone uneasy and humiliating and hence should be done private.

Using Expert Power

To gain power from their expertise, managers must make people aware of how
much they know. Manager can use his expert power most effectively to address
employee concerns. If a particular sales person faces any difficulty in selling a particular
product and turns to manager for his help, the manager must be able to identify the defect
and must be able to help and educate him.
Using Referent Power
Leaders have traditionally strengthened their referent power by hiring employees
with backgrounds similar to their own. One of the most positive and subtle uses of
referent power is the process of role modelling. A respected manager who wants her
employees to be punctual, considerate and creative can simply demonstrate those
behaviours herself and her employees will likely imitate her actions.
3.5 Organisational Politics
Power and politics are inextricably interwoven with the fabric of an organisation’s
life. In any organisation, at any given moment, a number of people are seeking to gain
and use power to achieve their own ends. This pursuit of power is political behaviour.
Organisational politics refers to the activities carried out by people to acquire, enhance
and use power and other resources to obtain their preferred outcomes in a situation where
there is uncertainity or disagreement. One great organisational scholar, Tushman defined
politics, ‘as the structure and process of the use of authority and power to affect definition
of goals, directions and the other major parameters of the organisation. Decisions are not
made in rational or formal way but rather through compromise accommodation and
bargaining.
3.6 Factors and Impact
The very nature of political behaviour makes it difficult to manage or even
approach in a rational and systematic manner. However a manager who understands why
people use political behaviour and the techniques people usually employ has the best
chance to manage political behaviour successfully.
People use political behaviour in organisations in response to the five main
factors:
 Ambiguous goals
 Scarce resources
 Technology and the environment
 Non-programmed decisions
 Organisational change

Check your progress

Notes a) Write your answer in the space given below
b) Compare your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.

1. What is organizational power?

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………
2. What are the sources of power?
…………………………………………………………………………..
3. What is organizational politics?
3.6 Factors……………………………………………………………………………
Influencing Political Behaviour
………………………………………………………………………….
Ambiguous Goals:
When the goals of a department or the entire organisation are ambiguous then
there is more room available for playing politics. Some people may use the ambiguity to
manipulate the situation for their benefit.
Scarce Resources:
When resources are scarce, people have the tendency to use political behaviour to
make sure that they get the biggest possible share of the resource.
Changes in Technology and Environment:
Organisational effectiveness is largely a function of the organisation’s ability to
appropriately respond to external environment which is highly dynamic and generally
unpredictable as well as adequately adopt to complex technological developments. Thus,
political behaviour is increased when the internal technology is complex and when
external environment is highly volatile.
Non-Programmed Decisions:
Sometimes, the companies have to make a lot of non-programmed decisions on
certain issues. These decisions are not based on clear standards and precedents, because
such issues involve many factors and variables that are complex in nature. Hence
decisions are taken on intuition, hunches and guesses and all these subjective feelings can
be affected by political behaviour.
Organisational Change:
Whenever there are changes in the organisational structure and policies, peoples in
powerful positions have the opportunity to play politics. These changes may include
restructuring of a division or creating a division, personnel changes, introducing a new
product line and all these changes influence political behaviour when various individuals
and groups try to control the given situation.
It is widely accepted that managers have to be politicians in order to maintain their
positions in the organisational hierarchy as well as serve the interests of their units.
Pfeffer, who has done extensive research on the subject of power in organisations, states
as follows:
“If there is one concluding message, it is that it is probably effective and it is
certainly normal that these managers do behave as politicians. It is even better that some
of them are quiet effective at it. In situations in which technologies are uncertain,
preferences are conflicting, perceptions are selective and biased and information
processing capacities are constrained, the model of an effective politician may be an
appropriate one for both the individual and for the organisation in the long-run”.
Techniques of Political Behaviour
 The most commonly used techniques of political behaviour are:
 Controlling information
 Controlling lines of communication
 Controlling agenda
 Using outside experts
 Game playing
 Image building
 Building coalitions
One technique of political behaviour is to control the dissemination of critical
information to others. The more critical the information and fewer the people who have
it, the stronger is political power base of those who possess these information.
Controlling lines of communication is another political technique related to the
flow of information. People who have some control over lines of communication can
yield considerable political power. For example, the secretary may have considerable
power in deciding who sees the boss and who does not at a given time. She may use this
power in favouring those whom she likes and frustrating those against whom she may
have a grudge.
Controlling the agenda also gives a person power over information. The person
who controls a meeting’s agenda, for instance, may consistently put a particular item last
on the list and then take up time so that meeting adjourns before considering the item.
The opinions of outside experts and consultants often carry much weight in
organisations and many consultants can be swayed by political interests. Consultants
know who is paying them and even honest consultants are likely to give opinions
consistent with those of their employer. Hence, hiring an outside consultant can be a
clever political move.
Game playing can range from fairly innocent to very manipulative. It involves
people doing something insincere, but not outright illegal or unethical to gain political
ends. For instance, a manager who does not want to answer a committee’s tough
questions may, for instance, avoid meeting by going out of the town on the day of
meeting.
Image building is creating positive impression reflected by the personality,
appearance and style. Some of the factors that enhance a preferred image consist of
being well dressed, having a pleasant smile, being attractive, honest, sociable and loyal to
the organisational interests. In addition, always project an image of competence and self-
assurance.
 Building coalitions or alliance is another technique of gaining political power. It
is necessary to have the alliance with the right people. Coalition building can become
simply a matter of quid pro quo: I will support you if you will support me.
Managing Political Behaviour
Thought it is virtually impossible to eliminate political behaviour in organisations,
it is possible to reduce it, if a manager understands the reasons for and the techniques of
political behaviour. Politics when carried to the extreme can damage morale, create
enemies, destroy loyalty, damper co-operative spirit and much time and energy is spent
planning attacks and counter attacks which are detrimental to organisational health.
Accordingly, combating politics must be undertaken by the top management and some of
the steps that can be undertaken are: open communication, reduction of uncertainty and
creating awareness.
Open communication can reduce the political activity if all employees know how
and why an organisation allocates resources, the employees will be likely to put their
energy into meeting the stated criteria for getting resources rather than into political
activity. If the organisation is open about why it made particular decision, then
employees will be less likely to think that the decisions were political and less likely to
use political techniques to try to influence the next decision.
Uncertainty in the form of ambiguous goals and changes that affect the
organisation tends to increase the use of political activity. Reducing such uncertainty
can, therefore, reduce the political behaviour. Open communication is one of the ways an
organisation can reduce uncertainty. For instance, laying down clear criteria and making
it transparent to the employees who will be laid off, in case of lay off, the organisation
can reduce political behaviour.
Finally, managers who develop an ability to recognise and predict political activity
are in the best position to limit its effects. Managers with this awareness will expect an
increase in political activity during times of organisational change and will learn how to
handle it.

3.7 UNIT END EXERCISES:

1. What are the sources of power?

2. How people use power?
3. Identify the basic reasons for using political behaviour.
4. How to manage political behaviour?

3.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS:

1. what is organizational power?
It is the potential ability of a person or group to influence another person or group. It is
the ability to get things done the way one wants them to be done.
2. what are the sources of power?

 Legitimate Power
 Reward Power
 Coercive Power
 Expert Power
 Referent Power

3. what is organizational politics?

Organisational politics refers to the activities carried out by
people to acquire, enhance and use power and other resources to obtain their preferred
outcomes in a situation where there is uncertainity or disagreement.
3.9 SUGGESTED READINGS:
1. Barney/Griffin, “The Management of Organisations”.
2. Chandan, S.Jit, “Organisational Behaviour”.
3. Fred Luthans, Organisational Behaviours, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1995.
4. Gangadhar Rao, VSP Rao, P.S. Narayana, “Organisational Behaviour”.
5. Gordon Judith R, “A Diagnostic Approach to Organizational Behaviour”.
6. Gregory Moorehead and R.S. Griffin, Organisational Behaviour - Managing People
and Organisations, Jaico, 1994.
7. Hugh J. Arnold, Daniel C. Fledman, “Organisational Behaviour”.
8. Judith R. Gordon, A Diagnostic Approach to Organisational Behaviour, Allyn &
Bacon, 1993.
9. Keith Davis, Human Behaviour at Work, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1991.
10. Nirmal Singh, “Organisational Behaviour: Concepts, Theory and Practices”.
11. Prasad L M, “Organisational Behaviour”.
12. Stephen P. Robbins, Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall, 1997.
13. Van Fleet, “Behaviour in Organisations”.