POWER AND INFLUENCE IN ORGANIZATIONSProject Management and Leadership – 2016
Before I served as a consultant to Kennedy, I had believed, like most academics,that the process of decision-making was largely intellectual and all one had to dowas walk into the President’s office and convince him of the correctness of one’sview.
This perspective I soon realized is as dangerously immature as it is widely held.
Henry Kissinger
ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS
Informal approaches to gaining power through means other thanmerit or luck (aka WORKPLACE POLITICS, OFFICE POLITICS).
(mod. DUBRIN 2010, p.210)
90% of survey respondents thought politics was common in organizations
89% indicated that successful executives must be good politicians
76%: political behavior increases as one rises higher in an organization.
55% felt that politics is detrimental to efficiency
48.6%: top management should attempt to rid organizations of political behavior
(GANDZ & MURRAY 1980 in GRIFFIN & O’LEARY-KELLY 2004, p.240)
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Workplace politics may be perceived negatively because politicalbehavior impedes or obstructs rational decision making and blurs therelationship between effort and subsequent reward
(HALL et al. in GRIFFIN & O’LEARY-KELLY 2004, p.237)
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WHY IS IT REGARDED NEGATIVELY?
1. People generally do not like to consider the means that are often necessaryto get things done
2. People have learned in school that success in life is a matter of individualeffort, ability, and achievement and is not accomplished in cooperation withothers
3. People believe that intellectual analysis, leading to right and wrong answers,can be used to solve, and judge solutions to, problems in a world wherethings are seldom clear-cut, obvious, and knowable with any real certainty.
“It is as if we know that power and politics exist, and we grudgingly admit thatthey are necessary to individual success, but we nevertheless don’t like them”
(PFEFFER 1992 in GRIFFIN & O’LEARY-KELLY 2004, pp.241-242)
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GENERAL STIMULATING FACTORS
Pyramid-shaped organization structure
Subjective standards of performance
Environmental uncertainty and turbulence
Emotional insecurity
Encouraging admiration from subordinates
(DUBRIN 2010, pp.210-212)
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PROJECT-SPECIFIC FACTORS
Ambiguity in respect to actions, planning, and decisions
The frequently insufficient allocation of vital resources
Dependence on stakeholders with inconsistent interests and objectives.
(mod. SOLGA et al 2015 in WASTIAN et al. 2015, p.129)
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ZONE OF ORGANIZATIONAL UNCERTAINTY
The situation of ambiguity in a project due toVague mission and goalFragmentary and inconsistent informationAbsence of clear-cut assignments for team membersSuperficial support from management.
Leads to a lack of reliable actions, planning, or decisions.
Provides the opportunity to push through individual ideas and interests.
(NEUBERGER 2006 in WASTIAN et al. 2015, p.130)
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HIGHLIGHTS: ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS
1. ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS IS A FACT OF LIFE
2. IT EXISTS, PARTLY, DUE TO AN ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN, AND, PARTLY, DUE TOREDUCIBLE ORGANIZATIONAL UNCERTAINTIES
POWER
The potential or ability to influence decisions and control resources.
POSITION POWER stems from a person’s position in an organizationPERSONAL POWER stem from characteristics or behaviors of the power actor
POSITION POWER
LEGITIMATE. The lawful right to decide and expect compliance
REWARD. The authority to give rewards for compliance
COERCIVE. The power to punish for noncompliance;
INFORMATION. The power stemming from formal control over theinformation people need to do their work.
(DUBRIN 2010, p.198-199)
PERSONAL POWER
REFERENT. The ability to influence through one’s desirable traits andcharacteristics
EXPERT. … through specialized knowledge, skills, or abilities
PRESTIGE. Stems from a person’s status and reputation
(DUBRIN 2010, p.198-199)
POLITICAL BEHAVIOR CONSIDERED ETHICAL
1. To gain power
2. To build relationships
3. To avoid political blunders
TO GAIN POWER
Develop power contacts
Control vital information
Control lines of communication
Bring in outside experts
Make a quick showing
Be the first to accept reasonable changes
Do what the political environment demands.
(mod. DUBRIN 2010, p.215-216)
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TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Ask advice
Be courteous, pleasant, and positive
Display loyalty
Manage your impression
Ask satisfied customers to contact your boss
Send thank-you notes to numbers of people
Flatter others sensibly
(DUBRIN 2010, p.217-218)
POLI
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AVOID
Criticizing the boss in a public forum
Bypassing the boss
Declining an offer from top management
Being needlessly tactless
Not conforming to the company dress code
Writing embarrassing/incriminating messages.
(DUBRIN 2010, p.218-220)
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The ability to affect the behavior of others in a particular direction,whereas power is the potential or capacity to influence.
INFLUENCE
(DUBRIN 2010, p.230)
INFLUENCE TACTICS
(mod. HIGGINS et al. J. Organiz. Behav. 2003;24:89-106)
ASSERTIVENESS(aka PRESSURE)
Using a forceful manner to get what one wants
INGRATIATION Using behaviors designed to increase the target's liking ofoneself/to make oneself appear friendly to get what one wants
RATIONALITY(aka RATIONAL PERSUASION)
Using data and information to make a logical argumentsupporting one's request
EXCHANGE Making an explicit offer to do something for another inexchange for their doing what one wants
UPWARD APPEALS Calling in superiors to help get one's way
COALITIONS Mobilizing others to help in persuading the target individual
INFL
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ETHICAL INFLUENCE TACTICS
Using rational persuasion
Leading by example and respect
Exchanging favors and bargaining
Legitimating a request
Consultation with others
Forming coalitions
Making an inspirational appeal and emotional display
(DUBRIN 2010, pp.234-237)
INFL
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UNETHICAL INFLUENCE TACTICS
Deliberate Machiavellianism
Manipulation
Undue pressure
Debasement
Ingratiation
Upward appeal INFL
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INFLUENCE OUTCOMES
COMMITMENT The target of the influence attempt is enthusiastic aboutcarrying out the request and makes a full effort.
COMPLIANCE
RESISTANCE The target is making excuses for why the task cannot bedone, procrastinating, and outright refusing to do the task
The target person is not overjoyed (apathetic) aboutcarrying out the request and makes only a modest effort.
INFL
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EFFECTIVENESS OF TACTICS
Rational persuasion
Ingratiation
Inspirational appeal
Consultation
Exchange
Personal appeal
Coalition
Legitimating
Pressure
*
INFL
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POLITICAL SKILL
IS THE ABILITY AND READINESS
To understand others,
To control one’s own behavior in social networks and to adapt one’sbehavior to different and changing situational demands in a way,
that it appears sincere and trustworthy,that influences the behavior of others in favor of one’s ownobjectives
(mod. SOLGA et al 2015 in WASTIAN et al. 2015, p.139)
THE DIMENSIONS OF THE POLITICAL SKILL
SOCIAL ASTUTENESS
NETWORKING ABILITY
APPARENT SINCERITY
INTERPERSONAL INFLUENCE
(mod. SOLGA et al 2015 in WASTIAN et al. 2015, pp.139-140)
ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS IS A SPECTRUM
Manipulative and acquisitive behavior at one end, spontaneity, self-reliant behavior, and wholehearted commitment to theorganizational goals at the other.
Between these two extremes lies the vast range of everyday politicalbehavior, such as stretching regulations, accepting white lies,cultivating relationships for a purpose, or flattery.
(mod. SOLGA et al 2015 in WASTIAN et al. 2015, p.133)
HIGHLIGHTS: ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS
3. POWER COMES IN A VARIETY OF FORMS
4. NOBODY GRANTS YOU POWER—YOU DEVELOP IT
5. POLITICAL SKILL CAN BE DEVELOPED AS WELL
6. INFLUENCING OTHERS BE AS ETHICAL AS THE SITUATION PERMITS—BE ONTHE RIGHT SIDE OF THE SPECTRUM