4 | Power and influence Flashcards
What is power?
the ability to get things done the way one wants then done (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1989)
Outline French & Raven’s ‘Bases of power’ (1960)
There are structural and personal bases of power.
Structural includes: Legitimate, reward, coercive power
Personal includes: expert, information, referent power
What is legitimate power? Give examples.
Structual base of power
= based on position, having legitimate authority to demand someone’s compliance
e.g: CEO, manager, PM, Teacher
What is reward power? Give examples.
Structual base
= based on ability to grant reward for compliance
e.g: investor, manager
What is coercive power? Give examples.
structural base
= ability to punish someone for noncompliance
e.g: police officer, dictator
What is expert power? Give examples.
Personal base of power
= based on ability to exercise knowledge or skill
e.g: engineer, doctor
What is information power? Give examples.
personal base
= based on ability to access and control info
e.g: executive assistant
What is referent power? Give examples.
personal base
aka charisma
= peronal characteritistics that attract people to you
e.g: social movement leader, influencer, celeb
What is the Strategic Contingency Model of Power as described by Salancik & Pfeffer, 1989)?
Ideally, people/groups who cope with critical environmental problems will have more power
– it is not the structural basis of a group, but whether they are able to solve critical problems for the organisation - those groups IDEALLY should have, and often do have, the most power.
And as the environment and problems change, those in power in the org should also change
BUT.. we do not live in an ideal world and there is often a lag in trying to adapt to changing environmental circumstances
What are social networks?
(Informal) Relationships between individuals
aka ‘informal organisation’ in a company
- Diversifying your network will lessen your dependency on particular individuals, and
potentially make you more influential
What are social networks?
(Informal) Relationships between individuals
aka ‘informal organisation’ in a company
- Diversifying your network will lessen your dependency on particular individuals, and
potentially make you more influential
Describe a cohesive network
- Everyone is connected
- lots of communication and coordination, trust and mutual support, mutual dependency
- there is redundant information
Describe a bridging network
Boundary spanners = people who bridge networks who are not alr connected to one another
–> boundary spanners can decide WHAT info to communicate, WHEN, or HOW to communicate it
- access to bridging networks => access to more novel info from these different sources
What comes under strong ties?
- frequent interaction
- reciprocation
- more effort to maintain ties
What constitues weak ties in rels?
- less frequent interactions
- acquaintance rather than a close friend
- easy to maintain
–> you can have many weak ties bc there’s no dependency - expose you to novel info
–> e.g. helpful when job searching
What is empowerment?
giving authorty to subordinates - they can act more freely to accomplish their jobs
The key to empowerment is effective delegation - giving individual contributors ownership of tangible outcomes (Tulgan, 2001)
What are INDIVIDUAL benefits of empowerment?
- People who feel powerless feel discontent —> scientific management - lack of freedom to decide how to do tasks => boredom, fatigue => could result in low job satisfaction, absenteeism, turnover etc.
- Giving people more control over their work can improve stress levels and overall health (Wheatley, 2003)
What are ORGANISATIONAL benefits of empowerment?
- increases the knowledge of the org
- increases commitment, creativity, and motivation
- empowerment => proactivity & problem-solving => higher performance
What do politically skilled people do?
- develop astuteness in assessing situations
–> what do I want. my audience want out of the situation? What is important to my audience? - Aware of how best to communicate msgs
–> frame msg/request so that it becomes acceptable/desirable to everyone, involve others (ie. Coalition building) , prep and timing of requests - Network relentlessly
- Exercise interpersonal influence
What are Cialdini’s principles of influence?
7 key priniciples that rest on our psychological tendencies
- What is reciprocation?
when someone does something for us, we are obligated to return the gesture
- Gouldner (1960) said that all cultures have a rule of reciprocity
- What makes the reciprocity rule so easy to exploit is the obligation to receive
- Timing matters - make request soon after helping someone out
- Consistency
Committing to actions
people want to be consisent with their previous bhvs
initial commitment => consistency
Phone survey exp. (“will you vote?”- determine their action from prior, bc people said yes they acc went out and said they were influenced to vote bc of this survey, so this survey was influential and acc helped increase election turnout
- Social proof
influenced by what other people around us say and do
Social proof indicates to us what is desirable, what is acceptable. We have a tendency to conform to the group, especially if we feel an affinity to that group
–> e.g. Asch experiment - basically peer pressure
- Authority
People defer to those who are in positions of formal authority
- People also defer to expert authority. So another way of exercising influence is by demonstrating competence & expertise
- In the workplace, self-promotion is not always well received. More powerful if someone else attests to your credentials
–> e.g: that’s why references are so important in job applications
- Liking
people you like can influence you
There are sources of liking:
- Physical attractiveness - the ‘halo effect’, yet people deny that looks cause them to agree with a person
- similarity - having same interests, things in common
- compliments - people like people who like them
- familiarity through repeated contact with positive effect in these interactions
- association with (positive) others
- Scarcity
Rarity = more valuable
–> ‘limited edition’ or limited number of stock - marketing tactic - “last chance to buy”
- Unity
people are influenced by people they consider as one of them, or ‘one of us’
- this is about shared identities (race, ethnicity, religious affiliations)
- unity increases the force of the other principles of influence
