importance of power and politics

Question 1

power can be seen as…

Answer 1

• the ability to get other people to do what you want them to do
• Pfeffer (2010) - argues that management failures can often be attributed to lack of political skills

Question 2

effective use of power is becoming increasingly important
because:

Answer 2

• flatter organizational structures: less of a hierarchy, less formal leadership, and more informal leadership within groups of the organization = informal power operating
• Cross-functional teams: consists of individuals from different departments, power is used to foster collaboration and diverse perspectives. This is different from tradition when they would have specific departments for specific type of people e.g. finance departments. distributed power = collective decision making.
  corporate scandals: often involve unethical or illegal behaviour within a company e.g. fraud or corruption. This can damage reputation –> financial losses

Question 3

Luke (2005)

Answer 3

argues that power in organisational structures can be:
1) visible and self-evident:
in a position of authority (leaders, managers..)
2) subtle and covert: while the same managers are able to influence your decisions, they also have power to punish you, keep you from rewards (more manipulated)
3) institutionalized:
power that is embedded & not visible at all. could be due to organisational or national culture,

Question 4

3 perspectives in pwer

Answer 4

1) power as something we possess
2) power as a property of the relationship (no relationship, no power)
3) power as embedded in social and organizational structures

Question 5

power being generated from 2 sources

Answer 5

1) the individual (personality, charisma…)
2) the structure (position, authority etc)

Question 6

4 key factors driving political behavior in organizations

Answer 6

1) personal drivers
2) decisional drivers
3) structural drivers
4) change drivers

Question 7

personal drivers

Answer 7

• organizations may hire people who possess the personality traits to use power and engage in political behavior (depends on organisational culture)
• some traits spotted during recruitment and selection activities include:
• need for power
• external vs internal locus of control
• Machiavellian / devious traits
• authoritative
• confident

Question 8

decisional drivers

Answer 8

• when there are decisions to be made within the organisation
  decisions vary: some are structured, some are unstructured.
  1) structured: programmable and can be solved using clear rules
  2) unstructured:
  judgement based decisions. Have to follow their intuition

Question 9

structured drivers

Answer 9

if there is change happening within the organization, or within departments, is it going to cause conflict? (yes bc people are resistant to change) –> results in use of political tactics .

Question 10

change drivers

Answer 10

change is unpredictable and brings uncertainty, so how to people manipulate things to advantage them / make things the way that they want within the organisation

Question 11

is acting political good or bad?

Answer 11

• political skills are important to have because there is so much power embedded within organizations, so understanding where that power is embedded is part of having that political skill