Lecture 3 slides Flashcards
Power
Asymmetric control over valued resources in social relations. The capacity of one part to influence another party
Position power
Influence derived from legitimate authority to: make important decisions, control the use of resources and access to information and control over the use of rewards and punishment. Influence tied to your job position
Personal power
Influence derived from: agent expertise (e.g. knowledge and skills) and friendship with the target person
What are the types of position power?
- Legitimate power: based on formal authority, and it involves the rights, obligations, and duties associated with a particular position in
an organization - Reward power: power perception by the target person that an agent can provide important resources and rewards that are desired by the target person
- Coercive (using force/threats) power: authority over punishment
- Information power: access to vital
information and control over its distribution to others
What are the types of personal power?
- Referent Power: derived from a target person’s strong feelings of affection, admiration, and loyalty toward the agent
- Expert power: derived from task-relevant knowledge and skills but others need to be dependent on
that type of expertise
What is social exchange theory?
Power and influence do not come just from position, but it comes from earning trust and credibility over time by providing value (like support, loyalty, competence). Idiosyncrasy credit is doing it your own way credit, can build credits by contributing positively. It allows leaders to deviate from norms without losing support. If a leader stops giving value or misuses their influence, followers may withdraw their support and power fades
Strategic Contingency Theory
This is that power in organizations goes to subunits that can solve the most important and uncertain problems that others cannot. 3 factors: expertise in coping with important problems (important for success), centrality of the subunit within the workflow (dependence) and the subunit’s expertise is unique rather than substitutable (others cannot do the job as well)
Influence tactics
Behavior that is used intentionally to influence the attitudes and behavior of another person
What are the 3 broad categories of influence tactics?
- Impression management : tactics intended to influence people to like the agent (e.g., provide praise, act friendly, offer assistance)
- Proactive tactics: tactics that have an immediate task objective, getting the target person to carry out a new task, changed procedure, provide assistance on a project
- Political tactics: tactics used to influence organizational decisions or gain benefit for an individual or group; e.g., influencing the agenda for meetings to include your issues
What is participative leadership?
That power is shared. Many activities of managers involve making and implementing decision. It means involving others in making important decisions. Involves: consultation, joint decision-making and delegation
What are the 4 decision procedures?
- Autocratic decisions: manager makes decision alone without asking for the opinion or suggestions of others; there is no participation
- Consultation: managers asks other people for their opinions and ideas
then makes the decision alone after considering their suggestions &
concerns - Joint decision: manager meets with others to discuss the decision
problem and make a decision together; the manager has no more
influence than any other participant - Delegation: manager gives others the authority & responsibility for
making a decision, often within limits
What are the possible benefits due to amount of participation?
High decision quality: people contribute with their
information & knowledge lacked by leader
High decision acceptance: if people have influence in decision-making process, they identify more &
better understand choice
High satisfaction: when people can express their opinions ‘voice’– and these are taken seriously – they are more likely to be satisfied with
the process
More skill development: helping to make a complex decision, increases skill & confidence
What are the explanatory processes?
Better understanding of the nature of the problem
Integrative problem-solving: Everyone ‘chips’ in with their
knowledge/needs: finding a solution where everyone’s needs or interests are met
Influence leads to situational identification: people feel like the
solution is partly theirs — not just something that was forced on them
Feelings of procedural justice: how fair people feel the process was in making a decision — not just the
outcome itself
What are the situational variables?
Importance of decision, distribution of knowledge, goal congruence, time pressure, member traits and values.
What is the causal model of participative leadership?
model explains how and when participative leadership works, and what factors influence its effectiveness. It’s called a causal model because it shows cause-and-effect relationships
What is the normative decision model?
It’s a framework to help leaders decide how much involvement their team should have in making decisions. Involves 5 decision-making styles: Autocratic (A1/A2) – Leader decides alone A1, maybe after gathering info A2. Consultative (C1/C2) – Leader consults
individuals C1 or group C2, but decides alone. Group-based (G2) – Leader and team make the decision together.
Normative decision model
- decision procedure
- situational variables (moderators)
- decision quality and acceptance (mediators)
- unit/team performance
Situational variables
Decision importance: How critical is the quality of the decision for success?
Information distribution: Does the leader have enough information, or is the knowledge spread across team
members?
Subordinate attitudes: Are followers willing to cooperate?
Dependence on subordinates: Is successful implementation dependent on the team’s effort and
cooperation?
Decision quality and acceptance
Decision quality: best alternative is selected
Decision acceptance: commitment to
implement decision
Empowering leadership
Leadership style where leaders
actively encourage, support, and
facilitate the development of their
team members. It involves a
leader’s behaviors, actions, and
approach to leadership that
promote autonomy, trust, and self-efficacy among employees. It is an outcome that comes form giving individuals the power, confidence, resources to take control over their work decision
How to promote empowerment?
- participative leadership
- supporting personal growth, expressing confidence in high performance
- by providing all relevant info
- by giving autonomy and removing controls
- empowerment can be boosted through formal empowerment programs
What is the hidden dark side of empowering leadership?
It can lead to moral disengagement (convince themselves that unethical behaviour is okay so they can act wrongly without feeling guilty) when hindrance stressors are high (kinds of stressors that feel pointless, frustrating, holding you back which make things harder
What did previous research find?
job autonomy can trigger unethical behavior; autonomy can make people ‘feel unconstrained by rules, which frees them to up to behave unethically’. So when hindrance stressors are high, empowering employees may lead them to justify unethical actions resulting in unethical pro-org behaviour (actions intended to benefit the org that are ethically questionable)
What was the method?
Recruited 543 working adults from various industries who had a direct supervisor, kept 330 responses (= people). Data collected via prolific (money for questionnaire!). Asked to fill in questionnaires at 3 times. Time 1: empowering leadership. Time 2: hindrance stressors & moral disengagement. Time 3: unethical decision-making
