Mini Case No. 2
Political Pyramid
Organizations provide a power base for individual. From a purely economic standpoint,
organizations exist to create an excess of income over expenses by meeting needs in the
marketplace. But organizations also are political structures which provide opportunities
for people to develop careers and therefore provide platforms for the expression of
individual interests and motives. The development of careers, particularly at high
managerial and professional levels, depends on accumulation of power as the vehicle for
transforming individual interests into activities which influence other people.
A political pyramid exists when people compete for power in an economy of scarcity. In
other words, people cannot get the power they want just for the asking. Instead, they
have to enter into the decisions on how to distribute authority in a particular formal
organization structure