Power
&
Political Behavior
A Definition of Power
Power
A capacity that A has to influence
the behavior of B so that B acts in
accordance with A’s wishes.
Dependency
B’s relationship to A when
A possesses something
that B requires.
A
B
Contrasting Leadership and Power
These two concepts are closely interwined, but
there are differences.
 Leadership
– Focuses
on
goal
achievement.
– Requires
goal
compatibility
with
followers.
– Focuses
influence
downward.
 Power
– Used as a means
for achieving goals.
– Requires follower
dependency.
– Used to gain lateral
and
upward
influence.
 Research Focus
– Leadership styles and
relationships
with
followers
 Research Focus
– Power
tactics
gaining compliance
for
CONS
PROS
 Power and politics often
have negative connotations
because people associate
them with attempts to use
organizational resources for
personal advantage and to
achieve personal goals at
the expense of other goals.
 Managers can use power to
control people and other
resources so that they
cooperate and help to
achieve an organization’s
current goals.
 Managers can use power to
engage in politics and
influence
the
decisionmaking process to help
promote
new,
more
appropriate
organizational
goals.
BASES
POWER
Formal
Power
Coercive
Power
Reward
Power
Personal
Power
Legitimate
Power
Expert
Power
Referent
Power
Bases of Power: Formal Power
It is established by an individual’s position in
an organization; conveys the ability to coerce
or reward, from formal authority, or from
control of information.
The person receives these power bases
because of the specific authority or roles they
are assigned in the organization.
Coercive Power
 A power base dependent on fear.
 Coercive power is the ability to apply punishment.
Managers have coercive power through their authority to
reprimand, demote, and fire employees.
 Labor unions might use coercive power tactics, such as
withholding services, to influence management in
collective agreement negotiations.
 Team members sometimes apply sanctions, ranging from
sarcasm to ostracism, to ensure that co-workers conform
to team norms.
Coercive Power
 Many firms rely on the coercive power of team
members to control co-worker behavior.
– For example, 44 percent of production employees at
the CAMI automobile plant in Ingersoll, Ontario,
believe that team members use coercive power to
improve co-worker performance. The coercive
power of team members is also apparent at Eaton
Corp.'s forge plant in South Bend, Indiana. "They
say there are no bosses here," says an Eaton Corp.
employee, but if you do something wrong, you find
one pretty fast.
Reward Power
 Compliance achieved based on the ability to
distribute rewards that others view as valuable.
 Reward power is derived from the person's ability to
control the allocation of rewards valued by others
and to remove negative sanctions (i.e., negative
reinforcement).
Reward Power
 Managers have formal authority that gives them power
over the distribution of organizational rewards such as
pay, promotions, time off, vacation schedules, and work
assignments.
 Employees also have reward power over their bosses
through the use of 360-degree feedback systems.
Employee feedback affects the supervisor's promotions
and other rewards, so bosses tend to behave differently
towards employees after 360-degree feedback is
introduced.
Legitimate Power
 It is an agreement among organizational members that
people in certain roles can request certain behaviors of
others. This perceived right partly comes from formal job
descriptions as well as from informal rules of conduct.
Executives have considerable legitimate power, but all
employees also have this power based on company rules
and government laws.
– For example, an organization might give
employees the right to request customer files if
this information is required for their job.
Legitimate Power
 It also depends on mutual agreement from
those expected to abide by this authority. Your
boss has a power to make you work overtime
partly depends on your agreement to this power.
 Legitimate power is the person's authority to
make discretionary decisions as long as followers
accept this discretion.
Legitimate Power
 People in high power distance cultures (i.e., those
who accept an unequal distribution of power) are
more likely to comply with legitimate power than are
people in low power distance cultures.
– Thus, an employee in Mexico (a high power
distance culture) is more likely than someone in
the US (a low power distance culture) to accept
an order, particularly when the person's right to
give that order is uncertain.
Legitimate Power
 Legitimate power is also stronger in some organizations
than in others. A 3M scientist might continue to work on a
project after being told by superiors to stop working on it.
This is because the 3M culture supports an
entrepreneurial spirit, which includes ignoring formal
authority from time to time.
 More generally, employees are becoming less tolerant of
legitimate power. They increasingly expect to be involved
in decisions rather than be told what to do.
– "People won't tolerate the command-and-control
mode," says Bank of Montreal CEO Tony Comper. Thus,
the command style of leadership that often guided
employee behavior in the past must be replaced by
other forms, particularly expert and referent power,
which are described below.
Bases of Power: Personal Power
 This type of power originate from the powerholder's
own characteristics. In other words, people bring
these power bases to the organization.
 It is not a formal position in an organization to have
power. You do not need to be a manager.
Expert Power
 It originates from within the person. It is an
individual's or work unit's capacity to influence others
by possessing knowledge or skills that they want. It is
a result of expertise, skills and knowledge.
– For instance, civilians working at Canada's
Department of National Defence have acquired a
lot of power because they know how to operate
the bureaucracy. Military personnel are rotated
around various Canadian Forces bases, so they
depend on the civilians for their expertise as the
corporate memory.
Expert Power
 Employees are gaining expert power as our society
moves from an industrial to a knowledge-based
economy. Employers are more dependent on
employees to achieve their corporate objectives.
– Job applicants can demand generous salaries and
preferential working conditions because of their
expert power.
Referent Power
 People have referent power when others identify with them, like
them, or otherwise respect them.
 It is based on identification with a person who has desirable
resources or personal traits.
 It develops out of administration of another and a desire to be like
that person.
 It is largely a function of the person's interpersonal skills and usually
develops slowly.
 Referent power is usually associated with charismatic leadership.
– Charisma is often defined as a form of interpersonal
attraction whereby followers develop a respect for and
trust in the charismatic individual.
Which bases of power are most important?
 Research suggest that:
– Personal sources of power are most effective.
• They are positively related to employees’ satisfaction
with supervision, their organizational commitment,
performance.
Model of Power and Influence
Sources of Personal Power
• Expertise
• Reputation
• Personal characteristics
• Network connections
• Information
Sources of Position Power
• Centrality
• Criticality
• Flexibility
• Visibility
• Relevance
POWER OF AN
INDIVIDUAL
Selection of proper
strategy to
influence others
Assertive responses
to inappropriate
influence
attempts by
others
Increasing
authority via
upward influence
INFLUENCE OVER
OTHERS
Dependency: The Key To Power
The General Dependency Postulate
– The greater B’s dependency on A, the
greater the power A has over B.
– Possession/control
of
scarce
organizational resources that others need
makes a manager powerful.
– Access to optional resources (e.g.,
multiple suppliers) reduces the resource
holder’s power.
Dependency: The Key To Power
What Creates Dependency
– Importance of the resource to the organization
• If they want what you have, what you control is meaningful for
them, then you create dependency.
– Scarcity of the resource
• Scarcity-dependency relationship .
• If something is plentiful, possession of it will not increase your
power.
– Non-substitutability of the resource
• The fewer viable substitutability for a resource, the more
power the control over that resource provides.
Power Tactics
Power Tactics
Ways
in
which
individuals
translate
power
bases
into
specific actions.
Influence Tactics:
• Legitimacy
• Rational persuasion
• Inspirational appeals
• Consultation
• Exchange
• Personal appeals
• Ingratiation
• Pressure
• Coalitions
Influence Tactics
 Legitimacy:
 Relying on one’s authority
position or stressing that a
request is in accordance with
organizational policies or rules.
 Rational persuasion:
 Presenting logical arguments and
factual evidence to demonstrate
that a request is reasonable.
 Inspirational appeals:
 Developing
emotional
commitment by appealing to a
target’s values, needs, hopes,
and aspirations.
 Consultation:
 Increasing
the
target’s
motivation and support by
involving hi or her in deciding
how the plan or change will be
done
Influence Tactics
 Exchange:
 Rewarding the target with
benefits or favors in exchange
for following a request.
 Ingratiation:
 Using flattery, praise, or friendly
behavior prior to making a
request.
 Personal appeals:
 Asking for compliance based on
friendship or loyalty.
 Pressure:
 Using
warnings,
repeated
demands, and threats.
Coalitions:
Enlisting the aid of other people to
persuade the target or using the
support of others as a reason for the
target to agree.
Factors Influencing the Choice and
Effectiveness of Power Tactics
 Sequencing of tactics
– Softer to harder tactics work
best.
 Skillful use of a tactic
 Relative power of the tactic user
– Some tactics work better
when applied downward or
upward.
 The type of request attaching to the
tactic
– Is the request legitimate?
 How the request is perceived
– Is the request consistent
with the target’s values?
 The culture of the organization
– Culture affects user’s choice
of tactic.
 Country-specific cultural factors
– Local values favor certain
tactics over others.
Influence Tactics
 Some tactics are usually more effective than others.
– Specifically, evidence indicates that rational,
persuasion,
inspirational
appeals,
and
consultation tend to be the most effective.
 On the other hand pressure tends to frequently
backfire and is typically the least effective of the nine
tactics.
 You can also increase your chance of success by
using more than one type of tactic at the same time or
sequentially, as long as your choices are compatible.
Influence Tactics
Upward influence
 Rational
persuasion
Downward influence
 Rational
persuasion
 Inspirational
appeals
 Pressure
Lateral influence
•Rational persuasion
•Consultation
•Ingratiation
•Exchange
•Legitimacy




Consultation
Ingratiation
Exchange
Legitimacy
•Personal appeals
•Coalitions
Power in Groups: Coalitions
Coalitions
Clusters of individuals
who temporarily come
together to a achieve a
specific purpose.
• Seek to maximize their
size to attain influence.
• Seek a broad and diverse
constituency for support
of their objectives.
• Occur more frequently in
organizations with high
task and resource
interdependencies.
• Occur more frequently if
tasks are standardized
and routine.
Insert Figure 18.2 here
POLITICAL BEHAVIOR
Political Behavior (Cont.)
Characteristics of political processes
Power
Politica
l
process
Influence
Political Behavior
 Activities that are not required as part of one’s formal
role in the organization, but that influence, or attempt
to influence, the distribution of advantages or
disadvantages within the organization.
 It is outside one’s specified job requirement.
 It requires some attempt to use one’s power bases.
 It encompasses efforts to influence the goals, criteria,
or processes used for decision making when we state
that politics is concerned with ‘distribution of
advantages
and
disadvantages
within
the
organization’.
Political Behavior
 They are such as:
–
–
–
–
–
Withholding key information from decision makers
Joining a coalition
Whistle-blowing
Spreading rumors
Leaking confidential information about organizational
activities to the media
– Exchanging favors with others in the organization for
mutual benefit
– Lobbying on behalf of or against a particular individual or
decision alternative
Political Behavior
 Legitimate Political
Behavior
Normal everyday politics
 Such as:
– Complaining to your
supervisor
– Bypassing the chain of
command
– Obstructing
organizational policies
through inaction
 Illegitimate Political
Behavior
 Extreme political behavior
that violates the implied rules
of the game.
 Such as:
– Sabotage
– Groups of employees
simultaneously calling
sick
 It is risky. You can be fired.
We see this type more than
the other.
Politics Is in the Eye of the Beholder
“Political” Label
“Effective Management” Label
1. Blaming others
vs.
Fixing responsibility
2. “Kissing up”
vs.
Developing working relationships
3. Apple polishing
vs.
Demonstrating loyalty
4. Passing the buck
vs.
Delegating authority
5. Covering your rear
vs.
Documenting decisions
6. Creating conflict
vs.
Encouraging change and innovation
7. Forming coalitions
vs.
Facilitating teamwork
8. Whistle blowing
vs.
Improving efficiency
9. Scheming
vs.
Planning ahead
10. Overachieving
vs.
Competent and capable
11. Ambitious
vs.
Career-minded
12. Opportunistic
vs.
Astute
13. Cunning
vs.
Practical-minded
14. Arrogant
vs.
Confident
15. Perfectionist
vs.
Attentive to detail
Source: Based on T. C. Krell, M. E.
Mendenhall, and J. Sendry, “Doing
Research in the Conceptual Morass of
Organizational
Politics,”
paper
presented at the Western Academy of
Management Conference, Hollywood,
CA, April 1987.
Factors That Influence
Political Behaviors
Employee Responses to
Organizational Politics
Avoiding Action:
Defensive
Behaviors
• Over-conforming
• Buck passing
• Playing dumb
Avoiding Blame:
• Stretching
• Buffing
• Stalling
• Playing safe
• Justifying
• Scapegoating
• Misrepresenting
Avoiding Change:
• Prevention
• Self-protection
Is A Political Action Ethical?
Utilitarianism
Rights
Source: Adapted from G.F. Cavanagh, D. Moberg, and M. Valasquez,
“The Ethics of Organizational Politic,” Academy of Management Review,
July 1981, p. 368. Reprinted with permission.
Justice
Summary
 Political behavior can be engaged in either to
proactively promote self-interest or to defensively
protect self-interest (Arkin, 1981). Proactive
behaviors include responses such as assertiveness,
ingratiation, coalitions, upward appeals, and
exchanges of benefits (Kipnis et al., 1980).
 Defensive behaviors include avoiding action, such as
by playing dumb or passing the buck, avoiding
blame, such as by justifying or scapegoating, and
avoiding change, such as by protecting turf (Ashforth
& Lee, 1990).
Summary
 Political behavior by an individual can generate
outcomes such as more favorable evaluations and
job promotions (Ferris & Judge, 1991).
 Political behavior can be functional or dysfunctional.
 Functional
political
behavior
enhances
the
achievement of organizational goals and does not
harm the organization (George & Jones, 2002).
Summary
– An example of this is forming coalitions with
managers who have similar interests to lobby for
an organization to pursue new strategies.
– Other functional political activities include
obtaining tasks and responsibilities that provide
greater control over resources (e.g., being
assigned to the budgeting group) or seeking
indirect control over resources through engaging
in networking to build alliances, the focus of the
strategic contingencies model of power.
Summary
 Alternatively, individuals seeking to acquire power
may engage in activities that protect their own
interests but do not help the organization or activities
that are destructive to the organization.
 In fact, political behavior is often associated with the
exploitation of legitimate systems of influence for
individual rather than organizational ends (Mintzberg,
1983).
– Some examples are withholding or filtering
organizational information from others who
need it to perform their jobs and building
empires for the sake of empire building rather
than to increase organizational effectiveness.
Summary
 Political behaviors generally promote an individual's
self-interest at the expense of other employees'
interests and the organization's goals, effects of political
behaviors are quite different for the politician as
compared with effects for other individuals in the
organization. Political behavior in organizations also has
been consistently negatively associated with individual
and company performance and positively associated
with employee stress, job dissatisfaction and turnover
(e.g., Bozeman et al.,1996).
Summary
 Models of organizational justice have been used to
explain some of these negative effects (e.g., Ferris &
Kacmar, 1992). When political behavior in organizations
is rewarded, other employees perceive that the
organization is not fair or just. For instance, employees
usually expect that promotions, awards, and pay raises
will be based on merit, rather than political
considerations, and become dissatisfied when this
expectation is violated (Cropanzano et al., 1997).
Impression Management (IM)
Impression Management
The process by which
individuals attempt to
control the impression
others form of them.
IM Techniques:
• Conformity
• Excuses
• Apologies
• Self-Promotion
• Flattery
• Favors
Source: Based on B. R. Schlenker, Impression Management (Monterey, CA:
Brooks/Cole, 1980); W. L. Gardner and M. J. Martinko, “Impression
Management in Organizations,” Journal of Management, June 1988, p. 332;
and R. B. Cialdini, “Indirect Tactics of Image Management Beyond Basking,”
in R. A. Giacalone and P. Rosenfeld (eds.), Impression Management in the
Organization (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989), pp. 45–71.
• Association
Impression management (IM)
 Impression management (IM), originated by Erving
Goffman (1959), describes a central aspect of role
theory: how individual actors create, maintain, defend,
and often enhance their social identities through
assumptions, settings, props, and scripts in a play
metaphor. IM explains the motivations behind complex
human interactions and performances.
 IM is the goal-directed attempt to influence others’
perceptions about a person, a group, and/or an
organization regarding an object or event by providing
self-assessed
beneficial
information
in
social
interactions.
Impression management (IM)
 The goal for the aforementioned attempt is to gain an
advantageous first impression. The motive for this goal
is based on the assumption that the target audience’s
impressions about the individuals, groups, or
organizations become reality of the target audience.
Authors, philosophers, and social science researchers
have long interpreted the reality each individual entity
“acts” and believes in as a “stage.” In each stage,
humans, individually or in groups, and organizations
“play” their part on this “world stage” according to
William Shakespeare (As You Like It, Scene 2, Act 7)1.
Impression Management
 Impression management is the deliberate 'bending' of the truth
in order to make a favorable impression. Managing impression
includes deliberate use of any or all of:
– Dress, make-up, hairstyle and other management of
visual appearance.
– Manner and general behavior, such as being
pleasant, assertive, and so on.
– Managing body language to conceal anxieties or
untruths and show openness, etc.
– Being economic with the truth, not telling lies but
also not revealing the whole truth.
– Exaggeration or complete fabrication of things that
make you look good.
– Downplaying or denial of negative factors that make
you look bad.
Discussion about Impression Management
 To some extent, we are constantly managing
impressions of others in most social circumstances and
of course we want to look good in interviews. However
there are two question that may be asked:
– The extent to which it is ethical and acceptable,
both socially and for the interviewers.
– The extent to which it is effective. More
impression management does not necessarily
mean a better impression is gained.
Discussion about Impression Management
 Impression management not only happens, it is expected
to happen. For example:
– This can cause a dilemma where the
interviewer either marks you down for not
managing impression sufficiently (for example
not being smart enough or not being assertive
enough) or managing it too much (low-cut
dresses, boasting, exaggeration).