BA105:
Organizational Behavior
Professor Jim Lincoln
Week 11: Lecture
Power, politics, and networks
Class agenda
• Today: lecture on power, politics, and
networks in organizations
• Thursday: discuss Donna Dubinsky & Apple
computer case
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Power and politics in organizations
• Power: a “dirty word?” What is it?
– The capacity to get people to do what they would not
otherwise do
• How does power differ from authority?
– Authority is legitimate power. Three types (Max Weber):
• Charismatic
– Authority that derives from personalistic qualities (vision, force of
personality)
• Traditional
– Institutionalized charisma
• Legal-rational
– The power of an office based on law or other formal rules
• And politics?
– The social relations of interest formation, power-seeking and
wielding, and decision-making
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Leadership is power; but not all
power is leadership
Leadership:
• Influencing others with charisma and vision
• Developing committed “followership”
Other forms of power:
• Leveraging the formal organization
– Exercising authority
– Designing and implementing systems
• Trading on scarce skills or resources
• Maneuvering, manipulation
4
Niccolo Machiavelli
1469-1527
"For injuries ought to be done all at one time, so that, being tasted less, they offend less; benefits
ought to be given little by little, so that the flavour of them may last longer."
"Therefore a wise prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always in every sort and
kind of circumstance have need of … him, and then he will always find them faithful. "
"Hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make
use of it or not according to necessity. "
"We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean;
the rest have failed. "
“He who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined"
“One of the most efficacious remedies that a prince can have against conspiracies is not to be hated
and despised by the people“
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for
execution.’
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Were there any good organizational
politicians in the cases we have examined?
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Politics as a form of organizational
decision-making
• Administrative model
• Garbage can model
• Political/bargaining model
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Classical administrative theory on
decision making
• Managers devise programs (“standard operating
procedures”) so that decisions can be made “by the book”
• Such routine or programmed decisions are delegated down
the hierarchy; exceptions are managed by higher-ups
• Higher level decisions are nonroutine, uncertain, risky,
require problem-solving search
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The garbage can model of decision making
(Cohen, March, & Olson)
• Preferences, criteria, alternatives, decisions, etc., are
jumbled together as if dumped into a garbage can
– Many decisions are stumbled into or forced by past
decisions
– Preferences/intensions/criteria are afterthoughts or
rationalizations
• Random decision may not necessarily be bad
– May contribute to learning
• Throwing a lot of stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks
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The bargaining/political model of
decision-making
• Decisions are made through:
– Bargaining and negotiation
• Orderly (open, rule-bound, & mediated) conflict
aimed at reaching a solution agreeable to both sides
– Power and politics
• Can be disorderly (behind the scenes, no rules,
unmediated) conflict in which one side prevails over
others and thus imposes a solution
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Game theory
• Game theory is the general theory of
strategic behavior
 Rational decision-making given
uncertainty as to what other players will do
 The payoff to a strategic decision
depends on the other player’s move
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Bonnie’s decision tree
If Clyde Confesses
If Clyde Does Not Confess
Bonnie
Confess
4 Years in
Prison
Best
Strategy
Bonnie
Not Confess
8 Years in
Prison
Confess
1 Year in
Prison
Not Confess
3 Years in
Prison
Best
Strategy
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Issues in power and politics
• Politics may not be pretty, but it is real, pervasive, and
must be managed
– Myth of the business organization as efficient, rational, and
apolitical
• How to analyze and navigate the political terrain
– Map out the actors, interests, goals, resource/power bases,
strategies, alliances, decision events
• How to manage power and politics
– From the organization’s perspective
• Contain & channel politics in productive ways
– From the participant’s perspective
• How to be savvy; a player; on the winning side
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What kinds of politics are bad?
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Bob Ebeling
Manager of the Rocket Ignition System at Morton-Thiokol
“We did our level best, but it wasn’t good
enough...The decision to recommend a launch was
pre-ordained by others, by NASA leaning on our
upper management. The deck was stacked.”
“I was so sure that Challenger was doomed that I
asked my daughter, Leslie, then 33, to my office to
watch a super colossal disaster unfold on live
TV...and then I prayed”
The fact that he foresaw disaster and could not stop it has tortured
him since.
What conditions give rise to
organizational politics?
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Can organizational politics
ever be a positive force?
• Processes
• Outcomes
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Politics as empowerment:
Getting things done with and through others
The modern flat, lean, horizontal organization
 power & politics
– Power is no longer packaged as authority roles
– People have a mandate to get power and use it
– Few bureaucratic impediments to political maneuvering
• Influence, brokering, networking, alliance formation
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Apple’s lack of formal structure 
networks and politics
“Things are done by committees, meetings, consensus. We have very
few policies, systems, or controls. What we do is get a team of experts
together and make a decision.”
--Apple employee in finance
“Apple is dominated by personality. We are low on systems, and high on
the human side. There are very few formal rules or processes.”
--Another Apple employee
“Apple is highly relationship and network oriented. If you know the
right people you can get things done—there are lots of inner circles.
Management by coercion doesn’t work here.. There is a lot of
politics—like everywhere-but lack of rules and policies may make it
more important here. Most organizations have their smoke-filled
rooms; Apple does too. The difference is that here if you want into the
argument, you can find your way in.”
--Apple HR manager
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Power and politics as the management
of resource dependencies
• Assumption: power comes from leveraging
resources in relationships to reduce dependence
• Types of resources
• How are resources converted into power?
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Implementing power
• Determine your interests & goals
• What resources/power base do you control?
• How can you expand or fortify it?
– Analyze/trace your resource dependencies; who do you
need to work with and through to achieve your goals?
•
•
•
•
What are their interests and goals?
What resources/power bases do they control?
Will they support you or oppose you?
Are they allied or organized?
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Strategies
• Devise a strategy for exercising power to
achieve your goals
– Anticipate the opposition’s moves (strategies &
tactics) and plan your response
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Bureaucratic strategies
– Resist rationalization or pursue
rationalization
– Make selective use of objective criteria
– Invoke outside experts or authorities
– Appeal to an external constituency
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Manage decision events (e.g., meetings)
– Control what’s on the agenda
– Control the order of consideration
– Control the decision alternatives
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Monopolistic strategies
– Claim your resources are critical
– Restrict supply
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Networking Strategies
– Network widely
• Work the halls
• Get good at small talk (learn the culture)
• Cultivate friendships
– Build coalitions
• Get others obligated to you
• Logroll: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”
– Prevent or break up their coalitions
• Exploit structural holes
– “My enemy’s enemy is my friend”
• Divide and conquer
– Coopt potential opposition
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A technical definition of a
network
– A population of “nodes” (people, etc.) and the
ties (edges, arcs) relating them
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M=
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A fragmented (clique-ridden) network
Company A
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Networking: The process of managing and
expanding one’s personal networks
• Are you a systematic, self-conscious networker?
• What do you need to do to become one?
– Take stock of (map) your existing network
• Evaluate its strength and weaknesses
– What new ties will add the most value in
expanding/strengthening your network?
• How can you go about building them?
• Should you sever some old ones?
– Can shy people be good networkers?
– What about IT?
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Networking strategy: Be central!
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U
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Networking strategy: Be a broker!
(“bow tie” structure)
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Networking strategy:
Forge “weak” ties!
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U
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Managing networks “up”: Exploit
structural holes
(My enemy’s enemy is my friend)
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B
A
B
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A
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C
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C
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Managing the informal organization:
• “If the formal organization is the skeleton of a
company, the informal is the central nervous
system…”
• Krackhardt’s and Hanson’s network study of a
California computer company
– Similar to ‘Fireart’ case: Failure of an interdepartmental
strategic task force to make headway.
• Reason: Leader Tom Harris was central in the network of
technical advice but peripheral in the trust network
• CEO’s solution: find someone central in the trust network– Bill
Benson-- to share leadership with Harris
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Conclusions:
Power, politics, & networking
• For the employee:
– You can be competent, work hard, do your job,
accomplish goals….
– AND STILL LOSE
• To people better at organizational politics than you
• For the organization:
– Power, politics, and networks are not all bad
and can be good
– But they have to be understood and managed
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Thursday: Donna Dubinsky case
Who were the allies and adversaries in this conflict? What
were the reasons for the conflict? What resources did the
parties bring to bear? What strategies were used? Who
prevailed and why? Does the gender of the protagonists
have any relevance here? Why or why not? How might
the debate over the distribution system have been better
managed? How did Apple’s culture, structure, and the
leadership styles of the executive team shape the evolution
of the conflict? In terms of the congruence model, was
“incongruence” or poor fit among the pieces of Apple’s
architecture a cause of the conflict? Was it leveraged or
exploited in any way by the players?
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Donna Dubinsky’s 10 lessons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Get your “go-to-hell” money together
Pick your boss well
Negotiate with two or more options
Treat people with respect
Don’t dwell on sunk costs
Challenge convention
Don’t fight every battle
Know your competitors
Think global
Don’t overestimate others
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