Chapter Thirteen
Influence, Power, and
Politics: An Organizational
Survival Kit
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
After reading the material in this chapter,
you should be able to:
• Name five “soft” and four “hard” influence
tactics and summarize Cialdini’s principles
of influence and persuasion.
• Identify and briefly describe French and
Raven’s five bases of power.
• Define the term empowerment and explain
how to make it succeed
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After reading the material in this chapter,
you should be able to:
• Define organizational politics and explain
what triggers it, and specify the three levels
of political action in organizations.
• Distinguish between favorable and
unfavorable impression management
tactics.
• Explain how to manage organizational
politics.
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Nine Generic Influence Tactics
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Rational persuasion
Inspirational appeals
Consultation
Ingratiation
Personal appeals
6.
7.
8.
9.
Exchange
Coalition tactics
Pressure
Legitimating tactics
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Question?
Tami has a tendency to use praise or flattery
with her boss prior to making a request for
her expense account approval every month.
Tami is using which influence tactic?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Inspirational appeal
Ingratiation
Pressure
Consultation
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Three Influence Outcomes
1. Commitment
- substantial agreement followed by initiative
and persistence in pursuit of common goals
2. Compliance
- reluctant agreement requiring subsequent
prodding to satisfy minimum requirements
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Three Influence Outcomes
3. Resistance
- stalling, unproductive arguing, or outright
rejection
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Practical Research Insights
• Commitment is more likely when people rely
on strong rational persuasion and do not
rely on pressure and coalition tactics
• Ingratiation can slightly improve your
performance appraisal results
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Practical Research Insights
• Commitment is more likely when the
influence attempt involves something
important and enjoyable
• Credible people tend to be the most
persuasive
• Employees are more apt to accept change
when managers rely on a consultative
strategy
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How to Do a Better Job of Influencing and
Persuading Others
1. Liking
- people tend to like those who like them
2. Reciprocity
- belief that both good and bad deeds should be
repaid in kind is virtually universal
3. Social proof
- people tend to follow the lead of those most
like themselves
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How to Do a Better Job of Influencing and
Persuading Others
4. Consistency
- people tend to do what they are personally
committed to
5. Authority
- people tend to defer to and respect credible
experts
6. Scarcity
- people want items, information, and
opportunities that have limited availability
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Social Power
• Social power
- ability to marshal the human, informational, and
material resources to get something done
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Five Bases of Power
• Reward power
- obtaining compliance with promised or actual
rewards.
• Coercive power
- obtaining compliance through threatened or
actual punishment.
• Legitimate power
- obtaining compliance through formal authority.
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Question?
As a Division Head, Natalie is implementing
pay-for-performance plans and positive
reinforcement programs at Goodwill
Wireless Center. Natalie is attempting to
exploit which power?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Coercive
Expert
Referent
Reward
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Five Bases of Power
• Expert power
- obtaining compliance through one’s knowledge
or information.
• Referent power
- obtaining compliance through charisma or
personal attraction.
Read an article on
organizational power
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Practical Lessons from Research
• Expert and referent power had a generally
positive effect
• Reward and legitimate power had a slightly
positive effect
• Coercive power had a slightly negative
effect
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Employee Empowerment
• Empowerment
- sharing varying degrees of power with lowerlevel employees to tap their full potential
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The Evolution of Power
Figure 13.1
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Participative Management
• Participative management
- process whereby employees play a direct role
in setting goals, making decisions, solving
problems, and making changes in the
organization
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Participative Management
• Participative management helps employees
fulfill three basic needs:
- Autonomy
- Meaningfulness of work
- Interpersonal contact
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Question?
Herman is able to work more on his own now
that his supervisor has given him more
responsibility and authority in his job.
Which need of participative management
does this fulfill?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Autonomy
Meaningfulness of work
Interpersonal contact
Sovereignty
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Domain of Organizational Politics
• Organizational politics
- intentional acts of influence to enhance or
protect the self-interests of individuals or
groups
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Sources of Uncertainty
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Unclear objectives
Vague performance measures
Ill-defined decision processes
Strong individual or group competition
Any type of change
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Levels of Political Action in Organizations
Figure 13-2
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Levels of Political Action
• Coalition
- temporary groupings of people who actively
pursue a single issue
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Frequently Used Political Tactics
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Building a network of useful contacts
Using ‘key players’ to support initiatives
Making friends with power brokers
Bending the rules to fit the situation
Self-promotion
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Frequently Used Political Tactics
6.
7.
8.
9.
Creating a favorable image
Praising others (ingratiation)
Attacking or blaming others
Using information as a political tool
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Question?
Whenever things don’t go well for Duane, he
is quick to shift fault to others. Which
political tactic is he using?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Creating a favorable image
Praising others (ingratiation)
Attacking or blaming others
Using information as a political tool
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Impression Management
• Impression management
- process by which people attempt to control or
manipulate the reactions of others to images of
themselves or their ideas
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Favorable Impression Management
• Job-focused
- manipulating information about one’s
performance
• Supervisor-focused
- praising and doing favors for one’s supervisor
• Self-focused
- presenting oneself as a polite and nice person
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Question?
Kendall will often do favors and run errands
for her manager. She is engaged in
__________ impression management.
A. Job-focused
B. Supervisor-focused
C. Self-focused
D. Organization-focused
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Bad Impressions
Four motives for intentionally looking bad at
work:
• Avoidance
• Obtain concrete rewards
• Exit
• Power
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Unfavorable Upward Impression
Management Tactics
• Decreasing performance
• Not working to potential
• Withdrawing
• Displaying a bad attitude
• Broadcasting limitations
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How to Keep Organizational Politics within
Reasonable Bounds
• Screen out overly political individuals at hiring
time.
• Create an open-book management system.
• Make sure every employee knows how the
business works and has a personal line of sight to
key results
• Have non-financial people interpret periodic
financial and accounting statements for all
employees.
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How to Keep Organizational Politics within
Reasonable Bounds
• Establish formal conflict resolution and grievance
processes.
• As an ethics filter, do only what you feel
comfortable doing on national television.
• Publicly recognize and reward people who get real
results without political games.
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Supplemental Slides
• Slides 37-42 contain extra non-text
examples to integrate and enhance
instructor lectures
-
Slide 37-38: Principles of Influence
Slide 39: Impression Management Tips
Slide 40: Building Empowerment Through Ownership
Slide 41-42: Video discussion slides
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Principles of Influence
• Liking: The more we like the other
person, the more likely we’ll comply with
their requests
• Reciprocity: The belief that both good
and bad deeds should be repaid in kind.
• Social Proof: Role models and peer
pressure are powerful forces
Source: R. B. Cialdini, "Harnessing the Science of Persuasion," Harvard Business Review, October 2001, pp. 72-79.
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Principles of Influence
• Consistency: Once individuals have
stated a commitment they tend to act in
accordance with that commitment.
• Authority: People tend to defer to and
respect credible experts.
• Scarcity: Requests that emphasize
scarcity or the fact that some object,
opportunity, or outcome will soon no longer
be available, are difficult to resist.
Source: R. B. Cialdini, "Harnessing the Science of Persuasion," Harvard Business Review, October 2001, pp. 72-79.
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Impression Management Tips
•
•
•
•
Tone down the star quality
Don’t be Mr. Personality
Get the inside scoop
Give ‘em something to talk about
Source: Allow Me to Introduce Myself (Properly), Sam Grobart, Money January 2007
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Building Empowerment Through
Ownership
• Believe in what you propose
• Communicate the meaning of ownership
• Share profit-and-loss information
• Make it worthwhile financially
• Turn your owners into decision makers
13-40
Video Case: Dealing with Office
Bullies
• Can workplace bullying lead to conflict
between managers and subordinates?
• Why is bullying a concern to organizations?
What are some of the adverse affects of
bullying in the workplace?
• How can office bullying be managed? Is
there legal recourse for victims of bullying?
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Video: Officials Investigate CEOs
in Stock Option Scams
• Jacob Alexander is being charged with securities
fraud. Is this fair given how common backdating
stock options seems to be?
• How does a stock option work as an incentive for
employees?
• Would you be upset if you learned that a company
you owned stock in backdated stock options?
Why or why not?
• How would you deal with being offered lucrative
stock options if you learned that they had been
13-42
backdated?