Chapter Thirteen
Influence, Power, and
Politics (An Organizational
Survival Kit)
“Getting Things Done” Sequence
•
•
•
•
•
Leadership
Managing Change
Influence, Power, and Politics
Managing Conflict
Note: menu of options available to you in
an organizational setting
Power
How does one get things done,
even if one has formal authority?
13-1a
Chapter Thirteen Outline
Influencing Others
•Nine Generic Influences
•Three Influence Outcomes
•Practical Research Insights
•Strategic Alliances and Reciprocity
Social Power and Empowerment
•Five Bases of Power
•Practical Lessons from Research
•Employee Empowerment
•Making Empowerment Work
13-1b
Chapter Thirteen Outline (continued)
Organizational Politics and Impression
Management
• Definition and Domain of Organizational Politics
• Impression Management
• Keeping Organizational Politics in Check
13-2a
Nine Generic Influence Tactics
 Rational persuasion. Trying to convince someone with
reason, logic, or facts.
 Inspirational appeals. Trying to build enthusiasm by
appealing to others’ emotions, ideals, or values.
 Consultation. Getting others to participate in planning, making
decisions, and changes.
 Ingratiation. Getting someone in a good mood prior to making
a request; being friendly, helpful, and using praise or flattery.
 Personal appeals. Referring to friendship and loyalty when
making a request.
13-2b
Nine Generic Influence Tactics
 Exchange. Making express or implied promises and trading
favors.
 Coalition tactics. Getting others to support your effort to
persuade someone.
 Pressure. Demanding compliance or using intimidation or
threats.
 Legitimating tactics. Basing a request on one’s authority or
right, organizational rules or polices, or express or implied
support from superiors.
Three influence outcomes
• Commitment – will gladly do it
• Compliance – will grudgingly do it
• Resistance – will refuse in one way or
another to do it
– We all know what “no” means? At least most
of the time. What does a “yes” mean?
• Note results of research
Basis of strategic alliances
• Reciprocity – people should be paid back
for their positive and negative acts
• Social power – ability to get things done
with human, informational, and material
resources
13-3
Skills and Best Practices: How to
Turn Your Coworkers into Strategic
Allies
Mutual respect.
Openness.
Trust.
Mutual benefit.
Five Bases of Power
• Reward power: Promising or granting rewards.
• Coercive power: Threats or actual punishment.
• Legitimate power: Based on position or formal
authority.
• Expert power: Sharing of knowledge or information.
• Referent power: Power of one’s personality
(charisma).
Ritti: where does power come
from?
• Formal power – see previous slide
• Informal power held by individuals
– Perception that one has power
– Friendship network
– Intimate knowledge of key process
– IOUs
• Informal power held by superiors
– For upwardly mobile, these superiors provide
opportunities for advancement
Ritti: continued
• How else can power exist in an organization (or
why can some rank and file members give their
superiors headaches?)
– Those how have reached a plateau and are not going
anywhere (or care to)
– Hold key positions like secretaries
– Non-mobile middle managers who handle key details
their bosses do not want to deal with or who have
expert knowledge
– Controls a key part of the process – can enforce
bureaucratic adherence to rules
Empowerment
• Two way street:
– Management must be willing to allow
employees to make key decisions
– Employees must be receptive to the idea
Randolph’s Empowerment Model
The Empowerment Plan
Share Information
Create Autonomy
Through Structure
Let Teams Become
The Hierarchy
Remember: Empowerment is not magic;
it consists of a few simple steps and
a lot of persistence.
13-7
Organizational Politics and
Impression Management
Organizational politics: “Involves intentional acts of
influence to enhance or protect the self-interest of individuals or
groups.”
Political Tactics:








Attacking or blaming others.
Using information as a political tool
Creating a favorable image.
Developing a base of support.
Praising others (ingratiation).
Forming power coalitions with strong allies.
Associating with influential people.
Creating obligations (reciprocity).
Impression management: “The process by which people attempt to
control or manipulate the reactions of others to images of themselves or
their ideas.”
13-8
Figure 13-2
Levels of Political Action in
Organizations
Distinguishing Characteristics
Network
Level
Coalition
Level
Individual
Level
Cooperative
pursuit of general
self-interests
Cooperative
pursuit of group
interests in specific
issues
Individual pursuit
of general selfinterests
13-9
Table 13-1
Practical Tips for Managing
Organizational Politics
 Reduce System Uncertainty
 Reduce Competition
 Or establish formal conflict resolution and grievance
processes
 Break Existing Political Fiefdoms
 deal with overly political individuals
 Prevent Future Fiefdoms
 Screen out overly political individuals
Pursuing Political Change
• City, State, or National Level
• Resistance to change
– Comes from bureaucracy and other
stakeholders
– Exhibits similar characteristics as discussion
on why change is resisted
• Difficulty in “unfreezing” aspect
– Enabling legislation or similar mechanism to
facilitate unfreezing
Pursuing Political Change
• Leadership issues
– Lead/coordinate diverse group of “advocates”
– Lead person within bureaucracy to champion
the change
• Role of influence and politicking to build
coalition of “advocates”, allies, etc. and to
obtain support for change
• Managing conflict among allies, etc.