Influence, Power, and Politics
An Organizational Survival Kit
Learning Objectives
 Name five “soft” and four “hard” influence tactics





and summarize the practical lessons from influence
research.
Identify and briefly describe French and Raven’s
five bases of power.
Define the term empowerment and explain how to
make it succeed.
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.
Chapter Thirteen
Nine Generic Influence Tactics
13-1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Rational persuasion
Inspirational appeals
Consultation
Ingratiation
Personal appeals
Exchange
Coalition tactics
Pressure
Legitimating tactics
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Skills & Best Practices: How to Turn Your
Coworkers into Strategic Allies
13-2
1. Mutual respect
2. Openness
3. Trust
4. Mutual benefit
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Five Bases of Power
13-3
 Reward power: obtaining




compliance with promised or
actual rewards.
Coercive power: obtaining
compliance through
threatened or actual
punishment.
Legitimating power:
obtaining compliance
through formal authority.
Expert power: obtaining
compliance through one’s
knowledge or information.
Referent power: obtaining
compliance through
charisma or personal
attraction.
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Employee Empowerment
13-4
 Empowerment: sharing varying degrees of
power with lower-level employees to better
serve the customer.
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Randolph’s Empowerment Model
13-5 Figure 13-1
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.
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Organizational Politics
13-6
 Organizational Politics: intentional enhancement of
self-interest.
 Political tactics:
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Attacking or blaming others
Using information as a political tool
Creating a favorable image
Developing a base of support
Praising others
Forming power coalitions with strong allies
Associating with influential people
Creating obligations
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Level of Political Action in Organizations
13-7 Figure 13-2
Distinguishing Characteristics
Network
Level
Coalition
Level
Cooperative
pursuit of general
self-interests
Cooperative
pursuit of group
interests in specific
issues
Individual
Level
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Individual pursuit
of general selfinterests
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Impression Management
13-8
 Impression
Management: getting
others to see us in a
certain manner.
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Bad Impressions
13-9
 Four motives for intentionally looking bad
at work:




Avoidance
Obtain concrete rewards
Exit
Power
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Bad Impressions (Cont.)
13-10
 Five unfavorable upward impression
management tactics:
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Decreasing performance
Not working to potential
Withdrawing
Displaying a bad attitude
Broadcasting limitations
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Skills & Best Practices: How to Keep
Organizational Politics within Reasonable Bounds
13-11
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 with corresponding measurable
objectives for individual accountability.
Have nonfinancial people interpret periodic financial and accounting
statements for all employees.
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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