25 Power and Politics-I
Prof.Mahabir Narwal
1. Learning objectives:
Basic objectives of this module are:
To understand the concept & meaning of power
To understand the characteristics and sources of power To know the strategies to gain power
To know the power relationship, power dynamics and power indicators
2. Introduction
Till recent time power and politics were not discussed in the organisational behaviour studies because they were treated as dirty words. But now both the words have been discussed in length because of their impact on the behaviour of people in the organisation. This is why every discussion on organisational behaviour, nowadays have “power and politics” as an important subject.
Definitions
If a person able to influence the behavior of other individuals it means he has power. Power is generally taken to be the capacity of a person to exert influence over others. The essence of power lies in controlling the behavior of others.
According to Pfeffer, “power is the potential ability to influence behavior to change the course of event, to overcome resistance and to get people to do things that they would not otherwise do.”
According to famous sociologist Max Weber, “power is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance.”
According to White AND Bednar, “power is the ability to influence people or things, usually obtained through the control of important resources.”
According to Kurt Lewin, “the possibility of inducing forces of a certain magnitude on another persons.”
3. Characteristics of power
The basic characteristics of power are as follows:
Dependency relationship: It can be actual or perceived but whatever may be the form, it leads to creation of power. Power are dependency of one person on the other, this is the basic feature of power. Higher amount of power can be exercised if higher the dependence of one person on other.
Reciprocal relationships: being influenced and influencing others are the two ways concept on which power is based. In an organisation power relationships are essentially reciprocal in nature. Only high-up have power is a misconception in the organisation.
Specific in nature: all people cannot exercise power at all times. Power is always specific in nature. In a particular situation one person can exercise greater amount of power, whereas in the same situation another may not be able to do.
Power is elastic: the legitimate power attached to the positions also increases as people reach higher positions in the organisation. Power can be contracted also due to transfer or shifting from one department to another. People; try to acquire more and more power that becomes habituate to exercise power.
4. Power and Authority
These two are different through closely related concepts but sometimes these are used as synonymously. Chester Barnard defines power in terms of ‘informal authority’. Henry Fayol defined ‘authority as the right to give orders and the power to extract obedience’. It is possible to find a number of variations between these two extremes.
The difference between power and authority is discussed below:
| Power | Authority |
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1) Power is a personal quality of a person it needs not be legitimate. |
1) Authority is vested in the position not the person. That is why it is called legitimate |
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2) Power can be negative or positive faces. Personal dominance is negative, however socialized power is positive. |
2) There are no such distinct faces of authority. |
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3) Power is a broader concept. It includes authority also to some extent. |
3) Authority is a narrow concept. It is nothing but institutional power. |
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4) Power is a concept which is generally associated with leadership. |
4) Authority is position based. It is always vested in the superiors or managers. |
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5) Power is ability of a person to affect and influence the others. |
5) Authority is a right of command and extracts obedience from subordinates. |
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6) Power can flow in all directions i.e. upward,downward and horizontal. |
6) Authority is a downward flowing concept.The lower we go down in the level of hierarchy, lesser is the authority. |
David McClelland identifies two faces of power
A. Negative face: leadership with negative face of power treats people as pawn to be used or sacrificed as the need arises. The negative face of power expressed in terms of dominance-submission or in some other way, “I win, you lose.”
B. Positive face: exerting influence on behalf of others rather than over others is the positive face of power. Encouraging subordinates to develop the strength and the competence as they need to succeed as human beings as well as members of the organization are generally the leaders who exercise their power positively.
5. Sources of Power
On the basis of interpersonal and organizational interaction, few sources are mentioned below:
A. Interpersonal sources: These sources are based on the inter-personal relationships between subordinate and manager. French and Raven based on interpersonal relationships related to power has recognized five sources. Following are the sources:
Reward power: In the organization better pay system, positive performance e appraisal, promotions, preferred work shifts etc. can be different forms of reward. Employees in the organization can be influenced by this power. Managers give the reward to subordinates or employees when they perform well and get the target. To influence the employees or subordinates reward is a good strategy for an organization.
Coercive power: This is the power through which in the organization a manager can control individuals, give them punishment and refuse the rewards. Coercive power is the ability to influence punishment, it is opposite of reward power. Punishment fear may make the subordinate to execute the instructions of the boss. When manager find any subordinate who is not performing well, he can be fired or get demotion by the manager.
Legitimate power: it includes both coercive and reward power, though legitimate powers are wider than the reward and coerces power. Because of authority inherent in the position this power is also known as ‘positional power’. It shows that according to position in the organization, the individual get power formally.
Referent power: This power is related with a desire, in which a person wants to adopt the qualities, attitude, etc. of other person. The stronger the association, the stronger is the power. This power is based upon the attraction exerted by one individual over another and known as charismatic power. The fans of film celebrities behave same as the celebrities behave in their daily life.
Expert power: Subordinate follows the leader if the leader is competent. Expert power is not organizational power. This power is based on the perception or belief that the influences have some relevant expertise or special knowledge that others do not have.
B. Structural sources of power
Knowledge: It plays an important role. People who have knowledge can affect the behavior of others; they can control the future and current information and also place an effect on information flow.
Resources: without adequate availability of all the necessary resources an organisation cannot survive. The resources include man, power, material, equipment etc. If there are resources in the organization, it means the organization is powerful.
Decision making: The person who makes final decision is the person who has ultimate power but sometimes the decision of the person is influenced by other person who possesses real power.
6. Acquisition of Power
It is everybody’s knowledge that some people enjoy more power than others. They do so by 1) doing the right things, 2) cultivating the right people, 3) coalescing, 4) co- opting and, 5) others
Doing the right things: for increasing personal power some activities are considerably better than others. When the activities are highly visible, extraordinary and developing a new programme or designing a new product, the power of individuals increases. Although most employees faithfully perform their assigned role, methodical and dependable role performance does not necessarily increase an individual’s power.
Cultivating the right things: individuals can increase their personal power by developing informal relationships with the right people. If the interpersonal relationships are properly managed, virtually everyone can contribute to the development of the individual’s personal power, including superiors, subordinates and peers.
Coalescing: individuals or groups frequently combine their resources to pursue common goals and objectives. The reason for joining together in such an alliance is an increased capacity to influence, achieved through greater control of resources. For example, a labour union comprises many individuals seeking to promote the collective interests of workers.
Co-opting: it is accomplished by absorbing people or groups whose support is needed into positions of limited influence. This tactic differs from coalescing in that it specially seeks to eliminate threats and opposition to an individual’s base of power.
Other method of power acquisition: Each manager has a two dimensional power base. The first is the personal power because of personal characteristics and knowledge, and the positional power by virtue of his status in the organisation. The factors which influence the acquisition of power are explained as below:
Acquisition of positional power: Whetton and Cameron has proposed some of the factors for building and enhancing positional power. These factors are:
Scarcity: when resources are scare in the organisation, there will be a struggle in the different departments for acquiring these resources. The winner of the struggle will acquire power. Power will become apparent only when the resources are scare.
Uncertainty: uncertainty plays an important role in acquisition of power. This may relate to reduction in supply of resources, fall in demand of company’s products, change in government policies etc. the managers who are able to cope with such uncertainty and who can gain from such uncertainty can acquire power.
Centrality: it refers to those activities that are most central to the work flow of the organisation. The manager will acquire positional power if the information filters through him. This will give him some say in the work of many sub units. For example, the finance manager approves all the expenses and the payments to all the departments of the organisation. This gives him an extra power base to affect the behaviour of the organisation.
Substitutability: there are many people in the organisation, whose contribution are so much, that they become indispensable. Valuable person holds the high power in the organisation. This indispensability may be the result of their specialty, expertise and knowledge which cannot be substituted easily by others.
Acquisition of personal power
Personal power can be acquired and enhanced by enhancing individual traits. Following factors may be considered in this context:
Hard work: if a person is hard working and sincere in his efforts will have more personal power because of this expertise and reference. A sincere person is always respected by the subordinates. A hard working person is perceived to know more about the job.
Referent power: it contributes to a large extent to the personal power of the manager. The manager should have a charisma that attracts the subordinates to him and make them follow him in every day.
Expertise: expertise can be gained through possession of special knowledge which can be gained by education, training and experience. Expertise can also be obtained by information gained by having access to data and/or people. A manager can enhance or acquire personal power through the expertise.
Strategies to gain power
The power tactics are used by the employees to translate their power bases into specific actions.
The important tactics used by the people to gain power are as below:
Reason: reasoning consists of use of facts and data to make a logical or rational presentation of ideas. An individual can use reasoning to gain power over others.
Assertiveness: it is use of a direct and forceful approach. The manager may demand strict compliance with requests repeating others, ordering individuals to do what is asked and pointing out that rules require compliance.
Higher authority: some managers may gain the support of higher levels in the organisation to back up their requests to their subordinates.
Sanctions: an individual can gain power over another person by preventing or promising a pay rise, by demoting or promoting a person or by threatening to give an unsatisfactory performance appraisal.
Pressure: it is a hostile method of gaining power. For example, trade unions may threaten strikes of their demands are not met by the management. On the other hand, management may threaten a lock out in the factory, if the trade unions do not accept its terms.
Competition: due to scarcity of the resources in the organisation, various groups compete with each other to have a greater share of such resources. For this, they try to influence the criteria used as the basis of resource distribution in the form of funds, space, support staff, etc.
Friendliness: an individual can gain power over another person by the use of flattery, creation of goodwill, acting humble and being friendly prior to making a request.
8. Acquisition of subunit power
Department or sections in an organisation represents the subunits. Like an individual power subunits obtain power for that subunits have many strategies. The power acquisition by sections and departments leads to inter-group conflicts. For acquiring subunit power following are the methods: controlling strategic contingencies, helping to control uncertainty, being irreplaceable, performing central functions and controlling resources.
Control of strategic contingencies: it means having control on the activity on which other subunits depend on. In an organisation one activity is related with many departments, one department cannot perform its job until the other department performs its job.
Ability to cope with uncertainty: when subunits have capacity to help the other departments and minimize their uncertainty, it acquires power. For example, in an organisation department Z has the power and ability to reduce the uncertainty of the department B, then the department Z has the more power than department B. One department can help the other department in reducing the uncertainty by providing it the required information by which a department can minimize its uncertainty.
Control of resources: money, time, materials, patents, market survey information and expertise are the organizational resources and value to the organisation. The subunit that provides or controls the critical resources of an organisation is the most powerful subunits. The subunits which are perceived weak and irrelevant eliminated because of their weak power position.
Centrality: in organisation subunits have the greatest power are the most central to work-flow. In the wheel communication other persons communicate with the person who is in centre, has the most central role and perceived as the leader of the group.
Irreplaceability: in an organisation the departments and the individuals providing important resources to organisation cannot be replaced and exert greatest power. Ability of the other subunits to perform the task of a particular subunit is the basis of power discussed in terms of substitutability. The power of a subunit reduced if the organisation can obtain other subunits with alternative sources of information, resources or skills. If the computer programming is known by the accountants then computer department losses its power in the organisation. The more power is acquired by the programmers and system analysts in the organisation if they develop a complex computer programmes. Programmers and system analysts fail to document their programmes to increase the power in the organisation so that the other programmer cannot revise or understand Them and it would be very expensive for the organisation to develop new programmes.
9. Power relationship
Power is a unilateral process of influence from the agent of the power to target. But the research has proved that power involves a reciprocal relationship between the agent and the target. Both the agent and the target possess distinct characteristics.
Characteristics of the target
Dependency: the greater the targets dependency on their relationship to agents, the more the targets is influenced. The examples of this are; where a target cannot escape a relationship, perceives no alternatives or values the agent’s rewards as unique, etc.
Uncertainty: the more uncertain a person is about the correctness or appropriateness of behaviour, the more likely he is to be influenced to change the behaviour.
Age: social psychologists have generally concluded that susceptibility to influence increases in young children up to about the age of eight or nine and then decreases with age until adolescence when it levels off.
Culture: the cultural values of a society have a tremendous impact on the influence ability of its people.
Gender: traditionally, it was acknowledge that women were more likely to conform to influence than men because of the way they were raised. But this evidence is now changing; there is less of a distinction on the basis of gender.
Intelligence: highly intelligent people may be more willing to learn on one hand, but because they also tend to be high in self esteem, they may also be more resistant to influence on the other hand.
10. Power Dynamics
Following are the dynamics of power:
Distribution of power: about power distribution following observation can be made;
Those in power try to grab more of it. They strongly resist any attempt to weaken the power they yield.
A person cannot have power at all places and at all the times. He may be forced to forgot his power or he may be stripped of it.
The higher the level of a person, the greater is the amount of his power. This matter is however, not so simple, because of the presence of the multiple bases of power.
Dependency: a group or a person cannot have power in isolation. Each party to the power relationship is in a position to some degree to be able to control or influence other’s conduct.
In mutual dependency, the power of a person over another depends on the amount of resistance the other person can put against the influence attempts by the person.
Trappings: it indicates the Para phernalia of power that people possess. From this point of view, every higher office has more power as compared to a lower office.
Reputation: people are knowledgeable about power relationships and willing to report what they know. Power of an individual can also be assessed by his reputation in the organisation as perceived by others.
5. Uncertainty: the uncertainty element of dynamics of power can be elaborated on the following lines;
i. The more the contingencies controlled by a unit, more is the power exercised by it.
ii. Organization seeks to avoid uncertainty as far as possible. People who can absorb uncertainty yield more power.
6. Compliance: Compliance element of dynamics of power can be described as follows;
i. People; generally comply with legitimate power as compared to all other types of power.
ii. Reward and coercive powers are generally used by managers as tools for Compliance.
11. Power Indicators
When power is invisible, it affects more. It is not easy to tell when power is being used. People do not want to know others when they use their power. People fails to realise what they are doing while they use power. The people who use power think that their influence is not political but rational. There are five criteria available to check the use of power in decision making rather than by logic. The five indicators of power are representation on committees, reputation, consequences of power, symbol and determinants of power.
1. Reputation: asking the organizational members about the possession of greatest power is the way of assessing power in the organisation. This method assumes that people have knowledge and wants to report about power relationships and measure the reputation on organizational members perceived by others.
2. Symbols: examining symbols of power possessed by an individual can be determined by Power of different individuals they possessed. Special parking privileges, automobiles, airplanes and office furnishing are some example of symbol.
3. Consequences of power: those who possess greatest power used to influence decisions and get favourable decision outcomes. Power and consequences relationship needs to be carefully interpreted. Typically, we assumed that who persuade others are the most powerful people.
4. Determinants of Power: the people who have greatest power possess the good knowledge. One method of assessing power focuses on the potential exerts influence and consists of measuring how many determinants of power are available to each member.
5. Representation on committees: this is last way of assessing power. Individuals have greatest power for their department who are invited to significant administrative councils for the participation. Like participation of engineers in quality circle or the participation of accountants in meeting of executive committee.
| Indicators | Examples |
| Reputation | Asking for one’s opinion, seeking one’s advice and comments by others acknowledging one’s power. |
| Symbols | Invitations to attend social events and seating at those events. Size furnishing and location of one’s office. |
| Consequences of power | Authority to hire and fire others, ability to authorize exceptions to policy, budget allocation and win-loss record in debated issues. |
| Determinants of power | Referent power, expert power, legitimate power, coercive power, reward power |
| Representation on committees | Executive committee, presidential task forces.The status and number of committee membership; Advisory committee, board of directors. |
12. Summary
If a person able to influence the behavior of other individuals it means he has power. Power are dependency of one person on the other, this is the basic feature of power. Power can be contracted also due to transfer or shifting from one department to another. Work shifts which are suitable to the employees, positive performance appraisal, employee’s promotion, better payment to the employees, etc. can be different forms of rewards in the organisational contexts. Individuals can increase their personal power by developing informal relationships with the right people.
| you can view video on Power and Politics-I | |
REFERENCES:-
- Organisational Behaviour by K Ashwathappa, published by Himalaya Publishing House.
- Organisational Behaviour by Shashi K Gupta and Rosy Joshi, published by Kalyani Publishers.
- Organizational Behaviour-an evidence based approach by Fred Luthans, published by
- McGraw Hill Education, 12th Edition.
- Organisational behaviour-foundation, realities and challenges by Debra L. Nelson and James
- Campbell Quick, Published by South-Western Cengage Learning, 5th Edition. http://keydifferences.com/difference-between-power-and-authority.html
http://theydiffer.com/difference-between-power-and-authority/ - Http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-sources-power-organizations-14467.html https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-
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