Organizational Communication for leaders
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KiniOB2e_C12_Final_R.pptxCHAPTER 12
Power, Influence,
and Politics
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Major Questions You Should Be Able to Answer
12.1 What are the basic forms of power and how can they help achieve my desired outcomes?
12.2 How can sharing power increase my power?
12.3 How do influence tactics affect my personal effectiveness?
12.4 What are the many forms of politics, and how can understanding them make me more effective at school, at work, and in social situations?
12.5 Do I seek only to impress, or to make a good impression?
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What Is Power?
The ability to marshal human, informational, and other resources to get something done
Concerned with influencing others
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Power: the discretion and the means to enforce your will over others.
Power is all about influencing others.
The more influence you have, the more powerful you are, and vice versa.
Power should be accepted as a natural part of any organization.
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The Five Bases of Power
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Legitimate power: obtaining compliance through formal authority.
Legitimate power may be expressed either positively or negatively.
Positive legitimate power focuses constructively on job performance.
Negative legitimate power tends to be threatening and demeaning to those being influenced.
Reward power: obtaining compliance with promised or actual rewards.
Coercive power: obtaining compliance through threatened or actual punishment.
Expert power: obtaining compliance through one’s valued knowledge or information.
Referent power: when one’s personal characteristics and social relationships become the reason for compliance.
One’s network of relationships can be a source of referent power, as can one’s reputation.
Referent power can be used in marketing programs or to target new sales.
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Individual Reactions to Power
Individuals have three primary responses to power.
Resistance
Compliance
Commitment
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People tend to have three primary reactions to our attempts to manage and otherwise influence them—resistance, compliance, and commitment.
There are many forms and degrees of resistance, ranging from being passive-aggressive to sabotaging.
People who display compliance do only what is expected and exert no extra effort and provide no extra input.
People who display commitment believe in the cause and often go above and beyond to assure its success.
Leaders who do not use their power responsibly risk losing it.
It is important for managers to understand the difference between commitment and mere compliance.
Reward, coercive, and negative legitimate power tend to produce compliance and sometimes resistance.
Positive legitimate power, expert power, and referent power tend to foster commitment.
Commitment is superior to compliance because it is driven by internal or intrinsic motivation.
Employees who merely comply require frequent “jolts” of power from the boss to keep them going.
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Bases of Power and Effectiveness
Generally, different bases of power affect important outcomes such as job performance, job satisfaction, and turnover.
Expert and referent power have a generally positive effect.
Reward and legitimate power have a slightly positive effect.
Coercive power has a slightly negative effect.
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Gina promised her employees that if they reached the goal of fewer than five customer complaints during December she would give them each a $500 gift card. What type of power is Gina using and what is her likely result?
using coercive, result is commitment
using positive legitimate, result is compliance
using expert, result is resistance
using referent, result is commitment
using reward, result is compliance
Test Your OB Knowledge (1 of 5)
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The answer is E. Gina is using reward power and the result will be compliance.
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Power Sharing and Empowerment
What is empowerment?
Efforts to enhance employee performance, well-being, and positive attitudes by
Giving employees greater influence
Use of centralized management practices
Empowerment means
Structural: Job redesign to transfer of power to employees
Psychological: Through enhancing self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation
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Empowerment: efforts to enhance employee performance, well-being, and positive attitudes.
Empowerment has been shown to favorably influence many outcomes in the Organizing Framework, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance, turnover, and employee stress.
Empowerment is becoming a necessity because of the time constraints placed on managers.
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Structural Empowerment
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Structural empowerment: based on transferring authority and responsibilities from management to employees.
Managers can boost employee empowerment by changing policies, procedures, job responsibilities, and team designs.
Decision-making authority and other broader responsibilities should only be shared with those who are competent to do what is necessary.
Empowerment is not a zero-sum game where one person’s gain is another’s loss—sharing power is a means for increasing your own power.
Empowerment is a matter of degree, not an either-or proposition.
Figure 12.6 illustrates how power can be shifted to the hands of non-managers step by step.
A common element of empowerment involves pushing decision-making authority down to lower levels.
The degree of power-sharing should match the needs of the situation and the capabilities of the individuals or teams involved.
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Psychological Empowerment
Occurs when we feel a sense of
Meaning from our work
Competence in our ability to perform
Self-determination: degree of control over how we perform our jobs
Impact at work: the difference our efforts make
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Psychological empowerment: when employees feel a sense of meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact at work.
Meaning: belief that your work values and goals align with those of your manager, team, or employer.
Competence: personal evaluation of your ability to do your job.
Self-determination: sense that you have control over your work and its outcomes.
Impact at work: feeling that your efforts make a difference and affect the organization.
While structural empowerment draws on job design and characteristics, psychological empowerment is related to self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation.
Psychological empowerment deals with employees’ perceptions or cognitive states regarding empowerment.
Recent research and practice have shown that the same four elements that foster psychological empowerment for individuals apply to teams and organizations.
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Empowering Individuals, Teams, and Organizations
The levers of empowerment operate across all levels of the organization
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The levers presented in Figure 12.7 can be used to influence empowerment across all levels of an organization.
Structural empowerment is an input to psychological empowerment since job characteristics, policies, and practices can either facilitate or impede the feelings of empowerment.
Individual differences, such as the extent to which employees have positive self-evaluations, psychological capital, and a need for achievement, likely enhance the sense of empowerment.
Managerial support, leadership, and organizational support through resource availability foster psychological empowerment.
Outcomes of empowerment include performance, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, creativity, and stress.
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Test Your OB Knowledge (2 of 5)
John is asking advice about how to effectively empower his employees. Which of the following is NOT good advice?
Only share responsibilities with those who are competent to do what is necessary.
A manager needs to be careful when empowering employees because it will decrease the manager’s power.
Use job design and the job characteristics model as a way of empowering employees.
The extent to which employees have positive self-evaluations will enhance their sense of empowerment.
A common element of empowerment involves pushing decision-making authority down to lower levels.
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The answer is B. A manager needs to be careful when sharing power by empowering employees as it will decrease the manager’s power.
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Influencing Others
Common influence tactics to affect changes in others
Soft tactics
Rational persuasion
Inspirational appeals
Consultation
Ingratiation
Personal appeals
Hard tactics
Exchange
Coalition tactics
Pressure
Legitimizing tactics
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Influence tactics: conscious efforts to affect and change a specific behavior in others.
Generic influence tactics that can be used in all directions (i.e., downward, upward, or lateral) include:
Soft tactics: are friendlier than, and not as coercive as some 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 before making a request; being friendly, helpful, and using praise, flattery, or humor.
Personal appeals: referring to friendship and loyalty when making a request.
Hard tactics: involve more overt pressure than some 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 policies, or express or implied support from superiors.
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Effectively Influencing Others
Six principles of persuasion
Liking
Reciprocity
Social proof
Consistency
Authority
Scarcity
Use the above in combination, for maximum effectiveness.
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Experiments by Robert Cialdini and others have identified six principles for influencing people.
These principles are based on the idea that people have fundamental responses, and if your efforts align with these responses, your influence increases.
Liking: people tend to like those who like them.
Reciprocity: the belief that good and bad deeds should be repaid in kind.
Social proof: people tend to follow the lead of those most like themselves.
Consistency: people tend to do what they are personally committed to do.
Authority: people tend to defer to and respect credible experts.
Scarcity: people want items, information, and opportunities that have limited availability.
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Test Your OB Knowledge (3 of 5)
Rachel believes using soft influence tactics is more effective than using hard tactics. Which of the following tactics is Rachel most likely to use?
basing requests on her authority
getting others to support her efforts to persuade someone
using intimidation and threats
building enthusiasm by appealing to her employees’ emotions
making explicit promises
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The answer is D, building enthusiasm by appealing to her employees’ emotions.
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Political Tactics and How to Use Them
Organizational politics
Intentional acts of influence to enhance or protect the self-interest of individuals or groups that are not endorsed by or aligned with those of the organization
Some key causes of political behavior
Organizational justice
Trust in co-workers
Negative affect
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Organizational politics: intentional acts in pursuit of self-interests that conflict with organizational interests.
Organizational politics focus on self-interests, which may or may not serve the organization’s interests.
Organizational politics are positive if political action helps an organization adapt or if they counter when bad actors create organizational goals and objectives to suit their own interests.
Organizational politics can negatively affect outcomes across all three levels in the Organizing Framework.
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Uncertainty and Political Behavior
Uncertainty: may trigger political behaviors
Sources of uncertainty
Unclear objectives
Vague performance measures
Ill-defined decision processes
Strong individual or group competition
Any type of change
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Uncertainty as a result of unclear objectives, vague performance measures, ill-defined decision processes, strong individual or group competition, or any type of change, is often a cause of political actions.
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Frequently Used Political Tactics
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
Creating a favorable image
Praising others
Attacking or blaming others
Using information as a political tool
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Table 12.2 describes commonly used political tactics such as 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; creating a favorable image; praising others (ingratiation); attacking or blaming others; or using information as a political tool.
Using networks is a positive use of politics, while blaming others is a less-than-positive tactic.
People tend to assign blame for failures by blaming others, blaming oneself, or denying blame.
Assigning blame correctly is important not only to preserve your influence, but also to help guide your future behavior.
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Failure, Blame, and Politics
How one responds to underperformance—failure—is very important if you are to preserve your influence.
Blame for failures can be assigned to others or oneself, or denied.
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Levels of Political Action
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Figure 12.8 illustrates three different levels of political action: the individual level, the coalition level, and the network level.
Coalition: an informal group bound together by the active pursuit of a single issue.
Coalitions may or may not coincide with formal group membership and will disband when the target issue is resolved.
Political coalitions have “fuzzy boundaries,” meaning they are fluid in membership, flexible in structure, and temporary in duration.
Networks are loose associations of individuals seeking social support for their general self-interests.
Networks are people-oriented, while coalitions are issue-oriented, and networks have broader and longer-term agendas than do coalitions.
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How Political Should I Be?
Individuals who are highly political
Run the risk of being called self-serving
May lose credibility
May be considered poor team players
Individuals who are strictly non-political
May experience slower promotions
May feel left out
May be considered poor team players
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Managers are naïve to believe that organizational politics can be eliminated, but political maneuvering can and should be managed to keep it constructive and within reasonable bounds.
An individual’s degree of politicalness is a matter of personal values, ethics, and temperament.
People who are either strictly nonpolitical or highly political generally pay a price for their behavior.
A moderate amount of prudent political behavior generally is considered a survival tool in complex organizations.
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Test Your OB Knowledge (4 of 5)
Mike is involved in a group at work responsible for getting the company parking lot repaired and expanded. What level of political action is Mike likely a part of?
coalition level
safety committee level
network level
individual level
long-term level
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The answer is A, coalition level.
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Impression Management
We engage in impression management daily, so what is it?
Any attempt to control or manipulate the images related to a person, organization, or idea using
Speech
Behavior
Appearance
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Impression management: any attempt to control or manipulate the images related to a person, organization, or idea.
Impression management encompasses things such as speech, behavior, and appearance.
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Power of a Good Impression: You Only Have One Chance
How does one make a good impression?
Set an intention
Consider your ornaments
Remember your body speaks
Bust bad moods and bad days
Be interested to be interesting
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To make a good first impression, you should:
Set goals for networking events.
Consider the message that your jewelry, makeup, and clothes send.
Pay attention to your nonverbal communication.
Manage your emotions and mood.
Be interested to be interesting.
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Impression Management Tactics
Favorable upward impression- management tactics
A moderate amount of upward impression management is a necessity for the average employee today.
Job-focused
Supervisor-focused
Self-focused
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Favorable upward impression management techniques include job-focused, supervisor-focused, and self-focused techniques.
A moderate amount of upward impression management is a necessity to make sure your valuable contributions are not overlooked, but people run the risk of being branded a “schmoozer” or a “phony” with too much impression management.
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How to Create Bad Impressions
How do bad impressions happen?
Doing only the minimum
Having a negative mindset
Overcommitting
Taking no initiative
Waiting until the last minute to deliver bad news
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Many employees often make bad impressions without knowing it.
You can create a bad impression by:
Only doing the minimum and not even taking simple steps to make extra effort.
Having a negative mindset or being an eternal naysayer.
Overcommitting, resulting in an inability to deliver on-time or quality work.
Taking no initiative and failing to take action when something needs to get done.
Waiting until the last minute to deliver bad news.
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Remedying Bad Impressions
Apologies: a form of trust and influence repair when harm—real or perceived—has been done
Characteristics of apologies?
Acknowledgement of wrongdoing
Acceptance of responsibility
Expression of regret
Promise that the offense will not be repeated
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One way to remedy or at least reduce the impact of bad impressions, negative uses of power, or poor performance is with an apology.
Apologies are a form of trust repair in which we acknowledge an offense and usually offer to make amends for perceived or actual harm.
Apologies are considered effective to the extent they restore trust and positively affect your ability to influence the offended party in the future.
Effective apologies acknowledge wrongdoing, accept responsibility, express regret, and promise that the offense will not be repeated.
Table 12.4 describes reasons why leaders should apologize and the desired outcomes of the apologies.
A failure to apologize, or to do so in a timely manner, can turn a bad situation worse.
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Test Your OB Knowledge (5 of 5)
Janice would like to make a good impression when she goes on an interview next week. Janice should do all of the following EXCEPT
make sure to wear flashy jewelry so she is noticed.
be aware of nonverbal cues.
be in a good mood.
present information about job performance in a favorable light.
come across as nice and polite.
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The answer is A, make sure to wear flashy jewelry so she is noticed.
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Power, Influence, and Politics: Putting It All in Context
Figure 12.9 The Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB
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Appendix 1 Individual Reactions to Power
The pie chart is halved into “Tend to Produce Compliance or Resistance” and “Tend to Foster Commitment.”
Tend to produce compliance or resistance:
Coercive
Reward
Legitimate negative. This is a lesser slice, half of the legitimate positive slice in tend to foster commitment.
Tend to foster commitment
Referent
Expert
Legitimate positive. This is a lesser slice, half of the legitimate negative slice in tend to produce compliance or resistance.
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Appendix 2 Structural Empowerment
The graphic shows degree of empowerment from none to high. And the management styles are domination, consultation, participation, and delegation.
Authoritarian power, wherein the manager or leader imposes decisions, has no degree of empowerment and is a domination style.
Influence sharing, wherein the manager or leader consults followers when making decisions, is a bit higher than authoritarian power in empowerment, and is a consultation style of management style.
Power sharing, wherein the manager or leader and followers jointly make decisions in very high in empowerment, and is a participation style of management.
Power distribution, wherein followers are granted authority to make decisions, is the highest in empowerment and is a delegation style of management.
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Appendix 3 Empowering Individuals, Teams, and Organizations
The key inputs to empower others include structural empowerment, individual differences (core self-evaluations, psychological capital, and need for achievement), job characteristics, managerial support, leadership, and organizational support (access to resources from other teams).
The outcomes include performance, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and stress.
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Appendix 4 Levels of Political Action
| LEVELS | DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS |
| Network level | Cooperative pursuit of general self-interest |
| Coalition level | Cooperative pursuit of group interests in specific issues |
| Individual level | Individuals pursuit of general self-interests |
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Appendix 5 Power, Influence, and Politics: Putting It All in Context
The Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB shows the relationship between the three categories Inputs, Process, and Outcomes.
Inputs
Person factors: personality, skills and abilities, values, and ethics
Situation factors: relationship quality and leadership
Leads to
Processes
Individual Level: conflict and negotiation, emotions, perceptions, motivation, trust, communication, and psychological empowerment
Group, Team Level: group and or team dynamics; conflict and negotiation; decision making; power, influence, and politics; performance management, leadership, trust, structural empowerment, and impression management
Organizational Level: human resource policies and practices, leading and managing change and stress, and impression management
Leads to
Outcomes
Individual Level: task performance, work attitudes, citizenship behavior and or counterproductive behavior, turnover, career outcomes, and stress
Group, Team Level: group and or team performance, group satisfaction, and group cohesion and conflict
Organizational Level: accounting and or financial performance, customer satisfaction, and reputation
In return, Outcomes relates to both Inputs and Processes.
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