BA420 Power and Politics

Power and Politics

Power and Politics

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Power and Politics

Interpersonal power in a leader refers to the type of personal power they insert over their subordinates. The types of interpersonal power are expert, reverent, information, legitimate, reward and coercive. In the case of Jon Lasseter the type of interpersonal power he displayed was expert power. Lassester’s power is the result of his extensive knowledge on animations and his foresight in understanding the direction the industry would travel in. Despite is knowledge and foresight Lassester was not given an opportunity to lead Disney into the new generation of computer animations and instead provided expert power for Pixar leading to their success in the world of animations.

The second kind of interpersonal power in the case study belongs to the leader that used their power to stop the efforts of Lassester to lead Disney into a new age of animations. The type of power displayed by this leader was coercive. Coercive power is the ability to force someone to do something because of superior physical strength of legal ability to restrain or incarcerate (Tanszekek, 2013). This leader used their power based on their personal feelings about Lassester to prevent his new project from going through and in fact firing Lassester. When Lassester left Disney and went to Pixar he brought a wealth of knowledge about animations which resulted in the company becoming a major success and forever changing how animations are created.

The two faces of power appear in this case when one leader displays poor character in their actions and in their judgment. Because on one hand power can corrupt, the leader that used their influence to fire Lassester was not acting in the best interest of Disney but the best interest of themselves and their wounded ego. Powerful people have psychological incentives to hold others to strict account for their actions while they misbehave themselves (Palmquist, 2012). Lassester displayed goo, moral behavior which continued even after being unfairly fired.

The leader that used their power to fire John Lassester did not display ethical leadership. Instead the leader that fired Lassester use their influence and power to ensure Lassester was fired. It is unethical to use the power or authority given over another person in order to engage behavior designed to alleviate personal feelings. The leader was angry because Lassester stopped on their toes and did not display the proper deference. He caused harm to Lassester and harm to Disney. If this leader had acted ethically they would have explain the issue to Lassester and taken steps to retrain him instead of firing what was clearly an asset to the company.

If Disney had retained Lassester they would have been leader in the computer animation market and would have profited hugely but due to company politics Disney lost this opportunity. Instead of looking for new creative ways to approach animation, Disney was looking for ways to cut costs. The dream of Disney to create a world of fantasy was not considered in the decisions of the Disney leadership at the time. Instead the focus was in making animated films for as cheap as possible. The company was not interested in fresh ideas and instead leadership was only developed from the senior executives. Politics was the reason Lassester was fired.

Political behavior can have a negative impact on an organization. In one instance an executive was caught by the company embezzling thousands of dollars from the company. This incident was not kept secret and in fact was well known by everyone in the company. Instead of firing the senior executive or pressing changes he continued to hold his job and was required to pay the money back on a monthly basis. The organization did not want to lose his expertise so instead e stayed. As a result many employees quit and others lost respect for this executive and for the company their decision ultimately affected employee morale and the executive was later terminated.

References

Palmquist, M. (2012). The Two Faces of Power. Retrieved September 30, 2014 from

http://www.strategy-business.com/article/10217?gko=a61bb

Tanszekek, Z. (2013). Interpersonal Power. Retrieved September 30, 2014 from

http://old.btk.pte.hu/tanszekek/angolirod/arch0506II/5.htm