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Chapter 13 Power and Politics
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
1. Understand the meaning of power.
2. Recognize the positive and negative aspects of power and influence.
3. Recognize the sources of power.
4. Understand and recognize influence tactics and impression management.
5. Learn the definition of a social network and how to analyze your own network.
6. Understand the antecedents and consequences of organizational politics.
7. Understand how ethics affect power.
8. Understand cross-cultural influences on power use.
Focus on Power—The Case of Steve Jobs On November 27, 2007, Fortune named Steve Jobs the most powerful person
in business. The CEO of Apple Inc. has transformed no fewer than five
different industries: computers, Hollywood movies, music, retailing, and
wireless phones. His Apple II ushered in the personal computer era in 1977,
and the graphical interface of the Macintosh in 1984 set the standard that all
other PCs emulated. His company Pixar defined the computer-animated
feature film. The iPod, iTunes, and iPhone revolutionized how we listen to
music, how we pay for and receive all types of digital content, and what we
expect of a mobile phone.
How has Jobs done it? As we’ll see in this chapter, Jobs draws on all six types
of power: expert, legitimate, reward, referent, information, and coercive. His
vision and sheer force of will helped him succeed as a young unknown. But the
same determination that helps him succeed has a darker side—an autocracy
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and drive for perfection that can make him tyrannical. Forcefulness is helpful
when tackling large, intractable problems, says Stanford social psychologist
Roderick Kramer, who calls Jobs one of the “great intimidators.” Jobs has
been known to berate people to the point of tears, but at the same time, “He
inspires astounding effort and creativity from his people.”
Employee Andy Herzfeld, the lead designer of the original Mac operating
system, says Jobs imbues employees with a “messianic zeal” and can make
them feel that they’re working on the greatest product in the world. But at the
same time, Jobs is very hard to please, so Apple employees work hard to win
his approval. “He has the ability to pull the best out of people,” says Cordell
Ratzlaff, who worked closely with Jobs on OS X for 18 months. “I learned a
tremendous amount from him.” Jobs’s ability to persuade and influence has
come to be called a “reality distortion field.” As Bud Tribble put it, “In his
presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically
anything.” Hertzfeld describes his style as “a confounding mélange of a
charismatic rhetorical style, an indomitable will, and an eagerness to bend any
fact to fit the purpose at hand.” The influence works even when you’re aware
of it, and it works even on “enemies”: “No other high-tech impresario could
walk into the annual sales meeting of one of his fiercest rivals and get a
standing ovation,” which is what Jobs got in 2002 from Intel Corporation (the
ally of Apple archrival Microsoft in the partnership known as Wintel:
Windows + Intel).
Jobs’s power is not infallible—he was ousted from his own company in 1987 by
the man he hired to help him run it—but he was brought back in 1997. The
only years that Apple was unprofitable were the years during Jobs’s absence.
Many are watching to see how Apple runs without Jobs who took a 6-month
leave of absence in early 2009.
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Sources: Schlender, B. (2007, November 27). The power of Steve
Jobs. Fortune, 117–118; Sutton, R. (2007). The no asshole rule. New York:
Warner Business Books; Kahney, L. (2008, March 18). How Apple got
everything right by doing everything wrong. Wired. Retrieved January 4,
2008, fromhttp://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_apple;
Hertzfeld, A. (1981, February). Reality distortion field. Retrieved January 4,
2008, from
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Reality_Distortion_Field.txt.
Video Connection If you are interested in learning more about Steve Jobs as he describes pivotal
moments in his life, view Steve Jobs’s commencement speech at Stanford in
2005, available at the following Web
site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
13.1 The Basics of Power
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Learn the meaning of power.
2. Understand how power can have both positive and negative consequences.
3. Learn about different sources of power.
4. Understand the relationship between dependency and power.
What Is Power?
We’ll look at the aspects and nuances of power in more detail in this chapter,
but simply put, power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get
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what you want. Gerald Salancik and Jeffery Pfeffer concur, noting, “Power is
simply the ability to get things done the way one wants them to be done.” [1]
If
you want a larger budget to open a new store in a large city and you get the
budget increase, you have used your power to influence the decision.
Power distribution is usually visible within organizations. For example,
Salancik and Pfeffer gathered information from a company with 21
department managers and asked 10 of those department heads to rank all the
managers according to the influence each person had in the organization.
Although ranking 21 managers might seem like a difficult task, all the
managers were immediately able to create that list. When Salancik and Pfeffer
compared the rankings, they found virtually no disagreement in how the top 5
and bottom 5 managers were ranked. The only slight differences came from
individuals ranking themselves higher than their colleagues ranked them. The
same findings held true for factories, banks, and universities.
Positive and Negative Consequences of Power
The fact that we can see and succumb to power means that power has both
positive and negative consequences. On one hand, powerful CEOs can align an
entire organization to move together to achieve goals. Amazing
philanthropists such as Paul Farmer, a doctor who brought hospitals,
medicine, and doctors to remote Haiti, and Greg Mortenson, a mountaineer
who founded the Central Asia Institute and built schools across Pakistan, draw
on their own power to organize others toward lofty goals; they have changed
the lives of thousands of individuals in countries around the world for the
better. [2]
On the other hand, autocracy can destroy companies and countries
alike. The phrase, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely” was first said by English historian John Emerich Edward Dalberg,
who warned that power was inherently evil and its holders were not to be
trusted. History shows that power can be intoxicating and can be devastating
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when abused, as seen in high-profile cases such as those involving Enron
Corporation and government leaders such as the impeached Illinois Governor
Rod Blagojevich in 2009. One reason that power can be so easily abused is
because individuals are often quick to conform. To understand this
relationship better, we will examine three famous researchers who studied
conformity in a variety of contexts.
Conformity
Conformity refers to people’s tendencies to behave consistently with social
norms. Conformity can refer to small things such as how people tend to face
forward in an elevator. There’s no rule listed in the elevator saying which way
to face, yet it is expected that everyone will face forward. To test this, the next
time you’re in an elevator with strangers, simply stand facing the back of the
elevator without saying anything. You may notice that those around you
become uncomfortable. Conformity can result in engaging in unethical
behaviors, because you are led by someone you admire and respect who has
power over you. Guards at Abu Ghraib said they were just following orders
when they tortured prisoners. [3]
People conform because they want to fit in
with and please those around them. There is also a tendency to look to others
in ambiguous situations, which can lead to conformity. The response to “Why
did you do that?” being “Because everyone else was doing it” sums up this
tendency.
So, does conformity occur only in rare or extreme circumstances? Actually,
this is not the case. Three classic sets of studies illustrate how important it is
to create checks and balances to help individuals resist the tendency to
conform or to abuse authority. To illustrate this, we will examine findings
from the Milgram, Asch, and Zimbardo studies.
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The Milgram Studies
Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale in the 1960s, set out to study
conformity to authority. His work tested how far individuals would go in
hurting another individual when told to do so by a researcher. A key factor in
the Milgram study and others that will be discussed is the use of confederates,
or people who seem to be participants but are actually paid by the researchers
to take on a certain role. Participants believed that they were engaged in an
experiment on learning. The participant (teacher) would ask a series of
questions to another “participant” (learner). The teachers were instructed to
shock the learners whenever an incorrect answer was given. The learner was
not a participant at all but actually a confederate who would pretend to be hurt
by the shocks and yell out in pain when the button was pushed. Starting at 15
volts of power, the participants were asked to increase the intensity of the
shocks over time. Some expressed concern when the voltage was at 135 volts,
but few stopped once they were told by the researcher that they would not
personally be held responsible for the outcome of the experiment and that
their help was needed to complete the experiment. In the end, all the
participants were willing to go up to 300 volts, and a shocking 65% were
willing to administer the maximum of 450 volts even as they heard screams of
pain from the learner. [4]
The Asch Studies
Another researcher, Solomon Asch, found that individuals could be influenced
to say that two lines were the same length when one was clearly shorter than
the other. This effect was established using groups of four or more participants
who were told they were in experiments of visual perception. However, only
one person in the group was actually in the experiment. The rest were
confederates, and the researchers had predetermined whether or not they gave
accurate answers. Groups were shown a focal line and a choice of three other
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lines of varying length, with one being the same length as the focal line. Most
of the time the confederates would correctly state which choice matched the
focal line, but occasionally they would give an obviously wrong answer. For
example, looking at the following lines, the confederates might say that choice
C matches the length of the focal line. When this happened, the actual
research participant would go along with the wrong answer 37% of the time.
When asked why they went along with the group, participants said they
assumed that the rest of the group, for whatever reason, had more information
regarding the correct choice. It only took three other individuals saying the
wrong answer for the participant to routinely agree with the group. However,
this effect was decreased by 75% if just one of the insiders gave the correct
answer, even if the rest of the group gave the incorrect answer. This finding
illustrates the power that even a small dissenting minority can have.
Additionally, it holds even if the dissenting confederate gives a different
incorrect answer. As long as one confederate gave an answer that was different
from the majority, participants were more likely to give the correct answer
themselves. [5]
A meta-analysis of 133 studies using Asch’s research design
revealed two interesting patterns. First, within the United States, the level of
conformity has been decreasing since the 1950s. Second, studies done in
collectivistic countries such as Japan showed more conformity than those
done in more individualistic countries such as Great Britain. [6]
Figure 13.3
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Participants were asked one by one to say which of the lines on the right matched the
line on the focal line on the left. While A is an exact match, many participants
conformed when others unanimously chose B or C.
The Zimbardo Study
Philip Zimbardo, a researcher at Stanford University, conducted a famous
experiment in the 1970s. [7]
While this experiment would probably not make it
past the human subjects committee of schools today, at the time, he was
authorized to place an ad in the paper that asked for male volunteers to help
understand prison management. After excluding any volunteers with
psychological or medical problems or with any history of crime or drug abuse,
he identified 24 volunteers to participate in his study. Researchers randomly
assigned 18 individuals to the role of prisoner or guard. Those assigned the
role of “prisoners” were surprised when they were picked up by actual police
officers and then transferred to a prison that had been created in the basement
of the Stanford psychology building. The guards in the experiment were told to
keep order but received no training. Zimbardo was shocked with how quickly
the expected roles emerged. Prisoners began to feel depressed and helpless.
Guards began to be aggressive and abusive. The original experiment was
scheduled to last 2 weeks, but Zimbardo ended it after only 6 days upon seeing
how deeply entrenched in their roles everyone, including himself, had become.
Next we will examine the relationship between dependency and power.
The Relationship Between Dependency and Power
Dependency
Dependency is directly related to power. The more that a person or unit is
dependent on you, the more power you have. The strategic contingencies
model provides a good description of how dependency works. According to the
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model, dependency is power that a person or unit gains from their ability to
handle actual or potential problems facing the organization. [8]
You know how
dependent you are on someone when you answer three key questions that are
addressed in the following sections.
Scarcity
In the context of dependency, scarcity refers to the uniqueness of a resource.
The more difficult something is to obtain, the more valuable it tends to be.
Effective persuaders exploit this reality by making an opportunity or offer
seem more attractive because it is limited or exclusive. They might convince
you to take on a project because “it’s rare to get a chance to work on a new
project like this,” or “You have to sign on today because if you don’t, I have to
offer it to someone else.”
Importance
Importance refers to the value of the resource. The key question here is “How
important is this?” If the resources or skills you control are vital to the
organization, you will gain some power. The more vital the resources that you
control are, the more power you will have. For example, if Kecia is the only
person who knows how to fill out reimbursement forms, it is important that
you are able to work with her, because getting paid back for business trips and
expenses is important to most of us.
Substitutability
Finally, substitutability refers to one’s ability to find another option that works
as well as the one offered. The question around whether something is
substitutable is “How difficult would it be for me to find another way to this?”
The harder it is to find a substitute, the more dependent the person becomes
and the more power someone else has over them. If you are the only person
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who knows how to make a piece of equipment work, you will be very powerful
in the organization. This is true unless another piece of equipment is brought
in to serve the same function. At that point, your power would diminish.
Similarly, countries with large supplies of crude oil have traditionally had
power to the extent that other countries need oil to function. As the price of oil
climbs, alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydropower
become more attractive to investors and governments. For example, in
response to soaring fuel costs and environmental concerns, in 2009 Japan
Airlines successfully tested a blend of aircraft fuel made from a mix of
camelina, jatropha, and algae on the engine of a Boeing 747-300 aircraft. [9]
Figure 13.4
Possessing any of the three aspects of a resource could make others depend on
you, two would make you extremely needed, and having all three could make
you indispensable.
K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get what you want. It is
often visible to others within organizations. Conformity manifests itself in several
ways, and research shows that individuals will defer to a group even when they may
know that what they are doing is inaccurate or unethical. Having just one person
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dissent helps to buffer this effect. The more dependent someone is on you, the more
power you have over them. Dependency is increased when you possess something
that is considered scarce, important, and nonsubstitutable by others.
E X E R C I S E S
1. What does the phrase “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
refer to? What experiences have you had that confirm or refute this assumption?
2. Thinking about the Milgram and Zimbardo studies, do you think you would behave
the same or differently in those situations? Why or why not?
3. What lessons can be learned from the past studies of conformity to help avoid
abuses of power in the future?
4. Give an example of someone who you are dependent upon. Think about how
scarcity, importance, and substitutability affect this dependency.
13.2 The Power to Influence
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Identify the five sources of power.
2. Understand influence tactics.
3. Learn about impression management.
4. Examine the impact of the direction of influence attempts.
Bases of Power
Having power and using power are two different things. For example, imagine
a manager who has the power to reward or punish employees. When the
manager makes a request, he or she will probably be obeyed even though the
manager does not actually reward the employee. The fact that the manager has
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the ability to give rewards and punishments will be enough for employees to
follow the request. What are the sources of one’s power over others?
Researchers identified six sources of power, which include legitimate, reward,
coercive, expert, information, and referent. [1]
You might earn power from one
source or all six depending on the situation. Let us take a look at each of these
in turn, and continue with Steve Jobs from the opening case as our example.
Legitimate Power
Legitimate power is power that comes from one’s organizational role or
position. For example, a boss can assign projects, a policeman can arrest a
citizen, and a teacher assigns grades. Others comply with the requests these
individuals make because they accept the legitimacy of the position, whether
they like or agree with the request or not. Steve Jobs has enjoyed legitimate
power as the CEO of Apple. He could set deadlines and employees comply
even if they think the deadlines were overly ambitious. Start-up organizations
often have founders who use their legitimate power to influence individuals to
work long hours week after week in order to help the company survive.
Reward Power
Reward power is the ability to grant a reward, such as an increase in pay, a
perk, or an attractive job assignment. Reward power tends to accompany
legitimate power and is highest when the reward is scarce. Anyone can wield
reward power, however, in the form of public praise or giving someone
something in exchange for their compliance. When Steve Jobs ran Apple, he
had reward power in the form of raises and promotions. Another example of
reward power comes from Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, who has the power to
launch new companies or not. He created his company with the idea of
launching other new companies as soon as they could develop viable ideas. If
members could convince him that their ideas were viable, he gave the
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company a maximum of $250,000 in seed money, and gave the management
team and employees a 30% stake in the company and the CEO 10% of the
company. That way, everyone had a stake in the company. The CEO's salary
was capped at $75,000 to maintain the sense of equity. When one of the
companies, Citysearch, went public, all employees benefited from the $270
million valuation.
Coercive Power
In contrast, coercive power is the ability to take something away or punish
someone for noncompliance. Coercive power often works through fear, and it
forces people to do something that ordinarily they would not choose to do. The
most extreme example of coercion is government dictators who threaten
physical harm for noncompliance. Parents may also use coercion such as
grounding their child as punishment for noncompliance. Steve Jobs has been
known to use coercion—yelling at employees and threatening to fire them.
When John Wiley & Sons Inc. published an unauthorized biography of Jobs,
Jobs’s response was to prohibit sales of all books from that publisher in any
Apple retail store. [2]
In other examples, John D. Rockefeller was ruthless when
running Standard Oil Company. He not only undercut his competitors
through pricing, but he used his coercive power to get railroads to refuse to
transport his competitor’s products. American presidents have been known to
use coercion power. President Lyndon Baines Johnson once told a White
House staffer, “Just you remember this. There’s only two kinds at the White
house. There’s elephants and there’s ants. And I’m the only elephant.” [3]
Expert Power
Expert power comes from knowledge and skill. Steve Jobs has expert power
from his ability to know what customers want—even before they can articulate
it. Others who have expert power in an organization include long-time
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employees, such as a steelworker who knows the temperature combinations
and length of time to get the best yields. Technology companies are often
characterized by expert, rather than legitimate power. Many of these firms
utilize a flat or matrix structure in which clear lines of legitimate power
become blurred as everyone communicates with everyone else regardless of
position.
Information Power
Information power is similar to expert power but differs in its source. Experts
tend to have a vast amount of knowledge or skill, whereas information power
is distinguished by access to specific information. For example, knowing price
information gives a person information power during negotiations. Within
organizations, a person’s social network can either isolate them from
information power or serve to create it. As we will see later in this chapter,
those who are able to span boundaries and serve to connect different parts of
the organizations often have a great deal of information power. In the TV
show Mad Men, which is set in the 1960s, it is clear that the switchboard
operators have a great deal of information power as they place all calls and are
able to listen in on all the phone conversations within the advertising firm.
Referent Power
Referent power stems from the personal characteristics of the person such as
the degree to which we like, respect, and want to be like them. Referent power
is often called charisma—the ability to attract others, win their admiration,
and hold them spellbound. Steve Jobs’s influence as described in the opening
case is an example of this charisma.
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What Is Influence?
Starting at infancy, we all try to get others to do what we want. We learn early
what works in getting us to our goals. Instead of crying and throwing a
tantrum, we may figure out that smiling and using language causes everyone
less stress and brings us the rewards we seek.
By the time you hit the workplace, you have had vast experience with influence
techniques. You have probably picked out a few that you use most often. To be
effective in a wide number of situations, however, it’s best to expand your
repertoire of skills and become competent in several techniques, knowing how
and when to use them as well as understanding when they are being used on
you. If you watch someone who is good at influencing others, you will most
probably observe that person switching tactics depending on the context. The
more tactics you have at your disposal, the more likely it is that you will
achieve your influence goals.
Al Gore and many others have spent years trying to influence us to think about
the changes in the environment and the implications of global warming. They
speak, write, network, and lobby to get others to pay attention. But Gore, for
example, does not stop there. He also works to persuade us with direct, action-
based suggestions such as asking everyone to switch the kind of light bulbs
they use, turn off appliances when not in use, drive vehicles with better fuel
economy, and even take shorter showers. Ironically, Gore has more influence
now as a private citizen regarding these issues than he was able to exert as a
congressman, senator, and vice president of the United States.
OB Toolbox: Self-Assessment Do You Have the Characteristics of Powerful Influencers?
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People who are considered to be skilled influencers share the following
attributes.
How often do you engage in them? 0 = never, 1= sometimes, 2 = always.
present information that can be checked for accuracy
provide a consistent message that does not change from situation to situation
display authority and enthusiasm (often described as charisma)
offer something in return for compliance
act likable
show empathy through listening
show you are aware of circumstances, others, and yourself
plan ahead
If you scored 0–6: You do not engage in much effective influencing behavior.
Think of ways to enhance this skill. A great place to start is to recognize the
items on the list above and think about ways to enhance them for yourself.
If you scored 7–12: You engage in some influencing behavior. Consider the
context of each of these influence attempts to see if you should be using more
or less of it depending on your overall goals.
If you scored 13–16: You have a great deal of influence potential. Be careful
that you are not manipulating others and that you are using your influence
when it is important rather than just to get your own way.
Commonly Used Influence Tactics
Figure 13.7 Influence Tactics Use and Outcomes [4]
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Source: Adapted from information in Falbe, C. M., & Yukl, G. (1992).
Consequences for managers of using single influence tactics and
combinations of tactics. Academy of Management Journal, 35, 638–652.
Researchers have identified distinct influence tactics and discovered that there
are few differences between the way bosses, subordinates, and peers use them,
which we will discuss at greater depth later on in this chapter. We will focus on
nine influence tactics. Responses to influence attempts include resistance,
compliance, or commitment. Resistance occurs when the influence target does
not wish to comply with the request and either passively or actively repels the
influence attempt. Compliance occurs when the target does not necessarily
want to obey, but they do. Commitment occurs when the target not only agrees
to the request but also actively supports it as well. Within organizations,
commitment helps to get things done, because others can help to keep
initiatives alive long after compliant changes have been made or resistance has
been overcome.
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1. Rational persuasion includes using facts, data, and logical arguments to
try to convince others that your point of view is the best alternative. This
is the most commonly applied influence tactic. One experiment
illustrates the power of reason. People were lined up at a copy machine
and another person, after joining the line asked, “May I go to the head of
the line?” Amazingly, 63% of the people in the line agreed to let the
requester jump ahead. When the line jumper makes a slight change in
the request by asking, “May I go to the head of the line because I have
copies to make?” the number of people who agreed jumped to over 90%.
The word because was the only difference. Effective rational persuasion
includes the presentation of factual information that is clear and
specific, relevant, and timely. Across studies summarized in a meta-
analysis, rationality was related to positive work outcomes. [5]
2. Inspirational appeals seek to tap into our values, emotions, and beliefs
to gain support for a request or course of action. When President John
F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what
you can do for your country,” he appealed to the higher selves of an
entire nation. Effective inspirational appeals are authentic, personal,
big-thinking, and enthusiastic.
3. Consultation refers to the influence agent’s asking others for help in
directly influencing or planning to influence another person or group.
Consultation is most effective in organizations and cultures that value
democratic decision making.
4. Ingratiation refers to different forms of making others feel good about
themselves. Ingratiation includes any form of flattery done either before
or during the influence attempt. Research shows that ingratiation can
affect individuals. For example, in a study of résumés, those résumés
that were accompanied with a cover letter containing ingratiating
information were rated higher than résumés without this information.
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Other than the cover letter accompanying them, the résumés were
identical. [6]
Effective ingratiation is honest, infrequent, and well
intended.
5. Personal appeal refers to helping another person because you like them
and they asked for your help. We enjoy saying yes to people we know
and like. A famous psychological experiment showed that in dorms, the
most well-liked people were those who lived by the stairwell—they were
the most often seen by others who entered and left the hallway. The
repeated contact brought a level of familiarity and comfort. Therefore,
personal appeals are most effective with people who know and like you.
6. Exchange refers to give-and-take in which someone does something for
you, and you do something for them in return. The rule of reciprocation
says that “we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has
provided us.” [7]
The application of the rule obliges us and makes us
indebted to the giver. One experiment illustrates how a small initial gift
can open people to a substantially larger request at a later time. One
group of subjects was given a bottle of Coke. Later, all subjects were
asked to buy raffle tickets. On the average, people who had been given
the drink bought twice as many raffle tickets as those who had not been
given the unsolicited drinks.
7. Coalition tactics refer to a group of individuals working together toward
a common goal to influence others. Common examples of coalitions
within organizations are unions that may threaten to strike if their
demands are not met. Coalitions also take advantage of peer pressure.
The influencer tries to build a case by bringing in the unseen as allies to
convince someone to think, feel, or do something. A well-known
psychology experiment draws upon this tactic. The experimenters stare
at the top of a building in the middle of a busy street. Within moments,
people who were walking by in a hurry stop and also look at the top of
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the building, trying to figure out what the others are looking at. When
the experimenters leave, the pattern continues, often for hours. This
tactic is also extremely popular among advertisers and businesses that
use client lists to promote their goods and services. The fact that a client
bought from the company is a silent testimonial.
8. Pressure refers to exerting undue influence on someone to do what you
want or else something undesirable will occur. This often includes
threats and frequent interactions until the target agrees. Research shows
that managers with low referent power tend to use pressure tactics more
frequently than those with higher referent power. [8]
Pressure tactics are
most effective when used in a crisis situation and when they come from
someone who has the other’s best interests in mind, such as getting an
employee to an employee assistance program to deal with a substance
abuse problem.
9. Legitimating tactics occur when the appeal is based on legitimate or
position power. “By the power vested in me…”: This tactic relies upon
compliance with rules, laws, and regulations. It is not intended to
motivate people but to align them behind a direction. Obedience to
authority is filled with both positive and negative images. Position, title,
knowledge, experience, and demeanor grant authority, and it is easy to
see how it can be abused. If someone hides behind people’s rightful
authority to assert themselves, it can seem heavy-handed and without
choice. You must come across as an authority figure by the way you act,
speak, and look. Think about the number of commercials with doctors,
lawyers, and other professionals who look and sound the part, even if
they are actors. People want to be convinced that the person is an
authority worth heeding. Authority is often used as a last resort. If it
does not work, you will not have much else to draw from in your goal to
persuade someone.
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From the Best-Seller’s List: Making OB Connections You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other
people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in
you.
Dale Carnegie
How to Make Friends and Influence People was written by Dale Carnegie in
1936 and has sold millions of copies worldwide. While this book first appeared
over 70 years ago, the recommendations still make a great deal of sense
regarding power and influence in modern-day organizations. For example, he
recommends that in order to get others to like you, you should remember six
things:
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most
important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important—and do it sincerely.
This book relates to power and politics in a number of important ways.
Carnegie specifically deals with enhancing referent power. Referent power
grows if others like, respect, and admire you. Referent power is more effective
than formal power bases and is positively related to employees’ satisfaction
with supervision, organizational commitment, and performance. One of the
keys to these recommendations is to engage in them in a genuine manner.
23
This can be the difference between being seen as political versus
understanding politics.
Impression Management
Impression management means actively shaping the way you are perceived by
others. You can do this through your choice of clothing, the avatars or photos
you use to represent yourself online, the descriptions of yourself on a résumé
or in an online profile, and so forth. By using impression management
strategies, you control information that make others see you in the way you
want to be seen. Consider when you are “being yourself” with your friends or
with your family—you probably act differently around your best friend than
around your mother. [9]
On the job, the most effective approach to impression management is to do
two things at once—build credibility and maintain authenticity. As Harvard
Business School Professor Laura Morgan Roberts puts it, “When you present
yourself in a manner that is both true to self and valued and believed by
others, impression management can yield a host of favorable outcomes for
you, your team, and your organization.” [10]
There may be aspects of your “true self” that you choose not to disclose at
work, although you would disclose them to your close friends. That kind of
impression management may help to achieve group cohesiveness and meet
professional expectations. But if you try to win social approval at work by
being too different from your true self—contradicting your personal values—
you might feel psychological distress.
It’s important to keep in mind that whether you’re actively managing your
professional image or not, your coworkers are forming impressions of you.
24
They watch your behavior and draw conclusions about the kind of person you
are, whether you’ll keep your word, whether you’ll stay to finish a task, and
how you’ll react in a difficult situation.
Since people are forming these theories about you no matter what, you should
take charge of managing their impressions of you. To do this, ask yourself how
you want to be seen. What qualities or character traits do you want to convey?
Perhaps it’s a can-do attitude, an ability to mediate, an ability to make a
decision, or an ability to dig into details to thoroughly understand and solve a
problem.
Then, ask yourself what the professional expectations are of you and what
aspects of your social identity you want to emphasize or minimize in your
interactions with others. If you want to be seen as a leader, you might disclose
how you organized an event. If you want to be seen as a caring person in
whom people can confide, you might disclose that you’re a volunteer on a
crisis helpline. You can use a variety of impression management strategies to
accomplish the outcomes you want.
Here are the three main categories of strategies and examples of each:
Nonverbal impression management includes the clothes you choose to
wear and your demeanor. An example of a nonverbal signal is body art,
including piercings and tattoos. While the number of people in the
United States who have body art has risen from 1% in 1976 to 24% in
2006, it can hold you back at work. Vault.com did a survey and found
that 58% of the managers they surveyed said they would be less likely to
hire someone with visible body art, and over 75% of respondents felt
body art was unprofessional. Given these numbers, it should not be
25
surprising that 67% of employees say they conceal body art while they
are at work. [11]
Verbal impression management includes your tone of voice, rate of
speech, what you choose to say and how you say it. We know that 38% of
the comprehension of verbal communication comes from these cues.
Managing how you project yourself in this way can alter the impression
that others have of you. For example, if your voice has a high pitch and it
is shaky, others may assume that you are nervous or unsure of yourself.
Behavior impression management includes how you perform on the job
and how you interact with others. Complimenting your boss is an
example of a behavior that would indicate impression management.
Other impression management behaviors include conforming, making
excuses, apologizing, promoting your skills, doing favors, and making
desirable associations known. Impression management has been shown
to be related to higher performance ratings by increasing liking,
perceived similarity, and network centrality. [12]
Research shows that impression management occurs throughout the
workplace. It is especially salient when it comes to job interviews and
promotional contexts. Research shows that structured interviews suffer from
less impression management bias than unstructured interviews, and that
longer interviews lead to a lessening of the effects as well. [13]
Direction of Influence
The type of influence tactic used tends to vary based on the target. For
example, you would probably use different influence tactics with your boss
than you would with a peer or with employees working under you.
26
Upward Influence
Upward influence, as its name implies, is the ability to influence your boss and
others in positions higher than yours. Upward influence may include
appealing to a higher authority or citing the firm’s goals as an overarching
reason for others to follow your cause. Upward influence can also take the
form of an alliance with a higher status person (or with the perception that
there is such an alliance). [14]
As complexity grows, the need for this upward
influence grows as well—the ability of one person at the top to know enough to
make all the decisions becomes less likely. Moreover, even if someone did
know enough, the sheer ability to make all the needed decisions fast enough is
no longer possible. This limitation means that individuals at all levels of the
organization need to be able to make and influence decisions. By helping
higher-ups be more effective, employees can gain more power for themselves
and their unit as well. On the flip side, allowing yourself to be influenced by
those reporting to you may build your credibility and power as a leader who
listens. Then, during a time when you do need to take unilateral, decisive
action, others will be more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt and
follow. Both Asian American and Caucasian American managers report using
different tactics with superiors than those used with their
subordinates. [15]
Managers reported using coalitions and rationality with
managers and assertiveness with subordinates. Other research establishes that
subordinates’ use of rationality, assertiveness, and reciprocal exchange was
related to more favorable outcomes such as promotions and raises, while self-
promotion led to more negative outcomes. [16]
Influence takes place even before employees are hired. For example,
ingratiation and rationality were used frequently by fire fighters during
interviews. [17]
Extraverts tend to engage in a greater use of self-promotion
tactics while interviewing, and research shows that extraverts are more likely
27
to use inspirational appeal and ingratiation as influence tactics. [18]
Research
shows that ingratiation was positively related to perceived fit with the
organization and recruiters’ hiring recommendations. [19]
Downward Influence
Downward influence is the ability to influence employees lower than you. This
is best achieved through an inspiring vision. By articulating a clear vision, you
help people see the end goal and move toward it. You often don't need to
specify exactly what needs to be done to get there—people will be able to figure
it out on their own. An inspiring vision builds buy-in and gets people moving
in the same direction. Research conducted within large savings banks shows
that managers can learn to be more effective at influence attempts. The
experimental group of managers received a feedback report and went through
a workshop to help them become more effective in their influence attempts.
The control group of managers received no feedback on their prior influence
attempts. When subordinates were asked 3 months later to evaluate potential
changes in their managers’ behavior, the experimental group had much higher
ratings of the appropriate use of influence. [20]
Research also shows that the
better the quality of the relationship between the subordinate and their
supervisor, the more positively resistance to influence attempts are seen. [21]
In
other words, bosses who like their employees are less likely to interpret
resistance as a problem.
Peer Influence
Peer influence occurs all the time. But, to be effective within organizations,
peers need to be willing to influence each other without being destructively
competitive. [22]
There are times to support each other and times to challenge—
the end goal is to create better decisions and results for the organization and
to hold each other accountable. Executives spend a great deal of their time
28
working to influence other executives to support their initiatives. Research
shows that across all functional groups of executives, finance or human
resources as an example, rational persuasion is the most frequently used
influence tactic. [23]
OB Toolbox: Getting Comfortable With Power Now that you’ve learned a great deal about power and influence within
organizations, consider asking yourself how comfortable you are with the
three statements below:
Are you comfortable saying, “I want to be powerful” to yourself? Why or why
not?
Are you comfortable saying, “I want to be powerful” to someone else? Why or
why not?
Are you comfortable having someone say, “You are powerful” to you? Why or
why not?
Discomfort with power reduces your power. Experts know that leaders need to
feel comfortable with power. Those who feel uncomfortable with power send
those signals out unconsciously. If you feel uncomfortable with power,
consider putting the statement in a shared positive light by saying, “I want to
be powerful so that we can accomplish this goal.”
K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Individuals have six potential sources of power, including legitimate, reward,
coercive, expert, information, and referent power. Influence tactics are the way that
individuals attempt to influence one another in organizations. Rational persuasion is
the most frequently used influence tactic, although it is frequently met with
resistance. Inspirational appeals result in commitment 90% of the time, but the tactic
29
is utilized only 2% of the time. The other tactics include legitimizing, personal
appeals, exchanges, ingratiation, pressure, forming coalitions, and consultation.
Impression management behaviors include conforming, making excuses, apologizing,
promoting your skills, doing favors, and making associations with desirable others
known. Influence attempts may be upward, downward, or lateral in nature.
E X E R C I S E S
1. Which of the six bases of power do you usually draw upon? Which do you use the
least of at this time?
2. Distinguish between coercive and reward power.
3. Which tactics seem to be the most effective? Explain your answer.
4. Why do you think rational persuasion is the most frequently utilized influence tactic?
5. Give an example of someone you’ve tried to influence lately. Was it an upward,
downward, or lateral influence attempt?
13.3 Organizational Politics
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Understand what organizational politics are.
2. Examine political behavior within organizations.
Organizational Politics
Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-
scenes efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or
achieve other targeted objectives. [1]
Politics has been around for millennia.
Aristotle wrote that politics stems from a diversity of interests, and those
competing interests must be resolved in some way. “Rational” decision making
30
alone may not work when interests are fundamentally incongruent, so political
behaviors and influence tactics arise.
Today, work in organizations requires skill in handling conflicting agendas
and shifting power bases. Effective politics isn’t about winning at all costs but
about maintaining relationships while achieving results. Although often
portrayed negatively, organizational politics are not inherently bad. Instead,
it’s important to be aware of the potentially destructive aspects of
organizational politics in order to minimize their negative effect. Of course,
individuals within organizations can waste time overly engaging in political
behavior. Research reported in HR Magazine found that managers waste 20%
of their time managing politics. However, as John Kotter wrote in Power and
Influence, “Without political awareness and skill, we face the inevitable
prospect of becoming immersed in bureaucratic infighting, parochial politics
and destructive power struggles, which greatly retard organizational initiative,
innovation, morale, and performance.” [2]
In our discussion about power, we saw that power issues often arise around
scarce resources. Organizations typically have limited resources that must be
allocated in some way. Individuals and groups within the organization may
disagree about how those resources should be allocated, so they may naturally
seek to gain those resources for themselves or for their interest groups, which
gives rise to organizational politics. Simply put, with organizational politics,
individuals ally themselves with like-minded others in an attempt to win the
scarce resources. They’ll engage in behavior typically seen in government
organizations, such as bargaining, negotiating, alliance building, and resolving
conflicting interests.
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Politics are a part of organizational life, because organizations are made up of
different interests that need to be aligned. In fact, 93% of managers surveyed
reported that workplace politics exist in their organization, and 70% felt that
in order to be successful, a person has to engage in politics. [3]
In the negative
light, saying that someone is “political” generally stirs up images of back-room
dealing, manipulation, or hidden agendas for personal gain. A person
engaging in these types of political behaviors is said to be engaging in self-
serving behavior that is not sanctioned by the organization. [4]
Examples of these self-serving behaviors include bypassing the chain of
command to get approval for a special project, going through improper
channels to obtain special favors, or lobbying high-level managers just before
they make a promotion decision. These types of actions undermine fairness in
the organization, because not everyone engages in politicking to meet their
own objectives. Those who follow proper procedures often feel jealous and
resentful because they perceive unfair distributions of the organization's
resources, including rewards and recognition. [5]
Researchers have found that if employees think their organization is overly
driven by politics, the employees are less committed to the
organization, [6]
have lower job satisfaction, [7]
perform worse on the
job, [8]
have higher levels of job anxiety, [9]
and have a higher incidence of
depressed mood. [10]
The negative side of organizational politics is more likely to flare up in times of
organizational change or when there are difficult decisions to be made and a
scarcity of resources that breeds competition among organizational groups. To
minimize overly political behavior, company leaders can provide equal access
to information, model collaborative behavior, and demonstrate that political
32
maneuvering will not be rewarded or tolerated. Furthermore, leaders should
encourage managers throughout the organization to provide high levels of
feedback to employees about their performance. High levels of feedback
reduce the perception of organizational politics and improve employee morale
and work performance. [11]
Remember that politics can be a healthy way to get
things done within organizations.
Antecedents of Political Behavior
Individual Antecedents
There are a number of potential individual antecedents of political behavior.
We will start off by understanding the role that personality has in shaping
whether someone will engage in political behavior.
Political skill refers to peoples’ interpersonal style, including their ability to
relate well to others, self-monitor, alter their reactions depending upon the
situation they are in, and inspire confidence and trust. [12]
Researchers have
found that individuals who are high on political skill are more effective at their
jobs or at least in influencing their supervisors’ performance ratings of them. [13]
Individuals who are high in internal locus of control believe that they can
make a difference in organizational outcomes. They do not leave things to fate.
Therefore, we would expect those high in internal locus of control to engage in
more political behavior. Research shows that these individuals perceive
politics around them to a greater degree. [14]
Investment in the organization is
also related to political behavior. If a person is highly invested in an
organization either financially or emotionally, they will be more likely to
engage in political behavior because they care deeply about the fate of the
organization. Finally, expectations of success also matter. When a person
expects that they will be successful in changing an outcome, they are more
33
likely to engage in political behavior. Think about it: If you know there is no
chance that you can influence an outcome, why would you spend your valuable
time and resources working to effect change? You wouldn’t. Over time you’d
learn to live with the outcomes rather than trying to change them. [15]
Figure 13.10
Individual and organizational antecedents can both lead to political behavior.
Organizational Antecedents
Scarcity of resources breeds politics. When resources such as monetary
incentives or promotions are limited, people see the organization as more
political. Any type of ambiguity can relate to greater organizational politics.
For example, role ambiguity allows individuals to negotiate and redefine their
roles. This freedom can become a political process. Research shows that when
people do not feel clear about their job responsibilities, they perceive the
organization as more political. [16]
Ambiguity also exists around performance
evaluations and promotions. These human resource practices can lead to
34
greater political behavior, such as impression management, throughout the
organization. As you might imagine, democratic decision making leads to
more political behavior. Since many people have a say in the process of
making decisions, there are more people available to be influenced.
OB Toolbox: Overcoming Ineffective Politics Author and consultant Patrick Lencioni recommends the following four steps
for overcoming ineffective politics due to turf wars. When members of the
organization are more concerned about their own area of operations than
doing what’s best for the entire organization, in the long run you may have a
problem with turf wars. Taking these four steps can help overcome this
situation:
1. Create a thematic goal. The goal should be something that everyone in the
organization can believe in, such as, for a hospital, giving the best care to all
patients. This goal should be a single goal, qualitative, time-bound, and
shared.
2. Create a set of defining objectives. This step should include objectives that
everyone agrees will help bring the thematic goal to fruition.
3. Create a set of ongoing standard operating objectives. This process should be
done within each area so that the best operating standards are developed.
These objectives should also be shared across the organization so everyone is
aware of them.
4. Create metrics to measure them. Measuring whether the standard operating
objectives get done is a vital step in the process. Rather than someone else
pointing out what isn’t working, all the people within the department will have
the information necessary to come to this conclusion and correct the problem,
because ultimately, everyone in the organization cares about achieving the
thematic goal.
35
Source: Adapted from information in Lencioni, P. M. (2006). Silos, politics
and turf wars: A leadership fable about destroying the barriers that turn
colleagues into competitors. New York: Jossey-Bass.
K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Organizational politics is a natural part of organizational life. Organizations that are
driven by unhealthy levels of political behavior suffer from lowered employee
organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and performance as well as higher
levels of job anxiety and depression. Individual antecedents of political behavior
include political skill, internal locus of control, high investment in the organization,
and expectations of success. Organizational antecedents include scarcity of
resources, role ambiguity, frequent performance evaluations and promotions, and
democratic decision making.
E X E R C I S E S
1. Do you think politics are a positive or negative thing for organizations? Why?
2. Describe an example of a negative outcome due to politics.
3. Describe an example of a positive outcome due to politics.
4. Can you think of additional individual or organizational antecedents of political
behavior?
5. What political behaviors have you observed within school groups or your workplace?
Were they successful? Why or why not?
13.4 Understanding Social Networks
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Learn what social networks are.
36
2. Understand social network analysis.
Social Networks
We’ve seen that power comes from many sources. One major source relates to
who you know and how much access you have to information within your
organization. Social networks are visual maps of relationships between
individuals. They are vital parts of organizational life as well as important
when you are first looking for a job. For example, if you are interested in being
hired by Proctor & Gamble, you might call upon your social network—the
network of people you know—to find the people who can help you accomplish
this task. You might ask your network if they know anyone at Proctor &
Gamble. If you did so, the people you’d call on aren’t just your friends and
family—they’re part of your informal network. In fact, research finds that 75%
to 95% of all jobs are never formally advertised but are filled through such
social networks. [1]
Much of the work that gets done in organizations is done through informal
networks as well. Networks serve three important functions. First, they deliver
private information. Second, they allow individuals to gain access to diverse
skills sets. Third, they can help create power.
Organizations can conduct a social network analysis (SNA), a systematic effort
to examine the structure of social relationships in a group. Their purpose is to
uncover the informal connections between people. SNA dates back to 1934
when Joseph Moreno introduced the tools of sociometry. More recently, the
advent of computers has made SNA possible on large networks. In the past
decade, SNA has become widely used across fields.
37
Conducting SNA
SNA can be conducted either directly or indirectly. The indirect way is to
analyze e-mails between people. For example, which employees e-mail each
other? How often? Who replies to whom? Another technique is to observe a
group in action to see which employees talk to each other and who approaches
whom for what. Additional, nonintrusive options are to look at project
structures of billable hours such as determining which individuals regularly
work together. Direct approaches to SNA involve doing a survey that asks
questions directly. [2]
For example, the survey might ask individuals, “Who
would you go to for technical information? Who can you rely on to give you the
pulse of the company? Who do you trust to keep your best interests in mind?”
SNA can reveal who is trusted, important in decision making (that is, to whom
do people turn for advice before making an important decision?), and
innovative (“With whom are you most likely to discuss a new idea?”). The
direct approach is likely to be more targeted, but some people may see it as an
unwanted intrusion.
Analyzing Network Ties and Key Network Roles
Once the data is collected, SNA software is used to create the maps for
analysis. The maps draw incoming and outgoing arrows between people to
show the number of ties coming into a person (contacts that the person
receives) and the number of ties outgoing (contacts that the person initiates).
There are three key roles in a network. Central connectors are people linked to
the greatest number of people. Boundary spanners are people who connect
one network to another within the company or even across organizations.
Peripheral specialists have special expertise that can be drawn upon even
though they often work independently of the group.
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Analysis: Strong and Weak Ties
You can recognize the strength of ties between people by counting the
frequency of ties. The more interactions people have, the stronger the ties
those individuals have with each other. Strong ties often indicate emotional
support, not just informational support between people. Ties that are
reciprocated tend to be stronger as well. Weak ties are characterized by less
frequent interaction and often do not have as much emotional attachment, but
they are also easier to maintain, and therefore people can have more of them.
Weak ties are particularly useful for innovation, because people who are good
friends tend to see the same information, whereas people who are merely
acquaintances are likely to be exposed to different information. Thus, a casual
encounter may spark that creative idea. Social networks tend to be informal,
but by doing an SNA, the company can harness their power to help improve
communication throughout the company (such as by making sure people have
the information to share) and to help generate and spread innovation (by
giving information to the boundary-spanning people who will pass it on
beyond their work group). Social networks serve to promote collaboration,
improve new product development, and respond to emergencies or unusual
circumstances quickly. [3]
Social networks connect people with others. Consider networking Web sites
such as Facebook or LinkedIn, where being connected with many people
makes you more visible. This is becoming more and more salient as 80% of 12-
to 17-year-olds use MySpace at least weekly, and over 40,000 MySpace groups
are devoted to companies and colleagues. [4]
In business, the more central you
are, the more power you will have. The closer you are to more people, the
more powerful you are. [5]
If you are the person who many people link to and
you serve as a node between people, you have brokering power—you can
introduce people to each other. People high on this “betweenness” are also in a
39
position to withhold information from one person to the next, which can
happen during power plays. You also have a greater number of people to call
on when you need something, which makes you less dependent on any one
person. The more ties you have that are incoming (toward you), the more
trusted you are.
Social network analysis shows who communicates with whom, who knows
whom, and where gaps in communication or collaboration may exist. After
conducting a network analysis, organizations can take actions to modify
people’s roles or responsibilities in ways that improve communication or
diffuse innovation throughout the organization more effectively by putting
people or departments in touch with each other.
Building Your Own Network
There are several simple steps you can take to help build your own social
network. For example, you can go to lunch with someone new. You can also
try to do more to encourage, help, and share with others. You can seek
information outside your own class or work group. You can spend time with
people from work outside work. All these suggestions are effective ways to
naturally build your social network.
K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Social networks make up a key part of organizations. A social network analysis (SNA)
involves tracing who interacts with whom. Central connectors have a large number
of contacts. Boundary spanners connect to several networks of people. Peripheral
specialists often work independently. Strong and weak ties can both be helpful for
gathering information and building one’s network.
E X E R C I S E S
40
1. Have you ever thought about your own social network before? What do you think
about it now?
2. Do you think the direct or indirect approach to doing a social network analysis is the
most accurate?
3. Do you think it is ethical to play golf or tennis with coworkers to build your social
network? Why or why not?
4. How have computers influenced social networking?
13.5 The Role of Ethics and National Culture
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Consider the role of ethics and power.
2. Consider the role of national culture on power.
Ethics and Power
Power brings a special need for ethics, because the circumstances of power
make it easy for misuse to occur. As we have seen, a company president wields
at least three sources of power: legitimate from the position they hold,
coercive from the ability to fire employees, and reward such as the ability to
give raises and perks. Expert power and referent power often enter the mix as
well. Now take the example of setting the CEO’s pay. In a public company, the
CEO presumably has to answer to the board of directors and the shareholders.
But what if the CEO appoints many of the people on the board? What if the
board and the CEO are friends? Consider the case of Richard Grasso, former
chairman of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), whose compensation was
$140 million plus another $48 million in retirement benefits. At that time, the
average starting salary of a trader on the NYSE was $90,000, so Grasso was
41
being paid 1,555 times more than a starting employee. The NYSE Board of
Directors approved Grasso’s payment package, but many of the board
members had been appointed to their positions by Grasso himself. What’s
more, the NYSE’s function is to regulate publicly traded companies. As
Hartman and Desjardins noted, “The companies being regulated by the NYSE
were the very same companies that were paying Grasso.” [1]
Grasso ultimately
resigned amid public criticism but kept the $140 million. Other CEOs have not
faced the same outcry, even though average CEO pay increased 200% to 400%
during the same time period that average worker pay increased only
4.3%. [2]
Some CEOs have earned a great deal of respect by limiting what they
are paid. For example, Japan Airlines CEO Haruka Nishimatsu earns the
equivalent to $90,000 per year while running the 10th largest airline in the
world. In addition, he rides the bus to work and eats in the company cafeteria
with everyone else. [3]
Video Connection: Haruka Nishimatsu If you are interested in learning more about CEO Haruka Nishimatsu, view
this CBS News video segment, available at the following Web site:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4761187n
Power Around the Globe
Power also has a cultural dimension. In some countries, power is centralized
in the hands of a few. This type of distribution makes up high power distance
countries. Within organizations in these countries, the structure is
hierarchical, and compensation is based on your position in the hierarchy.
People in high power distance countries expect unequal distribution of power,
such as large differences in pay and status. [4]
People in positions of authority
in these countries expect (and receive) obedience. In Brazil, for example, there
are formal relationships between the leader and followers, and it’s clear who
42
has the most power in any given work environment. Important decisions,
including decisions on hiring and raises, are made by the person in charge,
and decisions are often based on loyalty rather than on formal review
mechanisms. Japan is also a higher power distant country and has unequal
power and wealth among its citizens. But, people do not perceive this inequity
as inherently wrong; rather, they accept it as their cultural heritage. Other
examples of high power distance countries include the Arab nations, the
Philippines, Venezuela, and Spain.
Countries with a low power distance rating, such as Australia, the
Netherlands, and Sweden, value cooperative interaction across power levels.
They emphasize equality and opportunity for everyone. For example,
Australians want their leaders to be achievement-oriented, visionary, and
inspirational, but they don't want their leaders to stand out too much. Leaders
need to be seen as “one of us.” [5]
Organizational structures in low power
distance countries are flatter with higher worker involvement. Status is based
on achievement rather than class distinction or birth. People in power cannot
arbitrarily hire their relatives or reward those loyal to them. There are formal
review mechanisms in place to give everyone a fair chance at pay raises, and
the difference in pay between high-level and lower level jobs is smaller.
These differences in perceptions of power become especially important in
international ventures in which people of different countries work together.
For example, in a joint venture between an American and a Mexican company,
American managers were continually frustrated with what they perceived to
be slow decision making by Mexican managers. Even the e-mails sent to the
Mexican subsidiary were taking a long time to be answered. Mexico ranks
higher on the power distance dimension than the United States—company
structures are more hierarchical, and decisions are made only by top
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managers; therefore, lower level managers in Mexico could not make decisions
on behalf of their bosses. In the case of e-mails, employees were consulting
with their managers before answering each e-mail, taking a long time to
answer them.
In addition to differing perceptions of power, how people influence each other
seems to be determined by culture. Cross-cultural research shows that the
more task-oriented influence tactics, such as rational persuasion, are seen as
more effective in the United States than in China, and that Chinese managers
rated tactics involving relationships such as coalitions as more effective than
did the American managers. [6]
K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Power can be easily abused. This is especially the case of CEOs who are rewarded by
a board of directors that is often staffed by trusted friends and colleagues of the
CEO. It is not hard to imagine that this might become a conflict of interest. Countries
differ in terms of power distance. Some countries such as Brazil see a formal
relationship between leaders and followers based on a rigid hierarchy.
E X E R C I S E S
1. What could be done to make sure that CEOs are paid fairly for their work rather than
as a favor from their friends?
2. What is some advice about power that you would give to a colleague who was
leaving to China to set up a new business?
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13.6 Conclusion Power and politics in organizations are common. In most cases, each concept
is necessary and executed with skill and precision. Unfortunately, power can
lead to conformity from those around us, and this occurring conformity can
breed corruption. The amount of power you have has strong ties to how much
others depend on you. If you are deemed a valuable resource within an
organization, then you are able to wield that dependability to make demands
and get others to do what you want. Besides having an innate or acquired
control over particular resources, there are several social aspects of power to
draw on.
Methods for obtaining more power in an organization can often lead to
political behaviors. As one person seeks to influence another to support an
idea, politics begins to play out. Though necessary in some instances, many
people that follow the rules see the politics of an organization as resulting in
an unfair distribution of resources. Still others, despite understanding the
politics of a given organization, see it as an unnecessary time consumer.
Politics, influence, and power can often reside within your social network.
When an individual is core to a social structure, they will often have some
degree of control over others. Social networks can also help you acquire jobs,
make beneficial connections, and generally make like easier. It is often a good
idea to analyze your social network and determine if it needs to be
strengthened or tailored.
13.7 Exercises
E T H I C A L D I L E M M A
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It is two days before your performance appraisal. Your performance this quarter has
been less than desirable. You came close to reaching your sales targets, but you did
not meet them, and you are hoping to still get the merit pay raise to be determined
as a result of your performance appraisal. You do not really like your manager, but
you are hoping to advance in this company, and being on your manager’s good side
may be a good idea both for your current performance appraisal and for your future
in this company.
You are now at a meeting with your manager and a group of employees. Your
manager is giving financial information to all employees about different markets.
Yet, some of this information is inaccurate, which could lead to wrong pricing
decisions and loss of money by the company. If you correct him, though, he would
most likely get upset with you because he does not like being corrected. Would you
correct him? How and when?
Today is also the day on which your manager’s boss is collecting information about
your manager’s leadership style, so that they can give him a 360-degree appraisal.
They assure you that your comments about your manager will remain confidential,
but the nature of your thoughts is such that he probably would guess you are the
person who made those comments. Specifically, you think that your manager takes
offense easily, has a bad temper, and could be more effective in time management.
Would you share your thoughts with your manager’s manager?
You are now at the coffee shop and grabbing a cup of coffee and some pastries. You
notice that they have almond coffee cake, which is your manager’s favorite. Would
you pick some up for your manager?
I N D I V I D U A L E X E R C I S E
Map Your Social Network [1]
Step 1: Think of a specific objective you have at work or school that involves other
people. Once you have thought of an objective, jot it down.
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Step 2: Use Figure 13.14 to list 5 to 15 people at your school or in your professional
network who you have regular contact with and who are relevant to the objective
you identified.
Step 3: Rate how tightly connected you are with the people in your network by
placing a check in the corresponding column (barely connected, loosely connected,
somewhat connected, or tightly connected) on the right-hand side of their name.
Step 4: Circle the name of anyone who has introduced you to 4 or more new people
since you have known them.
Step 5: In Figure 13.15, place a check mark in the intersecting box of people that
know each other. For example, if person 1 knows person 2, put a check mark under
the 2 at the top of the table. Continue to do this throughout the grid (grayed boxes
should be left blank).
Step 6: Analyze your network using the guidelines on the following calculations.
Step 7: Consider ways to strengthen your network.
Figure 13.15
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Let’s see how your social network adds up:
Calculating Network Size
The number of people you listed in your own network for this situation
N = _____
Calculating Network Density
It is important to understand what the maximum density of your network is. This
refers to how dense it would be if everyone in your network knew each other.
(N * (N − 1)/2 = M) or ( _____ * ( _____ − 1)/2 = M)M = _____
Total number of checkmarks in Figure 13.15, which represents number of
relationships among people in your network.
C = _____
Density of your network (will range between 0 and 1)
C / M = D_____/_____= DD = _____
Network Size
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N = number of people in your network. The more people in your network, the
greater the amount of information and possibly access to greater resources you
have. We stopped at 15 people but many individuals have more people in their
network than 15.
Network Strength
The strength of your network is also important. You can talk about this in terms of
percentages of your relationships. What percentage are very tightly connected?
Close? Somewhat connected? Or barely connected?
___% Tightly Connected
___% Somewhat Connected
___% Loosely Connected
___% Barely Connected
For most people, it would be hard to manage a huge network where all the ties are
very close, just by virtue of the amount of time and energy it takes to satisfy the
conditions for closeness.
Identifying Central Connectors
Count how many names you circled in step 4. Each of these individuals plays a special
role in your network as they are central connectors who serve to expand your
network by introducing you to new people. If you are also a central connector, this
can be a benefit to assessing information as long as you are able to keep the network
from distracting you from your work.
Network Density
Network density is important. When a person’s network density is 1.0 that indicates
that everyone in the network knows everyone else. Whether this is good or bad
depends on a few things. For example, if everyone in your network has additional
networks they belong to as well, you would be playing a central role in their
networks and you would be a boundary spanner. But, if they also have high network
density, the odds are that no new information is getting introduced into your group.
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You are basically a closed loop in which the same people interact with one another,
and it is challenging to assess changes in the environment or to be innovative.
Social networks change over time depending on your tenure in an industry or
company. The longer you have been in a given industry, the more likely it is that you
will see your network size begin to shrink and become more dense.
Consider factors relating to power and influence and how you might go about
strengthening and increasing the size of your network.
What are the pros and cons of doing so?
G R O U P E X E R C I S E
In a group, analyze the following individuals in terms of their potential power bases.
The first step is to discuss which types of power a person with the job listed on the
left-hand column could have. If you can think of an example of them having a type of
power, write the example in that column.
T A B L E 1 3 . 1
Legitimate power
Reward power
Coercive power
Information power
Referent power
Flight attendant
Computer programmer
Executive assistant
Manager
Mailroom person
Customer service representative
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Legitimate power
Reward power
Coercive power
Information power
Referent power
CEO
