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CHAPTER 12: ORGANIZATIONAL POWER, POLITICS, AND PERSUASION |
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CHAPTER 12 ORGANIZATIONAL POWER, POLITICS, AND PERSUASION CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. THE MEANING OF POWER A. Power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others. B. Counterpower is some power over the dominant party to maintain the relationship. C. A model of power in organizations includes both power sources and contingencies.
II. SOURCES OF POWER IN ORGANIZATIONS A. Legitimate power is an agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behaviors of others. B. Reward power is derived from the person's ability to control the allocation of rewards valued by others and to remove negative sanctions. C. Coercive power is the ability to apply punishment. D. Expert Power originates from within the person. E. Referent Power is when people have others identify with them, like them, or otherwise respect them. F. Information and Power
1. Control over the flow and interpretation of information given to others. 2. The perceived ability to cope with organizational uncertainties.
III. CONTINGENCIES OF POWER A. Substitutability refers to the availability of alternatives. There are several people and work units increase their power through nonsubstitutability, although not all of them are ethical. 1. Controlling tasks. 2. Controlling knowledge. 3. Controlling labor. 4. Differentiation.
B. Centrality refers to the degree and nature of interdependence between the powerholder and others. Centrality increases with: 1. The number of people affected by your actions and, 2. Speed in which other people are affected by your actions.
C. Discretion is the freedom to exercise judgment, to make decisions without referring to a specific rule or receiving permission from someone else.
D. Visibility - someone with valuable knowledge will yield power only when others are aware of it. Ways to increase visibility include:
1. Take people oriented jobs and work on projects that require frequent interaction with senior executives. 2. Work on important tasks. 3. Employees gain visibility by being, quite literally, visible. 4. Use public symbols as subtle (and not-so-subtle) cues to make their power sources known to others. 5. Mentoring which is the process of learning the ropes of organizational life from a senior person within the company.
IV. CONSEQUENCES OF POWER A. Sexual harassment: an abuse of power. 1. Minimizing sexual harassment by: a. Ensure that powerful employees realize how their actions are interpreted by others. b. Introduce confidential complaint procedures for people who have been sexually harassed. c. Preventive strategies that reduce the likelihood of sexual harassment incidents.
B. Office romance and organizational power. 1. Employees in the relationship abuse their power by favoring each other. 2. Nearly one-quarter of sexual harassment cases result from workplace romances that went sour. 3. The risk of sexual harassment is potentially greater in a supervisor-subordinate relationship. V. ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS
A. Organizational politics represents attempts to influence others using discretionary behaviors to promote personal objectives.
B. Organizational politics: good or bad?
1. Problems with organizational politics are it is the most common reason for decision-making delays. 2. Business leaders spent nearly one-fifth of their time dealing with organizational politics. 3. Employees who experience organizational politics tend to report higher stress, psychological withdrawal, and turnover.
B. The ethics of organizational politics must satisfy three moral principles 1. Utilitarian rule - does the political tactic violate anyone's legal or moral rights? 2. Individual rights rule - does the political tactic violate anyone's legal or moral rights? 3. Distributive justice rule - does the political activity treat all parties fairly?
VI. TYPES OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY A. Attacking or blaming others. B. Controlling information. C. Forming coalitions. D. Cultivating networks. E. Creating obligations. F. Managing impressions.
VII. CONDITIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS A. Personal characteristics affect a person's motivation to engage in organizational politics.
B.
Gender differences in organizational politics suggest that men and
women differ in their use of political tactics. VIII. CONTROLLING POLITICAL BEHAVIOR A. Several strategies that should keep dysfunctional politics in check: 1. Ensure that there is a sufficient supply of critical resources. 2. When resources are scarce, introduce clear rules and regulations to specify the use of these resources. 3. Establish a free flow of information so that the organization is less dependent on a few people at the center of a communications wheel. 4. Use effective organizational change management practices. 5. Restructure team and organizational norms to reject political tactics that appear to interfere with the organization's goals. 6. Select people who have a moderately strong socialized need for power and a relatively low level of Machiavellianism. 7. Provide opportunities for open and candid dialogue to resolve conflicts between employees and work units. 8. Get employees to monitor the workplace and actively discourage coworkers who engage in political tactics.
IX. INFLUENCING OTHERS THROUGH PERSUASION
A. Communicator characteristics 1. Communicator's perceived reliability or expertise on the topic. 2. Communicators are more persuasive if they have credibility. 3. Physically attractive or similar to us tend to be more persuasive because we tend to think they have expertise and trustworthiness.
B. Message content becomes the critical feature of persuasive communication when the issue is important.
C. Communication medium increases the credibility of the information and it is easier for the sender to determine whether the persuasive message is having the desired effect.
D. Audience characteristics - it is difficult to persuade people who have high self-esteem.
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