Management Skills in IT@VGU-BIS2013Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang

POWER & POLITICS

Group 8: Phan Thi, Hong – Pham Minh, Huyen – Nguyen Quoc, Viet

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“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,”

You may have heard that

But

Power is not always bad.

Objectives

• Identify the contrast leadership and power as well as contrast the five bases of power.

• Explain the role of dependence in power relationships.

• Identify nine power or influence tactics and their contingencies.

• Identify the causes and consequences of political behaviors.

• Apply impression management techniques.

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Outline

• Summary of Theory

o Power and Dependency

o Politics: Power in Action

o Key Take Away

• Case Study

o Summary of Case Study

o Analysis of Case Study

• Q & A

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POWER & DEPENDENCY

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Definition of Power

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A capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes.

Leadership & Power

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• Focuses on goal achievement. Requires goal compatibility with followers.

• Used as a means for achieving goals. Requires follower dependency.

Goal Compatibility

• Focuses on the downward influence on followers.

• Used to gain lateral and upward influence.

Direction of Influence

• Focuses on leadership styles and relationship with followers.

• Emphasizes tactics for gaining compliance.

Research Focus

Expert Power

Sources of Power

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Formal Power

Personal Power

Bases of Power

Coercive Power

Reward Power

Legitimate Power

Referent Power

Dependence – the Key to Power

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the greater B’s dependence on A, the more power A has over B.

Dependence increases when the resource you control is

• Important

• Scarce

• Non-substituable

What Creates Dependence? – Importance

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Downy brand generates > $1 billion in sales a year for the consumer products giant P&G.

Marketers?Engineers

Power Tactics

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Power tactics are ways in which individuals translate power bases into specific actions.

• Rational persuasion

• Inspirational appeals

• Consultation

• Personal appeals

• IngratiationPersonal Power

(“softer” tactics)

• Exchange

• Coalitions

• Legitimacy

• PressureFormal Power(“harder” tactics)

Fig. 1 – Nine distinct influence tactics

Effectiveness of Power Tactics

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• The effectiveness of some influence tactics depends on the direction of influence (shown in Exhibit 13-1).

• Other factors that affect the effectiveness of influence include:

• the sequencing of tactics

• a person’s skill in using the tactic

• and the organizational culture.

Effectiveness of Power Tactics

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• Should begin with “softer” tactics. If these fail, you can move to “harder” tactics.

• A single soft tactic is more effective than a single hard tactic.

• Combining two soft tactics or a soft tactic and rational persuasion is more effective than any single tactic or combination of hard tactics.

POLITICS: POWER IN ACTION

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Power in action

When people get together in groups,

power will be exerted.

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When employees in organizations

convert their power into action,

we describe them as being

engaged in politics

Organizational Politics

Political behavior

“Activities that are not required as part of a person’s formal role in the organization

but

that influence, or attempt to influence,

the distribution of

advantages and disadvantages

within the organization”

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Organizational Politics

Political behavior

examples

• Withholding key information from decision makers

• Spreading rumors

• Leaking confidential information to the media

• Exchanging favors with others in the organization for mutual benefit

• Lobbying on behalf of or against a particular individual or decision alternative

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Factors Contributing to Political Behavior

• Not all groups or organizations are equally political.

– In some organizations, politicking is overt and rampant

– While in others politics plays a small role in influencing outcomes

• Why this variation?

– Factors that appear to encourage political behavior

• Individual Factors

• Organizational Factors19

Factors Contributing to Political Behavior

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How Do People Respond to Organizational Politics?

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Impression Management

“The process by which individuals attempt to control the impression others form of them”

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Impression Management (IM) Techniques

• Conformity– Agreeing with someone else’s opinion to gain his or her approval is a form of ingratiation.

– Example: A manager tells his boss, “You’re absolutely right on your reorganization plan for the western regional office. I couldn’t agree with you more.”

• Favors– Doing something nice for someone to gain that person’s approval is a form of ingratiation.

– Example: A salesperson says to a prospective client, “I’ve got two tickets to the theater tonight that I can’t use. Take them. Consider it a thank-you for taking the time to talk with me.”

• Excuses– Explanations of a predicament-creating event aimed at minimizing the apparent severity of the

predicament is a defensive IM technique.

– Example: A sales manager says to her boss, “We failed to get the ad in the paper on time, but no one responds to those ads anyway.”

• Apologies– Admitting responsibility for an undesirable event and simultaneously seeking to get a pardon for the

action is a defensive IM technique.

– Example: An employee says to his boss, “I’m sorry I made a mistake on the report. Please forgive me.”

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Impression Management (IM) Techniques

• Self-Promotion– Highlighting one’s best qualities, downplaying one’s deficits, and calling attention to one’s achievements is a

self-focused IM technique.– Example: A salesperson tells his boss, “Matt worked unsuccessfully for three years to try to get that account. I

sewed it up in six weeks. I’m the best closer this company has.”

• Enhancement– Claiming that something you did is more valuable than most other members of the organizations would

think is a self-focused IM technique.– Example: A journalist tells his editor, “My work on this celebrity divorce story was really a major boost to our

sales”

• Flattery– Complimenting others about their virtues in an effort to make oneself appear perceptive and likeable is an

assertive IM technique.– Example: A new sales trainee says to her peer, “You handled that client’s complaint so tactfully! I could never

have handled that as well as you did.”

• Exemplification– Doing more than you need to in an effort to show how dedicated and hard working you are is an assertive

IM technique.– Example: An employee sends e-mails from his work computer when he works late so that his supervisor will

know how long he’s been working

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Summary and Implications for Managers

• As a manager who wants to maximize your power, you will want to increase others’ dependence on you

• Try to avoid putting others in a position where they feel they have no power

• An effective manager accepts the political nature of organizations

• Those who are good at playing politics can be expected to get higher performance evaluations and, hence, larger salaryincreases and more promotions than the politically naive or inept

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THE CASE

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Case summary

Samantha Parksis the owner and CEO of

Sparks

New York agency that develops advertising, promotions, and

marketing materials for high-fashion firms

Case summary

Samantha Parks

overseeing most projects from start to finish

The firm has grown

it necessary to delegate more

and more decisions to her associates

Samantha Parkshas been approached by a hairstyling chain

wants a comprehensive redefinition of its

entire marketing and promotions look

Should

Samanthamanage this project

her traditional way delegate major parts to her employees

Why do you have to "sweat the small stuff“? “Outsource”

to your employees and …

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You need to stay very close to your creative core and watch out these 'creative’ guys, they just want to take off your bread.

1. If you were Samantha Parks, how would you prioritize which projects or parts of projects to delegate?

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Without GOOGLE!!

End products

Core products

Core business

Core competency

Advertising, promotions, and marketing materials for high-fashion firms.

Develop Fashion projects & products

High quality services depends on IP -intellectual proprietary

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2. What makes her decisions so hard: How can she deal with these concerns without giving up too much control?

“I hire good people, creative people, to run

these projects, and I worry that they will see

my oversight and authority as interfering

with their creative process.”

Divide the tasks into smaller chunks and discuss on the

level of reporting and interfering of tasks.

Use RACI model in this case to explain why they need to control projects and to what certain they should involve in.

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Do they have a right to control projects and keep in the loop on important decisions just so they can remain in charge?

Should executives try to control projects to maintain their position of authority?

4. What are some tasks in an organization that a top executive should never delegate to others?

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)

President of the United States (1961-1963)Presidential campaign speech proposing the United States Peace CorpsSan Francisco, California, USANovember 2, 1960(As reported by The New York Times, November 3, 1960, page 32)

“Give me a fulcrum,” Archimedes is reported to have said, “and a place to

stand—and I will move the world.” The tools I have suggested can be our fulcrum—it is here we take our

stand—let us move the world down the road to peace.

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Thank you!

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References

• Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, Organizational Behavior, Pearson Education, Inc., 2013

38http://langmai.org/tang-kinh-cac/vien-sach/thien-tap/quyen-luc-dich-thuc