Thomson South-Western Wagner & Hollenbeck 5e

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ChapterChapter Eleven Eleven

Power,Politics,

And Conflict

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Chapter Overview This chapter examines the following topics:

– Power in Organizations• Interpersonal Sources of Power• Conformity Responses to Interpersonal Power• A Model of Interpersonal Power: Assessment• Structural Sources of Power• The Critical Contingencies Models: Assessment

– Politics and Political Processes• Personality and Politics• Conditions That Stimulate Politics• Political Tactics• Managing Destructive Politics

– Conflict in Organizations• Is Conflict Necessarily Bad?• Conditions That Stimulate Conflict• Effects of Conflict

– Negotiation and Restructuring• Managing Diverging Interests• Managing Structural Interdependence

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Introduction Power, politics, and conflict in

firms can increase productivity and efficiency or reduce them substantially

Understanding power, politics, and conflict is critical to managerial success and survival in today’s business organizations

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Power in Organizations Power is the ability both to

influence the conduct of others and to resist unwanted influence in return

According to David McClelland, people are driven to gain and use power by a need for power

This need for power can have several different affects on the way people think and behave

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Interpersonal Sources of Power In their pioneering

research, John French and Bertram Raven identified the major bases or sources of power in organizations– Reward power: based

on the ability to allocate desirable outcomes

– Coercive power: based on the distribution of undesirable outcomes

– Legitimate power: based on norms, values, and beliefs that teach that particular people have the legitimate right to govern or influence others

– Referent (or charismatic) power: possessed by someone who is highly admired

– Expert power: derives from the possession of expertise, knowledge, and talent

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Conformity Responses to Interpersonal Power

Three distinctly different types of reactions are likely to occur as people respond to attempts to influence their behavior

– Compliance: ensues when people conform to the wishes or directives of others so as to acquire favorable outcomes for themselves in return

– Identification: occurs when people accept the direction or influence of others because they identify with the power holders and seek to maintain relationships with them

– Internalization: people may adopt others’ attitudes and behaviors because this course of action satisfies their personal needs or those attitudes and behaviors are congruent with their personal values

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A Model of Interpersonal Power: Assessment

French and Raven describe the different kinds of interpersonal power used in organization and Kelman identifies how people respond to this use

Although valuable as a tool for understanding power and its consequences, the model integrating these ideas is not without fault

– Questions arise as to whether the five bases of power are completely independent or whether they are so closely interrelated as to be virtually indistinguishable

The idea that reward, coercive, and legitimate power often derive from company policies and procedures has led some researchers to subsume these three types of power in a single category labeled organizational power

Similarly, because expert and referent power are both based on personal expertise and charisma, they are sometimes lumped together into the category of personal power

The model created by joining French and Raven’s classification scheme with Kelman’s theory is useful in analyzing social influence and interpersonal power

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Structural Sources of Power

Power also derives from the structure of patterned work activities and flows of information found in every organization

Characteristics of organizations that shape power relations include:– Uncertainty reduction– Substitutability– Centrality

These three variables combine to form the critical contingencies model of power

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Uncertainty ReductionSubstitutability

Critical contingencies are the things that an organization and its various parts need to accomplish organizational goals and continue surviving

Ways to reduce uncertainty include:– Resource control– Information control– Decision-making control

Reducing uncertainty depends partly on their substitutability

If others can serve as substitutes and reduce uncertainty, then individuals or departments that need help in coping can turn to a variety of sources for aid

The less substitutability present in a situation, the more likely that a particular person or group will be able to amass power

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Centrality

The ability of a person or group to acquire power is also influenced by its centrality or its position within the flow of work in the organization

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The Critical Contingencies Model: Assessment

Research strongly supports the critical contingencies model’s suggestion that power is a function of uncertainty reduction, substitutability, and centrality

An intriguing piece of evidence supporting the critical contingencies model was discovered by Michel Crozier– Government-owned tobacco company example

The critical contingencies model appears to describe the structural bases of power quite accurately

Its utility for contemporary managers lies in the observation that the roots of power lie in the ability to solve crucial organizational problems

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Politics and Political Processes Politics can be defined as activities in

which individuals or groups engage so as to acquire and use power to advance their own interests

In essence, politics is power in action Although political behavior can be

disruptive, it is not necessarily bad Politics can enhance organizational

well-being by ridding companies of familiar but dysfunctional ways of doing things

Research indicates that politicking does occur and has measurable effects on organizational behavior

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Personality and Politics Researchers have suggested that people who

exhibit the personality characteristic of machiavellianism, the tendency to seek to control other people through opportunistic, manipulative behavior, may also be inclined toward politics

Studies have indicated that self-conscious people may be less likely than others to become involved in office politics because they fear being singled out as a focus of public attention and being evaluated negatively for engaging in politics

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Conditions That Stimulate Politics

Certain conditions encourage political activity in organizations:– Uncertainty– Organizational size– Hierarchical level– Membership heterogeneity– Decision importance

Politicking is more prevalent in larger organizations than small ones and more common among middle and upper managers

Important decisions stimulate more politics than unimportant decisions

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Political Tactics When personal characteristics

and surrounding conditions favor them, a variety of political tactics may surface

Each tactic is intended to increase the power of one person or group relative to others

When power increases, so does the likelihood that the person or group will be able to seek out and acquire self-interested gains

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Acquiring Interpersonal Power: Forming Affiliations

Acquiring Structural Power: Controlling Critical Resources

Forming coalitions or political affiliations with each other represents an important way for people to increase their power and pursue political gain beyond their individual grasp

In cooptation, former rivals become transformed into allies, often by involving them in planning and decision-making processes

Ingratiation, the use of praise and compliments to gain favor and acceptance of others, and impression management, involves behaving in ways intended to build a positive image, can be used to build and maintain political relationships

Controlling the supply of a critical resource gives people power over those whose success or survival depends on having that resource

Political players often attempt to control access to important resources, information, and the people who are the sources of important information or expertise

To succeed as a political tactic, controlling access to important resources, information, or people requires eliminating substitutes for these critical resources and discrediting alternative definitions of what is critical

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Negative Politics If all else fails, a person may gain the

political upper hand by attacking or blaming others or making them scapegoats for failures

Another tactic is to denigrate or belittle others’ accomplishments

Either approach involves a direct attack on the interpersonal sources of power that others might possess in an attempt to weaken their political positions

Negative politicking can justify the creation of substitute sources of critical resources or information or reduction of the degree of centrality enjoyed by a person or group

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Managing Destructive Politics Some of the consequences when people band

together, hoard resources, or belittle each other for no other reason than to get their own way include:– Morale may suffer– Battle lines between contending individuals or

groups may impede important interactions– Energy that should be go into productive activities

may be spent on planning attacks and counterattacks

Controlling political behavior is a major part of every manager’s job

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Managing Destructive Politics Managing destructive politics

includes:– Setting an example– Communicating openly– Reducing uncertainty– Managing informal coalitions and

cliques– Confronting political game players– Anticipating the emergence of

damaging politics

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Conflict in Organizations Conflict, a process of opposition

and confrontation that can occur in organizations between either individuals or groups, occurs when parties exercise power in the pursuit of valued goals or objectives and obstruct the progress of other parties

The keys in this definition include the idea that conflict involves the use of power in confrontation, that it is a process, and is a problem managers must be able to control

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Is Conflict Necessarily Bad?Conditions That Stimulate Conflict

Conflict might seem inherently undesirable, but contemporary theorists argue that conflict is not necessarily bad

Current research suggests that conflict is often functional, having positive effects

Conflict can serve as a red flag signaling the need for change

For conflict to occur, three key conditions must exist:– Interdependence: where there is

dependence on each other for assistance, information, feedback, or other coordinative relations

– Political indeterminism: the political pecking order is unclear and subject to question

– Divergence: there must be differences or disagreements worth fighting over

Other conditions contributing to conflict include: time orientations, resource allocations, practices used to evaluate and reward, status discrepancies, jurisdictional disputes, and differing values, assumptions, and general perceptions

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Effects of Conflict Conflict affects relationships

among people and groups in many ways:– Increased group cohesiveness– Stimulates an emphasis on task

performance– Submission to autocratic

leadership– Structural rigidity– “We-they” attitudes– Distorted perceptions of opposing

groups– Decrease in communication

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Negotiation and Restructuring A variety of conflict-management

techniques have been developed to help resolve conflict and deal with the negative effects

In general, these techniques are of two types, bargaining and negotiation procedures that focus on managing divergence among the interests of conflicting parties and restructuring techniques that focus on managing interdependence between conflicting individuals and groups

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Managing Diverging Interests Bargaining between conflicting parties consists of

offers, counteroffers, and concessions Negotiation is the process in which the parties decide

what each will give and take in the exchange Five general approaches to managing divergent

interests exist that are characterized by different mixes of assertiveness and cooperativeness:– Competition– Accommodation– Avoidance– Collaboration– Compromise

The appropriateness of each of these approaches depends on the situation and the time pressure for a negotiated settlement

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Managing Structural Interdependence Conflict requires

interdependence It can be managed or

resolved by restructuring the connections that tie conflicting parties together

Ways to accomplish this goal include:– Develop superordinate

goals– Expanding the supply of

critical resources– Clarify existing

relationships

– Modifying existing structural relationships

• Decoupling mechanisms of slack resources and self-contained tasks

• Unit-linking mechanisms:

• Network information systems

• Lateral linkage devices:

• Liaison position• Representative

groups: task force and standing committees

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Managing Structural Interdependence

When neither liaison positions nor representative groups solve intergroup conflict problems, a third type of linkage device called an integrating manager, can be used

In rare instances a fourth type of lateral linkage device called the matrix organization structure is employed