13.4 Chapter Summary
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 behaviours. As one person seeks to influence another to support an idea, politics begins to play out. Though necessary in some instances, many people who 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 life easier. It is often a good idea to analyze your social network and determine if it needs to be strengthened or tailored.
Ethical Dilemma
It is two days before your performance appraisal. Your performance this season has been less than desirable. You came close to reaching your sales targets in the proshop, 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 offence 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 Tim Hortons and grabbing a cup of coffee and some donuts. You notice that they have apple fritters, which are your manager’s favourite. Would you pick some up for your manager?
Group Exercise
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 in 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.
| Legitimate power | Reward power | Coercive power | Information power | Referent power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bartender |
|
|
|
|
|
| Executive Chef |
|
|
|
|
|
| General Manager |
|
|
|
|
|
| Turf Worker |
|
|
|
|
|
| Pro Shop Attendant |
|
|
|
|
|
| CEO or Owner |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
“13.8: Conclusion” & “Exercises” from Organizational Behavior by LibreTexts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
