Module 5 Chapter 10

care must be given to the effects on other managers. many middle managers find themselves in a dilemma of dealing with two cultures when empowerment strategies are enacted. The first tells them to _______________________ whereas another demands that they _____________________________________.

"relinquish control" / "maintain control."

. Empowerment programs can transform a stagnant organization into a vital one by creating a

- shared purpose among employees - encouraging greater collaboration - delivering enhanced value to customers

The following 7 characteristics have been identified as being especially important to the influence ability of targets

1. Dependency. 2. Uncertainty. 3. Personality 4. Intelligence 5. Gender 6. Age 7. Culture These individual differences in targets greatly complicate the effective use of power and point up the need for contingency models.

The 5 principles or operational guidelines at Cummings include:

1. discard conventional, fixed ideas about doing work 2. think about how to do it rather than why it cannot be done 3. start by questioning current practices 4. begin to make improvements immediately, even if only 50 percent of them can be completed; and 5. correct mistakes immediately.

Empowerment encourages innovation because employees have the ____________________ to try out new ideas and make decisions that result in new ways of doing things.

authority

social psychologist David McClelland did considerable work on the impact of the motivational need for power (what he called n Pow). His studies indicated that there are two major types of power, ______________________________.

one negative and one positive.

Under this definition of social power, the manager may often be in a precarious position of _________________________ between an exhibition of personal dominance and the more socializing use of power.

walking a fine line

To help overcome the negative impact that organizational politics can have on the ethics of an organization, the following guidelines can be used:

1. Keep lines of communication open. 2. Role-model ethical and nonpolitical behaviors. 3. Be wary of game players acting only in their own self-interests. 4. Protect individual privacy interests. 5. Always use the value judgment "Is this fair?

What is Coercive Power?

This source of power depends on fear. The person with coercive power has the ability to inflict punishment or aversive consequences on another person or, at least, to make threats that the other person believes will result in punishment or undesirable outcomes. Research also suggests that subordinates are less likely to retaliate against abusive supervisors due to coercive power.

McClelland felt that this negative use of power is associated with ____________________.

personal power. it is "I" orientated. People with this "face" of power are primarily looking out for themselves and how they can get ahead.

The contrasting "other face" of power identified by McClelland is ___________________.

social power. it is "we" orientated. "concern for group goals, for finding those goals that will move people, for helping the group to formulate them

Walter Nord dispels some of the dreams of ideal, rationally structured, and humanistic organizations by pointing out some of the stark realities of political power. He suggests 4 postulates of power in organizations that help focus on the political realities:

1. Organizations are composed of coalitions that compete with one another for resources, energy, and influence. 2. Various coalitions will seek to protect their interests and positions of influence. 3. The unequal distribution of power itself has dehumanizing effects. 4. The exercise of power within organizations is one very crucial aspect of the exercise of power within the larger social system

This strategy uses the reverse of "no news is good news"; that is, bad news gets attention. For example, many deans in large universities can get the attention of central administration and the board of regents or trustees only when their college is in trouble, for instance, if their accreditation is threatened.

Wait for a Crisis (Things Must Get Worse Before They Get Better)

The most powerful subunits and individuals are those that contribute valuable resources. Controlling the resources other persons or departments need creates considerable bargaining power.

Be Aware of Resource Dependence

It is evident that expertise is the most tenuous type of power, but managers and especially staff specialists, who seldom have the other sources of power available to them, often have to depend on their _____________________as their only source of power.

expertise

Under the contingency model of power does have considerable relevance as to how and under what conditions supervisors and managers influence their people. Many must depend on compliance because they are not attractive or do not possess _____________ power for identification to work. Or they lack credibility or do not have _________________________ power for internalization to occur.

referent / expert or legitimate

expert power in top-level decision making. For example, Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, has stated?

"In general, the faster the change in the know-how on which a business depends, the greater the divergence between knowledge and position power is likely to be. Since our business depends on what it knows to survive, we mix 'knowledge-power people' with 'position-power people' daily, so that together they make the decisions that will affect us for years to come"

This widely known political and military strategy can also apply to the acquisition of power in a modern organization. The assumption, sometimes unwarranted, is that those who are divided will not form coalitions themselves

Divide and Rule

what is generally considered to be leadership is more associated with getting people not just to comply but also to identify with the leader and, even better, to ___________________________ what the leader is trying to accomplish in the influence attempt.

internalize

Contingency Approaches to Power, As in other areas of organizational behavior and management, contingency approaches to power have emerged. For example, Pfeffer simply says that power comes from being in the "right" place. He describes the right place or position in the organization as one where the manager has:

1. Control over resources such as budgets, physical facilities, and positions that can be used to cultivate allies and supporters 2. Control over or extensive access to information—about the organization's activities, about the preferences and judgments of others, about what is going on, and about who is doing it 3. Formal authority

Reaching optimal levels of trust involves finding the point where distrust is _________ enough to not be disruptive and trust is _____________ enough to move forward with confidence.

Low / Strong

This strategy involves looking good on some project or task right away in order to get the right people's attention. Once this positive attention is gained, power is acquired to do other, usually more difficult and long-range, projects.

Make a Quick Showing

The observational studies of managerial work have clearly demonstrated the importance of obtaining and disseminating information.86 The politically astute organization member carefully controls this information in order to gain power

Manipulate Classified Information

This strategy involves taking one step at a time instead of trying to push a whole major project or reorganization attempt. One small change can be a foothold that the power seeker can use as a basis to get other, more major things accomplished.

Progress One Step at a Time (Camel's Head in the Tent)

This suggested political strategy is concerned more with how to keep power than with how to acquire it. Contrary to the traditional prescriptions concerning participative management and empowerment of employees, this suggests that at least some managers should avoid "opening up the gates" to their people in terms of shared decision making.

Take Counsel with Caution

It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that power involves a reciprocal relationship between the __________________________________________which is in accordance with the overall social cognitive perspective taken in this text.

agent and the target

A comprehensive definition of politics, drawing from the literature is that:

"organizational politics consists of intentional acts of influence undertaken by individuals or groups to enhance or protect their self-interest when conflicting courses of action are possible."

Trust building is also vital. Violations of trust between employers and employees means the terms of the psychological contract that has been built have been ignored or have been broken. What is this called?

"organizational infidelity"

Closely related to social power is the popular technique of employee empowerment. Empowerment may be defined as

"recognizing and releasing into the organization the power that people have in their wealth of useful knowledge and internal motivation." Empowerment is the authority to make decisions within one's area of responsibility without first having to get approval from someone else.

This strategy says that the power seeker should do other people favors but should make it clear that they owe something in return and will be expected to pay up when asked.

Collect and Use IOUs

What occurs when managers and employees reach an agreement where trust is counterbalanced with distrust, as there is always at least a degree of suspicion in organizational relationships.

Optimal trust

Machiavellian principles can be applied as strategies in the power game in modern organizations. One management writer has applied these principles to modern corporate life. For example, for corporate takeovers, he draws on Machiavelli to give the following advice:

The guiding principle is that senior managers in taken-over firms should either be warmly welcomed and encouraged or sacked; because if they are sacked they are powerless, whereas if they are simply downgraded they will remain united and resentful and determined to get their own back.

Yukl and Falbe derived eight political, or influence, tactics that are commonly found in today's organizations. Yukl and his colleagues found that the ________________________________were used most frequently and along with __________________________________________were most effective.

consultation and rational persuasion tactics / inspirational appeal

Closely related to interdependence is the use of information as a source of power. A person who controls the flow of information and/or interprets data before it is presented to others has such information power. What is Information Power?

power is distinguished from expert power because the individual merely needs to be in the "right place" to affect the flow and/or distribution of information, rather than having some form of expertise over the generation or interpretation of the information.

Yukl and Falbe derived eight political, or influence, tactics that are commonly found in today's organizations. What are they

1. Pressure tactics- Uses demands and threats 2. Upward appeals - appealing to higher management for assistance 3. Exchange Tactics - explicit or implicit promises of rewards 4. Coalition Tactics - seeking aid from others 5. Ingratiating Tactics - Seeking to get you in a good mood 6. Rational Tactics - using logical arguments and factual evidence to persuade 7. Inspirational Tactics - emotional request or proposal that arouses enthusiasm 8. Consultation Tactics - Seeking your participation in making a decision.

Research on organizational politics has identified several areas that are particularly relevant to the degree to which organizations are political rather than rational. These areas can be summarized as follows:

1. Resources. There is a direct relationship between the amount of politics and how critical and scarce the resources are. Also, politics will be encouraged when there is an infusion of new, "unclaimed" resources. 2. Decisions. Ambiguous decisions, decisions on which there is lack of agreement, and uncertain, long-range strategic decisions lead to more politics than routine decisions. 3. Goals. The more ambiguous and complex the goals become, the more politics there will be. 4. Technology and external environment. In general, the more complex the internal technology of the organization, the more politics there will be. The same is true of organizations operating in turbulent external environments. 5. Change. A reorganization or a planned organization development (OD) effort or even an unplanned change brought about by external forces will encourage political maneuvering.

The negative use of power can also show up in situations such as sexual harassment. Unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature takes place when someone uses coercive power to threaten another with negative consequences if they do not submit to sexual advances. This is known as :

quid pro quo harassment.

Empowerment assumes that employees are willing to accept _____________________________.

responsibility and improve their daily work processes and relationships

Empowering employees should raise the level of trust in the organization. Empowered employees feel that __________________________________________and are almost compelled to act responsibly. Trust is a must in today's open, empowered organizations that are in very competitive markets

"we are in this thing together"

There are a number of ways that managers can implement empowerment. 2 common approaches are: The goal is to tie empowerment with an action-driven results approach. This approach is found at Cummings Engine

(1) kaizen and "just do it" principles (JDIT) (2) trust building.

There is also a call for a better framework and guidelines to evaluate the ethics of power and politics in today's organizations. This ethical concern goes beyond the notions of success or effectiveness. For example, of the 10 most unethical activities one study identified, three are directly political:

(1) making arrangements with vendors for the purposes of personal gain (2) allowing differences in pay based on friendships (3) hiring, training, and promoting personal favorites rather than those who are most qualified

When employees are given access to information as a vital part of their empowerment, their willingness to cooperate is

enhanced

in order for people to internalize, the agent must have ________________________________.

expert or legitimate power (credibility) and, in addition, be relevant

To account for organizational differences, Bowen and Lawler have suggested that organizations first identify at which of 4 levels of empowerment they should operate:

(1) very little involvement, as reflected by traditional production-line firms (2) moderate involvement, as reflected by organizations that employ suggestion programs and quality circles (3) fairly substantial involvement, as reflected in organizations where jobs are designed so that employees can employ a variety of skills and have a great deal of autonomy in carrying out those jobs (4) high involvement, as reflected by organizations in which personnel share information and work together to solve problems and complete tasks

Once it is understood and accepted that contemporary organizations are in reality largely political systems, some very specific strategies can be identified to help organization members more effectively acquire power. Another taxonomy of political strategies included the following

1. Information strategy—targets political decision makers by providing information through lobbying or supplying position papers or technical reports 2. Financial incentive strategy—targets political decision makers by providing financial incentives such as honoraria for speaking or paid travel 3. Constituency building strategy—targets political decision makers indirectly through constituent support such as grassroots mobilization of employees, suppliers, customers, or public relations/press conferences

A political tactic some people try is to make others "look bad" in order to make themselves "look good." Blaming and attacking deflects responsibility onto others. It is unethical and unacceptable, but is also a common practice in many organizations.

Attacking and Blaming Others

This is a strategy of going slow and easy—an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary approach to change. By not "ruffling feathers," the power seeker can slowly but surely become entrenched and gain the cooperation and trust of others.

Avoid Decisive Engagement (Fabianism)

Where does Legitimate Power come from. 3 major sources.

1. the prevailing cultural values of a society, organization, or group determine what is legitimate 2. people can obtain legitimate power from the accepted social structure. In some societies there is an accepted ruling class. But an organization or a family may also have an accepted social structure that gives legitimate power. 3. source of legitimate power can come from being designated as the agent or representative of a powerful person or group. Elected officials, a chairperson of a committee,and members of the board of directors of a corporation or a union or management committee would be examples of this form of legitimate power.

What is Legitimate Power?

This power source, identified by French and Raven, stems from the internalized values of the other persons that give the right to the agent to influence them. The others feel they have the obligation to accept this power. It is almost identical to what is usually called authority and is closely aligned with both reward and coercive power because the person is also in a position to reward and punish. However, this power is unlike reward and coercive power in that it does not depend on the relationships with others but rather on the position or role that the person holds.

What is expert power?

The last source of power identified by French and Raven is based on the extent to which others attribute knowledge and expertise to the power holder. Experts are perceived to have knowledge or understanding only in certain well-defined areas. All the sources of power depend on an individual's perceptions, but expert power may be even more dependent on this than the others. In particular, the target must perceive the agent to be credible, trust-worthy, and relevant before expert power is granted.

What is Reward Power

This source of power is based on a person's ability to control resources and reward others. In addition, the target of this power must value these rewards

What is Referent Power?

This type of power comes from the desire on the part of the other persons to identify with the agent wielding power. They want to identify with the powerful person, regardless of the outcomes. The others grant the person power because he or she is attractive and has desirable resources or personal characteristics. the manager who depends on referent power must be personally attractive to subordinates.

It must also be remembered that French and Raven did recognize that there may be other sources of power. For instance, some organizational sociologists recognize the source of power of task interdependence . What is it?

(where two or more organizational participants must depend on one another)

The classic work on influence process, by noted social psychologist Herbert Kelman, can be used to structure an overall contingency model of power. According to the model, the target will comply in order to gain a favorable ________________________________________.

reaction or avoid a punishing one from the agent

Most discussions of power imply a unilateral process of influence from the agent to the target. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that power involves a _______________________________________.

reciprocal relationship between the agent and the target

This is the process that most supervisors in work organizations must rely on. But in order for compliance to work, supervisors must be able to ________________________________________.

reward and punish (that is, have control over the means to their people's ends) and keep an eye on them (that is, have surveillance over them).

the widely recognized five categories of the sources of social power identified many years ago by social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven are?

reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, and expert