Organizational Behavior- Ch 12 Power, Influence, and Politics

tend to foster commitment

-Positive Legitimate -Power -Expert

tend to produce compliance (or Resistance)

-Positive Legitimate -Reward -Coercive

Common Influence Tactics

-Rational persuasion: trying to convince someone with reason, logic, or facts. -Inspirational appeals: trying to build enthusiasm by appealing to others' emotions, ideals, or values. -Consultation: getting others to participate in planning, making decisions, and changes. -Ingratiation: getting someone in a good mood before making a request; being friendly, helpful, and using praise, flattery, or humor. -Personal appeals: referring to friendship and loyalty when making a request. -Exchange: making express or implied promises and trading favors. Coalition tactics: getting others to support your effort to persuade someone. -Pressure: demanding compliance or using intimidation or threats. -Legitimating tactics: basing a request on one's authority or right, organizational rules or policies, or express or implied support from superiors.

Six principles of persuasion

1. Liking: people tend to like those who like them. 2. Reciprocity: the belief that good and bad deeds should be repaid in kind. 3. Social proof: people tend to follow the lead of those most like themselves. 4. Consistency: people tend to do what they are personally committed to do. 5. Authority: people tend to defer to and respect credible experts. 6. Scarcity: people want items, information, and opportunities that have limited availability.

Levels of Political Action in Organizations

Coalition - an informal group bound together by the active pursuit of a single issue Coalitions may or may not coincide with formal group membership. When the target issue is resolved (a sexual-harassing supervisor is fired, for example), the coalition disbands. Experts note that political coalitions have "fuzzy boundaries," meaning they are fluid in membership, flexible in structure, and temporary in duration. Coalitions are a potent political force in organizations. Coalition - an informal group bound together by the active pursuit of a single issue Coalition-level politics Network-level politics Network level- cooperative pursuit of general self interests Coalition level- cooperative pursuit of group interests in specific issues Individual level- individual pursuit of general self interests

Power Sharing and Empowerment

Empowerment: efforts to enhance employee performance, well-being, and positive attitudes. Efforts to enhance employee performance, well-being, and positive attitudes by -Giving employees greater influence -Use of centralized management practices Empowerment has been shown to favorably influence many outcomes in the Organizing Framework, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance, turnover, and employee stress. Empowerment is becoming a necessity because of the time constraints placed on managers.

Impression Management Tactics

Favorable upward impression management techniques include job-focused, supervisor-focused, and self-focused techniques. A moderate amount of upward impression management is a necessity to make sure your valuable contributions are not overlooked, but people run the risk of being branded a "schmoozer" or a "phony" with too much impression management.

Bases of Power and Effectiveness

Generally, different bases of power affect important outcomes such as job performance, job satisfaction, and turnover. Expert and referent power have a generally positive effect. Reward and legitimate power have a slightly positive effect. Coercive power has a slightly negative effect.

Influencing Others

Influence tactics: conscious efforts to affect and change a specific behavior in others. Soft tactics: are friendlier than, and not as coercive as some influence tactics. -Rational persuasion: trying to convince someone with reason, logic, or facts. -Inspirational appeals: trying to build enthusiasm by appealing to others' emotions, ideals, or values. -Consultation: getting others to participate in planning, making decisions, and changes. -Ingratiation: getting someone in a good mood before making a request; being friendly, helpful, and using praise, flattery, or humor. -Personal appeals: referring to friendship and loyalty when making a request. Hard tactics: involve more overt pressure than some influence tactics. -Exchange: making express or implied promises and trading favors. Coalition tactics: getting others to support your effort to persuade someone. -Pressure: demanding compliance or using intimidation or threats. -Legitimating tactics: basing a request on one's authority or right, organizational rules or policies, or express or implied support from superiors.

Five Bases of Power

Legitimate power: obtaining compliance through formal authority. Legitimate power may be expressed either positively or negatively. Positive legitimate power focuses constructively on job performance. Negative legitimate power tends to be threatening and demeaning to those being influenced. Reward power: obtaining compliance with promised or actual rewards. Coercive power: obtaining compliance through threatened or actual punishment. Expert power: obtaining compliance through one's valued knowledge or information. Referent power: when one's personal characteristics and social relationships become the reason for compliance. One's network of relationships can be a source of referent power, as can one's reputation. Referent power can be used in marketing programs or to target new sales.

Remedying Bad Impressions

One way to remedy or at least reduce the impact of bad impressions, negative uses of power, or poor performance is with an apology. Apologies are a form of trust repair in which we acknowledge an offense and usually offer to make amends for perceived or actual harm. Apologies are considered effective to the extent they restore trust and positively affect your ability to influence the offended party in the future. Effective apologies acknowledge wrongdoing, accept responsibility, express regret, and promise that the offense will not be repeated. A failure to apologize, or to do so in a timely manner, can turn a bad situation worse.

How to Create Bad Impressions

Only doing the minimum and not even taking simple steps to make extra effort. Having a negative mindset or being an eternal naysayer. Overcommitting, resulting in an inability to deliver on-time or quality work. Taking no initiative and failing to take action when something needs to get done. Waiting until the last minute to deliver bad news.

Political Tactics and How to Use Them

Organizational politics: intentional acts in pursuit of self-interests that conflict with organizational interests. Organizational politics focus on self-interests, which may or may not serve the organization's interests. Organizational politics are positive if political action helps an organization adapt or if they counter when bad actors create organizational goals and objectives to suit their own interests. Organizational politics can negatively affect outcomes across all three levels in the Organizing Framework.

Three primary responses to power

People tend to have three primary reactions to our attempts to manage and otherwise influence them—resistance, compliance, and commitment. There are many forms and degrees of resistance, ranging from being passive-aggressive to sabotaging. People who display compliance do only what is expected and exert no extra effort and provide no extra input. People who display commitment believe in the cause and often go above and beyond to assure its success.

Position vs. Personal Power

Position Power- source of power of influence is associated with particular job or position within an organization (Legitimate, Reward, and Coercive) Personal Power- you possess independent of your position or job. (Expert and Referent)

To make a good first impression, you should:

Set goals for networking events. Consider the message that your jewelry, makeup, and clothes send. Pay attention to your nonverbal communication. Manage your emotions and mood. Be interested to be interesting.

Uncertainty and Political Behavior

Sources of uncertainty Unclear objectives Vague performance measures Ill-defined decision processes Strong individual or group competition Any type of change

impression management

any attempt to control or manipulate the images related to a person, organization, or idea Importance of a good first impression Any attempt to control or manipulate the images related to a person, organization, or idea using Speech Behavior Appearance

Structural Empowerment

based on transferring authority and responsibilities from management to employees. Managers can boost employee empowerment by changing policies, procedures, job responsibilities, and team designs. Decision-making authority and other broader responsibilities should only be shared with those who are competent to do what is necessary. -Empowerment is not a zero-sum game where one person's gain is another's loss—sharing power is a means for increasing your own power. -Empowerment is a matter of degree, not an either-or proposition. A common element of empowerment involves pushing decision-making authority down to lower levels. The degree of power-sharing should match the needs of the situation and the capabilities of the individuals or teams involved

Power

the discretion and the means to enforce your will over others.

Psychological empowerment

when employees feel a sense of meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact at work. -Meaning: belief that your work values and goals align with those of your manager, team, or employer. -Competence: personal evaluation of your ability to do your job. -Self-determination: sense that you have control over your work and its outcomes. -Impact at work: feeling that your efforts make a difference and affect the organization. While structural empowerment draws on job design and characteristics, psychological empowerment is related to self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Psychological empowerment deals with employees' perceptions or cognitive states regarding empowerment. Recent research and practice have shown that the same four elements that foster psychological empowerment for individuals apply to teams and organizations