Politics, Power, and

Influence in
Organizational life

Prepared by: Febie Kris O. Padua BSA-4

Mariz A. Parba BSA-4
The Meaning of Power, Politics,
and Influence
Power Organizational politics
Is the potential or ability to Is the informal approaches to
influence decisions and control gaining power through means
resources. other than merit or luck.

Influence
Resembles power, but tends to be more subtle and indirect.

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 The six major sources of
organizational power
1. Reward Power (is the ability to reward): It involves giving
organizational assets of value to others.

2. Coercive Power (is the ability to punish): It involves

inflicting painful outcomes on others for their refusal to
conform.

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The six major sources of
organizational power
Power Granted by the Organization (Position Power)
3. Legitimate Power (comes with the position):
It involves the delegated rights that comes
with being appointed to a management
position in an organization.
• Power is enhanced by establishing polices and
procedures that increase the scope of the position’s
control.
The six major sources of
organizational power
4. Expert Power (comes from what you know):
It involves the special skills and knowledge you
have of your organization, function, industry,
processes, etc.
 The six major sources of
organizational power

“ 5.Referent Power (comes from the

positive impressions others have of
you): it involves others’ admiration
of certain qualities that you possess
and their desire to be associated with
you.

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 The six major sources of
organizational power
6. Informational Power (comes from the power of
your logic and reasoning): it involves providing
information that is so powerful that people change
based on what you say, not who you are.
▸ Control of resources equals power for managers .

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Empowerment of
Group Members
EMPOWERMENT
Is the process of sharing power with group
members, thereby enhancing their feelings
of self-efficacy.

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Empowerment of
Group Members
Strategic benefits of distributing power:
Improved productivity, quality, and
satisfaction

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Keys for the transition to
effective empowerment:
▸ Sharing information
▸ Providing more structure (training
and support)
▸ Gradually replacing traditional
organizational structure.
▸ Allowing individuals and teams to
determine how to achieve
objectives.
▸ Above all, trusting in employees to
do the right thing.

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 Signs of Empowerment and
Disempowerment
Empowered Employees Disempowered Employees
▸ Take initiative in ambiguous situations. ▸ Wait for a designated authority to take
▸ charge.
Identify opportunities in ambiguous
situations. ▸ Address problem but fail to see opportunity.
▸ Apply critical thinking skills. ▸ Accept decisions without questioning.
▸ Offer judgments about how decisions ▸ Discuss but not able to apply information
support shared purpose. about shared purpose.
▸ Identify and act on opportunities to improve ▸ Attempt consensus but yield to higher
systems. authority when failing at consensus.
▸ Optimize resources by reducing expenses ▸ Focus on resource questions only when
and finding opportunities to invest in new directed to do so.
resources.

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Political Behavior in Organizations

Organizational Politics Political Behavior

▸ The use of power and ▸ Actions not officially
influence in organizations. sanctioned by an organization
that are taken to influence
others in order to meet one’s
personal goals.

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 Organizational Politics
▸ Politics are the activities that are not required as part of one's formal role in the Organization,
but that influence, or attempt to influence the distribution of advantages and disadvantages
within the organization.
▸ Politics = Power in Action
▸ Legitimate and illegitimate political behaviors are common in organizations.
▸ Factors contributing to Political Behavior
▹ Individual factors (e.g., personality traits, needs)
▹ Organizational factors (e.g., when organizational resources decline, resources change, low
trust exists, high performance pressures, and the opportunity of promotion exists)

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 Effective Use of
Organizational Politics
Ethical Behaviors

• Develop power contacts

• Manage your impression
• Control vital information
• Keep informed
• Be courteous, pleasant, and positive
• Ask satisfied customer to contact your manager
• Avoid political blunders
• Use flattery sincerely

Unethical Behaviors

• Engage in backstabbing
• Embrace-or-demolish
• Set a person up for failure
• Play territorial games (turf wars)
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Factors Contributing to and Examples of
Political Behavior
Organizations have a political nature
due to:
▸ Coalitions of interests competing for ▸ Decentralization disperses
resources. power in the organization.
▸ A pyramidal power structure that ▸ Machiavellian manipulation
concentrates power at the top of the of others and the organization
organization.
for personal gain by some
▸ Downsizing and team structures managers .
limit upward mobility for ambitious
managers with a strong need for
power.

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The Control of Dysfunctional
Politics and Ethical
Considerations
Excessive politics and 2. Align individual goals 3. Practice open
influence tactics can harm an and objectives to be communications to remove
organization and its members. congruent with those of the political value of
information and to increase
the organization to
the overall understanding of
Ways to control these increase commitment and the organization.
activities: performance.
1. Rely on objective measures of
performance tied to proper and
significant goals for the
organization.
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▸ (Problem-solving instruments, sociotechnical systems, reward systems, and so
on), they are political structures, this means that organizations operate by
distributing authority and setting a stage for the exercise of power.
▸ Political Pyramid
▸ Scarcity of Power
▹ Scarcity of power arises under two sets of conditions: 1. Where individuals
gain power in absolute terms at someone else’s expense. 2. Where there is
a gain comparatively—not literally at someone else’s expense—resulting
in a relative shift in the distribution of power.

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▸ Manipulations of power, one of the most common errors executives make is to confuse
compliance with commitment.
▸ Compliance is an attitude of acceptance when a directive from an authority figure asks
for a change in an individual’ position, activities, or ideas. The individual complies or
“goes along” usually because he is indifferent to the scope of the directive and the
changes it proposes. If compliance occurs out of indifference, then one can predict
little difficulty in translating the intent of directives into actual implementation.
▸ Commitment, on the other hand, represents a strong motivation on the part of an
individual to adopt or resist the intent of a directive. If the individual commits himself
to a change, then he will use his ingenuity to interpret and implement the change in
such a way as to assure its success. If he decides to fight or block the change, the
individual may act as if he complies but reserve other times and places to negate the
effects of directives.
▸ Compliance as a tactic to avoid changes and commitment as an expression of strong
motivation in dealing with organizational problems are in turn related to how
individuals define their interests.

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Organizational Influence
Tactics
▸ Leading by example
▸ Assertiveness
▸ Rationality
▸ Ingratiation
▸ Exchange
▸ Inspirational appeal and emotional display
▸ Joking and kidding
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References
https://www.google.com/amp/s/hbr.org/amp/1970/05/power-and-politics
-in-organizational-life
https://www.slideshare.net/jobitonio/power-influence-and-politics

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-sources-power-organizations-14467.h
tml
https://managementisajourney.com/whats-your-power-in-your-organizati
on-dont-give-it-up/

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 THANK YOU!
Questions:
1. If you have the power and influence, how
would you properly use it?
2. How do politics affect the behavior of an
organization?
3. For you, which is greater? commitment or
compliance? Justify your answer.

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