1. Organizational Behavior Stephen P. Robbins & Timothy A. Judge
Essentials of
Organizational Behavior
13e
Stephen P. Robbins & Timothy A. Judge
Chapter 5
Personality and Values

2. Chapter 13
Power and Politics

3. After studying this chapter you should be able to:
Define power.
Contrast leadership and power.
Describe the five bases of power.
Identify nine power or influence tactics and their contingencies.
Determine how power affects people.
Define organizational politics and describe why politics exist in organizations.
Identify the causes and consequences of political behavior.
Determine whether a political action is ethical.
Describe the political mapping process and its advantages.

4. A Definition of Power
Power: The capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes
The most important aspect of power is that it is a function of dependence
Power refers to the capacity one person has over the other person to get the individual to do something. Inherent in this definition is the idea of dependency. The stronger the relationship or the dependency that one person has when the other possesses something they want or requires, the greater the dependency on that person.

5. Contrasting Leadership and Power
Differences
Leadership
Power
Goal Compatibility
Requires goal congruence
Only needs dependence
Direction of Influence
Focuses on downward influence
Concerned with influence in all directions
Research Emphasis
Emphasizes leadership style
Broader topic: focuses on tactics used by individuals and groups
Leadership and power are two different concepts and need to be defined separately. Leadership is focusing on goal achievement along with followers. Power is used as a way to accomplish the goal and often followers are also means to accomplish the goal. Leadership will focus on using leadership downward to influence others to help them achieve their tasks, whereas power uses influence to gain something upward or laterally.

6. Formal Bases of Power
Formal power is based on an individual’s organizational position
Coercive Power: Complies from fear of the negative results
Reward Power: Complies due to desire for positive benefits
Legitimate Power: From the formal authority to control and use organizational resources
There are two main bases of power, formal and personal. Formal power is defined more by the position a person will hold in the organization. People with formal power can utilize different power bases to accomplish their tasks. The first is coercive power where employees fear negative consequences if they don’t do what they are told. Reward power is the ability to distribute rewards that others see as valuable, encouraging them to accomplish the goals or tasks to get the reward. The last base is legitimate power where the formal authority to control and use resources is then based on the person’s position in the formal hierarchy.

7. Personal Bases of Power
Personal power stems from an individual’s unique characteristics
Expert: Influence wielded as a result of expertise, special skill, or knowledge
Referent: Based on identification with a person who has desirable resources or personal traits
Charisma
The second major form of power is personal power, which comes through the individual’s personality and characteristics. This is often more effective than formal power. Personal power can be based on expert power, or the individual’s special skills or knowledge. It can also be based on referent power, or the personal traits or resources he or she offers to others.

8. Effective Power Bases
Expert and referent power are positively related to performance and commitment
Reward and legitimate power are unrelated to organizational outcomes
Coercive power is negatively related to employee satisfaction and commitment
Expert and referent power tend to be more effective when goals are related to performance and commitment. However, reward and legitimate power do not seem related to organizational outcomes.
We have seen that coercive power tends to be negatively related to work outcomes such as employee satisfaction and commitment.

9. Power Tactics
Power tactics: Used to translate power bases into specific actions that influence others
Some are more effective than others
There are a number of power tactics an individual can use or ways in which they can make the power base work for them by moving people into specific actions. Some are more effective than others.

10. Nine Influence Tactics
Legitimacy
Rational persuasion
Inspirational appeals
Consultation
Exchange
Personal appeals
Ingratiation
Pressure
Coalitions
This slide exhibits 9 major power or influence tactics. They are legitimacy, rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, exchange, personal appeals, ingratiation, pressure, and coalitions.

11. Influence Tactic Effectiveness
Most effective:
Rational persuasion
Inspirational appeals
Consultation
Least effective:
Pressure
Combining tactics increases effectiveness
Direction, sequencing, individual skill, and organizational culture modify effectiveness
Many factors can influence the effectiveness of the power tactics discussed. The most effective tactics tend to be rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, and consultation, while the least effective is pressure.
Their ability to encourage the desired behavior could depend on the sequencing of the tactics. It is often better to start with softer tactics such as exchange and work up to harder tactics such as pressure. The success of the tactics will, however, greatly depend on the political skill of the user and the context or culture of the organization.

12. Preferred Power Tactics by Influence Direction
While rational persuasion may work for you, the effectiveness of some influence tactics depends on the direction of influence. This exhibit shows that rational persuasion is the only tactic effective across organizational levels.

13. Global Implications Culture affects preference for power tactics
Individualistic cultures
See power in personalized terms and as a legitimate means of advancing personal ends
Engage in more self-enhancement behaviors
Collectivistic cultures
See power in social terms and as legitimate means of helping others
An individual’s culture influences preferences for power tactics. Individualistic cultures view power in personalized terms, and see it as a legitimate means of advancing personal ends, while those in collectivistic cultures view power in social terms and as a legitimate means of helping others.

14. Political Skill
Political skill: ability to influence others to enhance one’s own objectives
Politically skilled are more effective users of all the influence tactics
Political skill is more effective when the stakes are high
Those with political skill can exert their influence without others detecting it
When an organization is run with open and fairly applied rules, free of favoritism or biases, political skill is actually negatively related to job performance.
People who fit the culture of the organization also tend to obtain more influence. Extraverts tend to be more influential in team-oriented organizations, and highly-conscientious people are more influential in organizations that value working alone on technical tasks.

15. How Power Affects People
People with power:
Put their interests ahead of others
Objectify others
React to threats against their competence
Tend to be overconfident
But there can be positive effects of power
Depends on personality
Power doesn’t affect everyone in the same way.
The toxic effects of power depend on one’s personality. Power doesn’t corrupt those with anxious personalities because they are less likely to think that using power benefits them. The corrosive effects of power can be contained by organizational systems. We have the power to blunt the negative effects of power. The people who are most likely to abuse power are those who are low in status and gain power.

16. Organizational Politics
Political behavior: consists of activities that are not required as part of an individual’s formal role but that influence, or attempt to influence, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the organization
Organizational politics focuses on the use of power to affect decision making in an organization, or on self-serving and organizationally unsanctioned behaviors.

17. The Reality of Politics
Politics arise in organizations because of:
Conflicting interests
Limited resources
Ambiguity in decision making
Politicking: Twisting facts to support one’s own goals and interests
Politics often occurs when resources are low; the excess demand for the resources leads to competition and political behaviors. When the scarce resources are distributed, there will be varying views regarding how “fairly” or “effectively” the distribution was done. Perceptions can be distorted such that the manager feels he is documenting decisions and the employee just feels that the manager is covering his rear.
Most of the time, managers are making decisions under ambiguous conditions and there is not a readily available objective standard. This creates a context in which political maneuvering is encouraged.

18. Individual Factors Contributing to Political Behavior
Traits that encourage political action:
High self-monitors
Internal locus of control
High need for power
Situational influences leading to illegitimate political actions
Lower organizational investment
Greater number of perceived alternatives
Greater expectations of success
There are a number of factors that influence political behavior. These factors include individual factors such as those with high “mach” personalities or high expectations of success. Situational influences such as low organizational investment or high expectations of success can lead to illegitimate political actions.

19. Organizational Factors Contributing to Political Behavior
Organizational resources declining or distribution shifting
Opportunity for promotion exists
Organizational culture issues
Low trust
Role ambiguity
Zero-sum reward allocation
Democratic decision making
High performance pressures
Leading by poor example
Unclear performance evaluation systems
As well as organizational factors such as a culture of low trust and role ambiguity. The combination of these factors will lead to political behavior, which can lead to favorable outcomes such as increased rewards or decreased punishments.

20. Responses to Organizational Politics
This exhibit summarizes the extensive research on the relationship between organizational politics and individual outcomes.

21. Qualifiers to Responses to Organizational Politics
The politics-performance relationship is moderated by individual’s understanding of who makes decisions and why they were selected
Political behavior at work moderates the effects of ethical leadership
When politics are perceived as a threat, people respond with defensive behaviors
Most employees will not engage in a high level of politics and often react negatively to politics. Their reactions include decreased job satisfaction, increased anxiety and stress, increased turnover, and a reduction in performance. Even though the given outcome for the individual employee who engages in politics may be favorable, it is often a negative impact for the group as a whole.

22. Impression Management
Impression Management: The process by which individuals attempt to control the impression others form of them
People may misrepresent themselves in situations of high uncertainty or ambiguity
Misrepresentations may discredit the individuals – seen as insincere or manipulative
Impression management is a response to political behavior and is defined as the process by which individuals attempt to control the impression others form of them. Some techniques used to manage this impression are conformity, self-promotion, favors, and association.
Some may misrepresent themselves when they are faced with high uncertainty or ambiguity. These misrepresentations may be seen as insincere or manipulative.

23. Using Impression Management
IM and interviews:
Self-promotion and ingratiation work well
IM and performance evaluations:
Ingratiation positively related
Self-promotion is negatively related
Impression management has shown to be effective in different situations, such as job interviews and performance evaluations. It is important that in an interview you set forth a positive impression. Many applicants utilize IM to get the interviewer to like them. Self-promotion is seen as important because it shows confidence; however, in an interview, ingratiation is not as effective. Albeit, in performance evaluations ingratiation has been found to be a positive technique and linked to higher rankings. However, self-promotion does not work as well in this context.
Most research on employee reactions to organizational politics is U.S.-based; the few studies that have been done elsewhere suggest minor modifications may be necessary to our understanding.
You must be aware of your context when utilizing IM techniques in order to get the outcome desired.

24. The Ethics of Behaving Politically
Questions to consider:
What is the utility of engaging in politicking?
How does the utility of engaging in the political behavior balance out any harm it will do to others?
Does the political activity conform to standards of equity and justice?
Is political behavior ethical in the workplace? Well, the answer is probably yes and no. It is difficult to tell ethical from unethical politicking. There are three questions that can help define ethical/unethical political behavior:
What is the utility of engaging in the behavior?
Does the utility balance out any harm done by the action?
Does the action conform to standards of equity and justice?
The answers to these questions can help you decide if the behavior is ethical or unethical.

25. Mapping Your Political Career
One of the most useful ways to think about power and politics is in terms of your own career. This Exhibit is an example of a political map based on your hypothetical relationships with the people upon whom your career depends.

26. Implications for Managers
As a manager who wants to maximize your power, you will want to increase others’ dependence on you.
You will not be alone in attempting to build your power bases.
Try to avoid putting others in a position where they feel they have no power.
By assessing behavior in a political framework, you can better predict the actions of others and use that information to formulate political strategies that will gain advantages for you and your work unit.
Help others understand the importance of becoming politically savvy.
As a manager who wants to maximize your power, you will want to increase others’ dependence on you.
You will not be alone in attempting to build your power bases.
Try to avoid putting others in a position where they feel they have no power.
By assessing behavior in a political framework, you can better predict the actions of others and use that information to formulate political strategies that will gain advantages for you and your work unit.
Consider that employees who have poor political skills or are unwilling to play the politics game generally relate perceived organizational politics to lower job satisfaction and self-reported performance, increased anxiety, and high turnover. Help others understand the importance of becoming politically savvy.

27. Keep in Mind…
Informal, expert, and referent power are the most important
Use consultation and inspirational appeals
The effectiveness of IM techniques depends on the setting
It is important to keep in mind that power is a reality in the workplace and informal, expert, and referent power tend to be the most important. If managers want to use power effectively they need to use consultation and inspirational appeals. Impression management effectiveness is very much dependent on the context in its effectiveness.

28. Summary Defined power. Contrasted leadership and power.
Described the five bases of power.
Identified nine power or influence tactics and their contingencies.
Determined how power affects people.
Defined organizational politics and described why politics exist in organizations.
Identified the causes and consequences of political behavior.
Determined whether a political action is ethical.
Described the political mapping process and its advantages.