CHAPTER 13 Influence, Power, and Politics

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CHAPTER 13Influence, Power, and Politics

• Introduction to Industrial/Organizational
  Psychology by Ronald E. Riggio

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Defining Influence, Power, and Politics

• Influence is the ability to use social forces to
  affect the behavior of others.
• Power is the use of some aspect of a work
  relationship to compel another to perform a
  certain action despite resistance.
• Organizational politics are self-serving actions
  designed to affect the behavior of others to
  achieve personal goals.

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Influence The Use of Social Control

• Choice of influence tactics is determined by the
  situation, the status of individuals involved,
  and other organizational characteristics like
  size.
• Higher-status persons are more likely to use
  assertiveness or sanctions lower-status persons
  use rational appeals.
• Coworkers use ingratiation, exchange,
  rationality, and coalitions.
• When seeking personal goals, subordinates tend to
  use ingratiation in seeking organizational
  goals, subordinates use upward appeals and
  rationality.
• Rationality is a more effective managerial
  tactic pressure tactics are least effective in
  influencing subordinates.

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Power A Major Force in Work Organizations

• Power is derived from a variety of sources of two
  main types.
• Organizational power is power derived from a
  persons position in an organization and from
  control over important resources afforded by that
  position.
• Individual power is power derived from personal
  characteristics that are of value to the
  organization, such as expertise or ability.

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Power A Major Force in Work Organizations

• Power bases are sources of power possessed by
  individuals in organizations.
• Coercive power is the use of punishment or
  threats to affect behavior of others.
• Reward power results from having the ability to
  offer something positive.
• Legitimate power involves formal authority
  accompanying a position in an organization.
• Expert power is derived from having certain
  work-related knowledge or skill.
• Referent power results from the fact that an
  individual is respected, admired, and liked by
  others.

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Power A Major Force in Work Organizations
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Power A Major Force in Work Organizations

• Power dynamics in work organization have several
  features.
• Differences in power distribution usually
  organizations are arranged in a power hierarchy,
  with some people having more power than others
  (although low-status members can have increased
  power through individual sources, like
  expertise).
• Ways to increase power include developing
  expertise, forming relationships with
  higher-status members, or forming coalitions.

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Power A Major Force in Work Organizations

• Power dynamics in work organization have several
  features.
• Power and dependency relationships workers
  commonly depend on others for work resources
  those possessing those resources have more power.
• Power and work outcomes expert power is related
  to effective job performance referent power is
  linked to member satisfaction with the person
  having the power use of coercive power decreases
  job satisfaction among targets of power.

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Power A Major Force in Work Organizations

• Power dynamics in work organization have several
  features.
• The power corollary the concept that for every
  exercise of power, there is a tendency for the
  subject to react with a return power play.
• Power and leadership ideally, leaders would
  possess all five forms of power (legitimate,
  reward, coercive, referent, and expert).

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Organizational Politics

• Functional politics are political behaviors that
  help the organization to attain its goals.
• Dysfunctional politics are political behaviors
  that detract from the organizations ability to
  attain its goals.

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Organizational Politics

• There are several causes of organizational
  politics
• Competition for power and resources.
• Subjective performance appraisals.
• Delay in measurement of work outcomes.
• Compensation for inadequacies.
• Lack of cooperation and interdependence.
• Increased group decision making.

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Organizational Politics

• Consequences of organizational politics can be
  positive and negative.
• May lead to increased job performance if workers
  and supervisors share similar goals (Witt, 1998)
• Lower job satisfaction
• Lower organizational commitment and OCBs
• Poorer quality organizational communication
• Higher absenteeism and turnover

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Organizational Politics

• There are several strategies for managing
  organizational politics
• Remove ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Provide slack resources.
• Create a positive organizational climate.
• Clarify personnel selection and appraisal
  processes.
• Reward performance, not politics.

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A Contingency Approach to Organizational Politics

• The form and incidence of organizational politics
  changes across an organizations life cycle
  (Gray Ariss, 1985).
• Cobb (1984) proposes an episodic model of power
  that examines use of power in actual work
  settings.
• The episodic model includes consideration of
  aspects of the power agent, target, and elements
  of the power situation.

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