Power, Authority and control in organisations

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Power, Authority and control in organisations

• Week 7
• Organisation studies

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Learning outcomes

• To understand what is meant by the terns Power
  and authority
• To understand the relationship between these
  terms
• To understand why control in organisations is
  necessary
• To understand how power and authority helps to
  achieve control

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Definition of Power

• The ability to exert a positive influence over
  objects, persons or situations
• The ability to force people to obey regardless of
  their resistance

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The nature of Power

• Power can be interpreted in terms of control or
  influence over the behaviour of other people with
  or without their consent (Mullins 1998)
• A has power over B to the extent he can get B to
  do something that B would not otherwise do
  (Dahl, 1957)

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The nature of Power

• the capacity of an individual or group to modify
  the conduct of other individuals or groups in a
  manner which they desire and without having to
  modify their own conduct in a manner which they
  do not desire
• Lukes 3 faces of power
• Decision making
• Non-decision making
• Mobilisation of bias

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The bases of power

• The exercise of power is generally a situation
  where a person uses their own bases of power in a
  given context.
• Therefore there are interpersonal and contextual
  bases working together

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Bases of Power

• Organisational origins
• Reward power because the person can mediate
  rewards such as promotions etc
• Coercive power mediate punishments such as
  dismissal, suspend, demote or reprimand
• Legitimate power based on position or job

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Bases of Power

• Personal origins
• Referent power based on the identification with
  a person who has resources or the desire to be
  like that person (imitative)
• Expert power - based in technical expertise or a
  recognised authority
• Negative Power the use of disruptive attitudes
  and behaviour to stop things from happening

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Contextual bases of Power

• Structure
• Knowledge
• Resources
• Decision making
• Networks
• Culture

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Levels of Power

• Senior management
• position power
• coercive and reward power
• political power, through the establishment of
  political networks

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Levels of Power

• Middle managers
• some reward power
• expert power
• negative power
• Lower levels
• expert power
• resource power (information)
• negative power

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Application of Power

• Individuals can seek to modify the behaviour of
  others by
• establishment of rules and procedures
• bargaining and negotiation
• persuasion

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Authority

• Definition
• the scope and amount of discretion given to an
  individual to make decisions by virtue of their
  position
• Authority is the right to exercise powers such as
  hiring, firing, directing, buying and selling on
  behalf of the organisation

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Authority

• Where orders are voluntarily obeyed by those
  receiving them and subordinates accept the ideas
  and directives from above because they are
  legitimate

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Sources of Authority

• Formal authority- bestowed upon an individual by
  means of job or reporting arrangements
  (Managerial)
• Technical authority exists within the scope of
  specialist knowledge or skills
• Personal, informal authority respect as elder
  citizen, popularity or recognised by colleagues
  as being efficient

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Managerial Authority

• Managerial authority has three aspects
• making decisions within the scope of ones
  managerial authority
• assigning tasks to subordinates (Delegation)
• expecting and requiring satisfactory performance
  of these tasks by subordinates

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Webers Categories of Authority

• Authority in organisations generally fell into
  one of three categories
• Traditional- based upon a line of succession
  linked to the person not their abilities
• Charismatic- Based upon the personal attributes
  of the position holder

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Webers Categories of Authority

• Rational-legal- based upon the formal
• position rather than the person
• Weber believed that rational-legal provided the
  most effective mechanism for organisations

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HIERARCHICAL AUTHORITY

• formal authority remains a source of power
  however the extent to which it is such is limited
  by
• the nature of the organisation
• the nature of the position
• right to reward and punish
• dependence on others within the organisation

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Responsibility

• Definition
• Liable to be called into account/answerable
• A person morally liable for actions, capable of
  rational conduct and is
• In a position of authority or repute
• Respectable
• Trustworthy

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Responsibility

• Responsibility is an obligation owed and cannot
  be delegated
• Superiors cannot escape responsibility for the
  actions and behaviour of their subordinates
• Authority is delegated downwards but
  responsibility remains with the supervisor

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Key Differences Between Power and Authority

• Authority - the right to influence / command
• Power - the ability to influence / command
• Power sources
• physical power
• coercive power
• resource power
• position power / legitimate power (authority)
• expert power
• personal / charismatic power
• negative / disruptive power

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Key Differences Between Power and Authority

• AUTHORITY
• formal rights inherent in a managerial position
  to give orders and expect the orders to be
  obeyed
• the right to act, or command others to act,
  toward the attainment of organisational goals
  (Robbins 1999)
• Legitimacy is derived from hierarchical position

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Key Differences Between Power and Authority

• Power is an individuals capacity to influence
  decisions
• Authority is part of the wider concept of power
  -it is the ability to influence based on the
  individuals legitimate position

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Management Control

• Mullins
• Management control is primarily a process for
  motivating and inspiring people to perform
  organisation activities that will further the
  organisations goals
• a process for detecting and correcting
  unintentional performance errors and intentional
  irregularities

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Approaches to control

• Scientific management
• No room for employee discretion. Every aspect
  should be tightly prescribed.
• Human relations approach
• Too much control can lead to resistance
• Contingency approach
• No best method. Depends on the prevailing
  circumstances

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Stages in the control process

• Planning
• Establishing standards
• Monitoring
• Comparing
• Rectifying

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Functions served by control

• Behavioural Control
• Based on direct supervision
• Generally based around written rules and
  procedures for carrying out processes
• Output control
• Judged in terms of quantifiable outputs

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Four Strategies of control

• Personal centralised
• Bureaucratic
• Output
• Cultural (Child)

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Control As A Power Source

• Provided the controlled resource is both scarce
  and important (Pfeffer, 1977)
• Important resources in this context include
• skills
• information

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Control As A Power Source

• Control of resources illustrates the divergence
  between power and hierarchical position
• E.g. a production operative at the lower reaches
  of the hierarchy can still exercise considerable
  power if he / she has specialist local knowledge
  of a particular function
• Secrecy, or the limitation of access to
  information, is used by individuals and groups
  within the organisation to enhance and maintain
  influence (Pfeffer 1977)

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Conclusions

• Every organisation contains power and authority
• These however can conflict
• Both power and authority are necessary in order
  to control resources effectively