Organizational Behavior Assignment help on : Organizational Power and Politics
The power equation in the organization is one of the most important factors which decide the growth of the organization. Power is defined as the capacity or ability to influence the behavior of the other person (Oxford Dictionaries 2012) Power in an organization is generally described as someone having the authority to take decision & get it implemented. Organizational power enthused on an individual also brings the responsibility of organizational development on the person. It brings the responsibility of using the resources (man, machine and other resources) in favor of the organization. The distribution of the power is not uniform within an organization. It is generally assigned to a group of people based on the level of responsibility and seniority. The intent of assigning power is to reorganize the core activities within by designing work environment & policies and their successful implementation for the growth of organization. Organizational behavior is generally related to the coercive power. It is associated with sub-ordinates obediently following the instruction of seniors, & reflects the danger of obedience (About.com 2012).Social psychologist Stanley Milgram researched the effect of authority on obedience. He concluded people obey either out of fear or out of desperation to appear cooperative-even when acting against their own conscience and desires. Based on his experiment Milgram demonstrated how the Organizational power can sometimes result in the laid-back work environment in the organization. Also it can result in the authoritarian attitude in the power circle of the organization. But the organizational power is not only about the coercive power. As per the French & Raven’s five form of power (Mind tools 2012), organizational power can be broadly be classified as below.
Legitimate –This relates to title and job responsibilities and comes from the position a person holds.
Reward – This kind of power is based upon a person’s ability to bestow rewards which might come in the form of benefits, pay or new opportunities.
Expert – This is based on a person’s superior skill and knowledge.
Referent – This comes as a result of aperson’s admiration, respect& affection among others.
Coercive – This is associated with people who are in a position to punish others. People fear the consequences of not doing what has been asked of them.
The power center in the organization also has the ability to influence the people’s perception within the organization. A powerful person always tries to drive the people reaction & streamline with his/her way of looking the things. As the ability to influence the people thought is often seen as a yardstick about the degree of control & power a person possess in an organizational hierarchy, they always try different way to reach out the people. It can be either a well motivational speech or appeal, a consultation related to a problem, or a pressure tactic. These are some of the very common tactic people use to influence the reaction. The skill to influence is one of the most importanttactic; as it not only results in the successful implementation of the new ideas, but it also ensures a person stay powerful within the organization. This helps a person to grow & go up the power ladder in the organization.
If a person has the influencing power, it is equally important a person always keep an eye on his impression within the organization & among the people.Impressionmanagement generally refers to one’s ability to control others perception in order to achieve the goal. Different ways of handling impression is as below (Slideshare 2010)
- Ingratiation: This generally involves complementing one’s personal qualities.
- Intimidation: This involves the pressure tactic to get the things done by using the power.
- Self-Promotion: This involves scoring on one’s positive points, keeping low points in the backside
- Exemplification: This involves of trying to score high on the moral & integrity while creating a sense of remorse among others.
- Supplication : This involves putting his weakness upfront in order to garner sympathy
Within an organization politics is a reality, which is generally played in the gallery of the powerful section . A person is generally perceived as powerful when he/she possess the political wittiness to control the decision in the organization. Some of the commonly used political tactics are : Right from doing a favor to create obligation, attacking & blaming person in other side in case of any failure, to meeting people up in the power hierarchy in order to have a wide-spread network of known people to control the information of what’s happening within the organization. This in turn helps in forming a formidable coalition. It is not wrong to say power & politics go hand-in hand.
Organizational politics is part of everyone’s professional life. But one needs to know how to deal & keep up the pace with the political pressure in the workplace. Organization should try to remove a norm which creates more polarization & politics. It should always try to keep the information free flow & to provide more opportunities & platform for dialogue with its employees. It should also provide sufficient resource for its employees, so that they won’t have a feeling of zero sum rewards.
Office politics in spite of its wrong side has its own share of positivity as well . When people want to self-promote themselves & try to push their very own personal agenda, without caring for the collective goal, It spreads a lot of negativity in the work-place. This results in the low-productivity. But the positive side of the organizational politics is that it always keeps a person focused towards the goal of the organization(Graduann.d.) It also empowers the person & gets the best resource for the implementation the objective & also foresee what all challenge can be encountered in path of it.
Like politics shape the culture of a country, it also effect the culture of an organization which is also refereed “Organizational shadow(Thought Bridge n.d.)When an organization doesn’t try to bring the things out , which can potentially harm the image of it, it actually creates an Organizational shadow for themselves. Later Organization becomes so tolerant to it, so that it becomes part of Organizational culture & behavior. This is a dangerous trait for any organization. Since this cannot be avoided organizations need to learn to handle it.
Both Power and Politics are unavoidable aspect of organizational life which could have good and bad both kinds of implications. The responsible use of power leads to empowerment and it can add to effectiveness. Organizational Politics also have its two sides, since it is not possible to eliminate , it is better that a learning is developed to handle it.
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