Introduction

Leaders are leveraging power and politics within their activities in order to influence other people for increasing productivity and achieving the organisational objective. Leaders are also responsible for identifying the existing coalitions and working through them for bringing support from individuals while attaining the goal of the organisation.

Usages of power and politics in the leadership practices have become significant for achieving the organisational goal by leading with efforts and increasing the ability to motivate the people.  However it has been argued by Ziemianski (2021) leadership and power in an organisation are a double edged sword and if these are not handled properly it can lead to reduced productivity and lack of morale of the productivity. Therefore the rationale of This study is revolving around identifying the way excess use of power and politics can impact the business practices of the company and evaluate the custom made model which will address this concern.   

As stated by Tost et al. (2013), excess use of power and politics within the organisation can impact the morale and productivity of the employees. Similarly if leadership practices are aligned with political culture the productivity of the employees can be impcted.  In order to measure  the performance metrics of the company it is needed to enhance the leadership practices by properly using the power and politics. Therefore implementation of  effective model is needed to be done while solving this problems.

Literature Review

Identification of The role of power, politics and influence tactics on leadership practices

According to the study Iszatt-White & Saunders (2020), the concept of power is defined as capability that an individual has to influence another person’s behaviour. In other words, power has a significant impact on an organisation’s business operation. This has also been highlighted that power has two types including informal power as well as formal power. Thus, informal powers consist of a person’s unique characteristic features. On the other hand, formal power is stated as a power which sets up a person’s position in an organisation. Some sources of formal individual power are Coercive power, Legitimate power and Reward power. Additionally, some sources of informal power include expert power, Charismatic power and Expert power.  

As per the study of Tost et al. (2013), organisations must evaluate the importance of the psychological impacts of power on individual leadership behaviour as well as its wider application for teamwork. Additionally, the study has been discussing the significance of employee work capability in a dynamic environment which has a significant impact on business success. This article has suggested that when a formal company’s leader recognises themselves as a highly skilful staff member, this has a negative effect on the workplace that leads to spoiling a worker’s entire performance (Tost et al., 2013). Ineffective communication can create a negative work environment in the workplace where an individual in a group can feel marginalised, which negatively impacts the staff motivation as well as delivers bad performances equally. When a leader of a firm has formal authority, other teams can accept their dominant behaviour (Chen, 2022). On the other hand, these perceptions have significant application for individual practices in the specific field of leadership development as well as firm behaviour. In the organisational setup detailed data on the role of power, politics, and influence in organisational business development directly impacts team performance. By addressing the actual pitfalls of this verbal dominance along with its effect on team performance, a company can make innovative strategies to navigate any complexities from the business operation as well as promote a healthy, inclusive work environment in the workplace (Griffin et al., 2020). Based on the study of Clawson (2014), effective leadership has a significant impact on the business operation. The article has focused on a specific aspect of leadership which emphasises energy management and the role of traditional hierarchy. Effective leadership starts with self-leadership of an individual where they can handle their entire energy level properly before giving advice to others. On the other hand, an organisation must follow effective leadership styles to create a positive as well as healthy work culture in the workplace so that every employee can do their regular work freely and comfortably. The energy level in a firm acts as a reflection which leads to strong leadership (Clawson, 2014). Every staff must follow the leader’s advice so that they effectively maintain the work culture which directly impacts productivity. Thus, several aspects including bureaucrats’, and followers’ points of view

impact an employee’s roles as well as responsibilities to fulfil organisational objectives. Sometimes, some issues such as language barriers, culture, age, and gender create difficulties in the workplace which negatively impacts the staff’s performance. Furthermore, the authors gave some examples including Jesus, Mother Teresa, and Gandhi to show the importance of effective leadership to achieve success in business (Kaur, 2023). Those leaders show their effectiveness and make strategies to fulfil their dreams which inspired millions of people. Moreover, the entire study has followed a holistic method which emphasises leadership development and the importance of energy management, and self-management that bring success in business.

In the context of identified literatures it has been observed that implementation of Hills’s framework of leadership can be beneficial for increasing the leadership practices. Based on figure 1 it has been observed that leadership decisions need to be taken through focusing on the task or relational segment within the workplace. Internal and external activities of the leaders need to be considered while focusing on the effective usage of power and politics. Leadership power and politics need to be used in such a way conflict can be managed by creating a culture of collaboration.

Literature Gap

Based in the above review it has been identified that even though literature have been able to identify the problems related to the excess use of power and politics in the leadership practices, these studies has not identify the way this problem can be mitigated. Hill’s Model of Team Leadership has identified that way team performance can be enhanced yet it has not been identify the way excess use of power and politics can be mitigated. Hence it is needed to develop a new model by identifying the mediator and moderators.

Implication of Custom Made model for overcoming the identified issue

Mediator (dependent Variables):  Fostering collaboration, conflict resolution, dispute de-escalation, negotiation and agreement

Moderator (independent variables): management of the company and employees

Custom Model:

In order to solve the issue regarding the misuse of power and politics it has been observed that the management of the company need to foster collaborative culture by resolving conflict among the leaders and employees. Coming to the agreement between the leaders and employees regarding the effective usage of power and politics need to be done while focusing on the performance management.  Leaders also need to motivate the employees for enhancing their performance.

Conclusion

The role of power, influence tactics and politics has been chosen as a topic for this study as these components always help an organisation to create a positive as well as healthy work culture in the workplace so that every staff member can do their regular work properly. In order to address the identified literature gap it is needed to conduct further research in this field related to the importance of power and politics within the leadership practices by mainly focusing on the misuse of power and politics. Future research need to focus on the alignment of identified variables while evaluating the implication of model for addressing the problem of misuse of power and politics within the leadership practice.

Reference List  

Clawson, J.G. (2014). Level Three Leadership: Getting below the surface, 5th (international) edition, Pearson, Harlow, UK.https://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/Clawsonj/General/PUBLIC/L3L_STUDENT_Syllabus_Spring_2009_D2.pdf

Iszatt-White, M. &Saunders, C. (2020). Leadership, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Chen, H., Jiang, S. & Wu, M., (2022) How important are political skills for career success? A systematic review and meta-analysis. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(19), pp.3942-3968.

Griffin, R.W., Phillips, J.M. & Gully, S.M., (2020). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations. CENGAGE learning.

Kaur, N. & Kang, L.S., 2023. Perception of organizational politics, knowledge hiding and organizational citizenship behavior: the moderating effect of political skill. Personnel Review, 52(3), pp.649-670.

Petkovski, K., & Joshevska, F. (2014). Analysis of a model of teamwork by hill. UTMS Journal of Economics, 5(1), 103-112. https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/105335 

Tost, L.P., Gino, F., & Larrick, R.P. (2013). When power makes others speechless: The negative impact of leader power on team performance, Academy of Management Journal, 56 (5), 1465-1486.