Chapter 21 Power and Politics

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 2 Learning Outcomes: Power and Politics Define power. Discuss the importance of understanding the power and dependency relationship. Identify the five bases of power. Explain why sexual harassment is an issue of power.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 3 Learning Outcomes: Power and Politics Explain political behavior in organizations. Identify the seven impression management techniques. Learn your preferred type of power through self-assessment. Gain insight into how politically-oriented you might be through self-assessment.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 4 Power and Politics Power is the ability to influence another to respond. Power may be latent; it may not be apparent or exercised, even though the capacity is there.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 5 Power and Dependency Dependency gives power its influence. The greater the dependency an individual or a group has to another person or an organization, the greater the intensity of power.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 6 Power and Dependency Three parameters to dependency: it must be scarce. it must be important. it must be non-substitutable.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 7 Power and Leadership Leadership and power are not the same: leadership focuses on a downward influence that seeks goal satisfaction. power seeks to create a dependency with influence downward, upward or laterally.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 8 Five Sources of Power Coercive Power Reward Power Legitimate or Position Power Expert Power Referent or Personal Power

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 9 Sexual Harassment: A Power Issue Sexual Harassment: is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, or any other contact of a sexual nature where: submission to such conduct is made explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of any individual’s employment, submission to or rejection of such conduct by any individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individuals, or such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 10 Power and Political Behavior Political behavior is a method organizational members use to demonstrate power. Political behavior is not bad; in fact, it is quite necessary for healthy organizations. However, there are acceptable and unacceptable political behaviors.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 11 Impression Management Impression management is a form of political behavior that influences how others see a person.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 12 Impression Management Techniques Conformity Excuse Apology Acclaiming Flattery Association Favor

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 13 Summary Power and politics are present in all organizations. Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances and request for sexual favors that creates an issue with having power over another (and it is illegal).

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 14 Summary Political behavior occurs when individual(s) use influence to alter a course of action. Impression management is a way to influence others’ acceptance of one.