June 10, 2010 Power & Influence Power Your Potential Women’s Conference

Defining Power within Organizations  Popular Topic  Positive or Negative?  How is it defined?

Power can be defined as the ability to get things done, to mobilize resources, to get and use whatever it is that a person needs for the goals he or she is attempting to meet.

French and Raven suggest:  Reward power (controlling resources that could reward)  Coercive power (controlling resources that could be used to punish)  Expert Power (controlling necessary knowledge or information)  Reference Power (being personally attractive to other people)  Legitimate Power (authority vested in a position or role)

Promotable supervisors defined as those who share information, delegate authority, train subordinates for more responsibility and allow for latitude and autonomy.

Unpromotable supervisors may try to retain control and restrict the opportunities for subordinates learning and autonomy.

Increasing power of individuals:  Extraordinary activities  Visibility  Relevance (are they identified with the solution to pressing organizational problems?)

Another approach to understanding Power is suggested by (Bolman and Deal, 2009) Power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others.  The potential to influence other  People have power they don’t use and may not know they possess  Power requires one person’s perception of dependence on another person  Power can ultimately be seen as perception solely.

Influence is any behavior that attempts to alter someone’s attitudes or behavior.  Applies one or more power bases  Process through which people achieve organizational objectives  Operates up, down, and across the organizational hierarchy

Power is only the capacity to influence others whereas influence is power in motion.

Ethical Ideologies and Decision Making Among Student Athletes: Impact of Influence

Data Collection  A Northeast athletic conference: 8 participating institutions (9 IRBs!)  Two tiered approach paper/pencil and web based  Participation rate of 41% - 1,329 surveys  1 st wave Spring 2008, paper and pencil – 920 surveys. To increase participation a web survey was developed surveys (distribution to those of the population at the time of the initial survey)  Demographics of respondents: Ethical Ideologies and Decision Making Among Student Athletes

Quantitative Conceptual Model Moderators: Locus of Control, Gender Controls: Status, Team/Individual Sport

Structural Equation Model Model Fit Statistics:  2= (df=231), NFI=0.87 CFI=0.92 RMSEA=0.04 Lo90=0.03 Hi90=0.04 Pclose=1.00

Findings  First, as noted in the literature, social norms can have a powerful influence on the choices that individuals make in various situations. In this study it was found that social norms have an influence on individual choices, but this pattern across the three groups is erratic.  Second, Past Behavior does have influence on importance and behavioral intention. This effect is negative and needs to be better understood with future research.  Third, within Individual Norms, idealism, more than relativism, influences individual norms. Additionally, idealism has a significant direct and indirect effect across gender and across internal and external locus of control.  Fourth, Importance is a critical mediating mechanism in understanding the relationship between social norms, past behavior, individual norms, and behavioral intention. Given the data, the role of importance in the decision making process and its influence on behavioral intention proved significant.

Framingham Heart Study 2000

Rules of Life in the Network 1. We shape our network 2. Our network shapes us 3. Our friends affect us 4. Our friends’ friends’ friends affect us 5. The network has a life of its own

Credibility is seen as the most important trait of leadership/power in an Indsco survey. Credibility = competence + power.

Power rests in part on the ability to solve dependency problems and to control relevant sources of uncertainty.

Alliances : Power through Others  Sponsors  Peers  Subordinates …it’s really all about relationships

References:  Bolman, Terrence and Deal, Lee (2009). Reframing Organizations, Jossey-Bass.  Christakis, Nicholas and Fowler, James (2009). Connected, Little Brown and Company.  Cialdini, Robert B. (2001). Harnessing the Science of Persuasion, Harvard Business Review.  Kanter, R. (1977) Men and Women of the Corporation, Harper.  Kramer, R. and Neale, M. (1998) Power and Influence in Organizations, Sage.