1. POWER AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Prof. Károly Balaton
Institute of Management

2. THE CONCEPT OF POWER (based on Hatch, 1997)
The alternatives to the rational decision-making model suggest that when there is disagreement over goals or over the preferred means for pursuing goals, then the decision-making process will be open to the effect of power and politics.
Definition of power: „A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not otherwise do.”
Power is generally assumed to be used to attain desired outcomes.
Power can involve the use of coercion (the threat of force), rewards (control of material resources), norms (the legitimacy bestowed by cutlural assumptions and values), and knowledge (control of unique and needed information).

3. SOME COMMON STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING AND USING POWER WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION
Develop power by:
Creating dependence in others
Work in areas of high uncertainty
Cultivate centrality by working in critical areas
Develop non-substitutable skills
Coping with uncertainty on behalf of others
Prevention
Forecasting
Absorption
Developing personal networks
Developing and constantly augmenting your expertise

4. SOME COMMON STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING AND USING POWER WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION - CONTINUED
Use power to:
Control information flows to others
Control agendas
Issue definition
Order of issues
Issue exclusion
Control decision-making criteria
Long vs. Short term consideration
Return vs. Ristk
Choose criteria that favor your abilities and contributions

5. SOME COMMON STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING AND USING POWER WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION - CONTINUED
Cooptation and coalition building
External alliances (e.g., supplier or customer relationships, interlocking boards of directors)
Internal alliances
Promote loyal subordinates
Appoint committees
Gain representation on important committees
Bring in outside experts (consultants) to bolster your position

6. THE USE OF POWER
Power is the basic energy to initiate and sustain action translation intention into reality, the quality without which leaders cannot lead.
Power is at once the most necessary and the most distrusted element exigent to human progress.
Power is the basic energy needed to initiate and sustain action or, to put it another way, the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.

7. A POWER PERSPECTIVE OF THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS – based on Pfeffer: Understanding power in organizations
Decide what your goals are, what you are trying to accomplish.
Diagnose patterns of dependence and interdependence; what individuals are influential and important in your achieving your goal?
What are their points of view likely to be? How will they feel about what you are trying to do?
What are their power bases? Which of them is more influential in the decision?
What are your bases of power and influence? What bases of influence can you develop, to gain more control over the situation?

8. A POWER PERSPECTIVE OF THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS - continued
Which of the various strategies and tactics for exercising power seem most appropriate and are likely to be effective, given the situation you confront?
Based on the above, choose a course of action to get something done.

9. TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES FROM A POWER PERSPECTIVE
Top management initiated (top-down) changes
Changes intiated by the environment
Bottom-up changes

10. TOP MANAGEMENT INITIATED CHANGES
Interests of management teams in relation to changes:
Acquire power through changes
Changes initiated by the envrionment – the top management has a reactive role
Changes resulting from decisions made by top managers (e.g.: initiating new strategies for the company)
Maintaning power by preserving the status quo in the organization
Conflicts and problems related to low level of performance, threatening the position of top managers.
Maintaining power in situations of power acquiring intentions of lower level managers.

11. CHANGES INITIATED BY THE ENVIRONMENT
The resource dependency theory of organization power
Changes in competitive positons needing responses by the organization
Changes related to dynamic changes in the environment
Changes in the political, economic and social environment

12. BOTTOM-UP CHANGES
New strategic initiatives emerging from lower levels in the organization
Using the bottom-up strategy development process in the formal strategic planning system.

13. CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Facilitative (helping) strategies
Educational strategies
Convincing strategies
Power-based strategies