This document discusses power and politics in organizations. It defines power as the ability to influence others' behavior and get them to act according to one's wishes. Power comes from various bases including reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, expert power, and referent power. The effectiveness of power tactics depends on factors like the direction of influence. When employees use power for personal gain, it is considered political behavior within organizations. The document also discusses impression management techniques that individuals use to influence how others perceive them. It concludes with a case study about a business owner deciding whether to delegate a new project or manage it herself.

1. Management Skills in IT@VGU-BIS2013
Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang
POWER &
POLITICS
Group 8: Phan Thi, Hong – Pham Minh, Huyen – Nguyen Quoc, Viet

2. 2

3. 3
“Power corrupts, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely,”
You may have heard that
But
Power is not always bad.

4. Objectives
• Identify the contrast leadership and power as well as
contrast the five bases of power.
• Explain the role of dependence in power
relationships.
• Identify nine power or influence tactics and their
contingencies.
• Identify the causes and consequences of political
behaviors.
• Apply impression management techniques.
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5. Outline
• Summary of Theory
o Power and Dependency
o Politics: Power in Action
o Key Take Away
• Case Study
o Summary of Case Study
o Analysis of Case Study
• Q & A
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6. POWER & DEPENDENCY
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7. Definition of Power
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A capacity that A has to influence the
behavior of B so that B acts in
accordance with A’s wishes.

8. Leadership & Power
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• Focuses on goal achievement. Requires goal
compatibility with followers.
• Used as a means for achieving goals. Requires
follower dependency.
Goal
Compatibility
• Focuses on the downward influence on followers.
• Used to gain lateral and upward influence.
Direction of
Influence
• Focuses on leadership styles and relationship
with followers.
• Emphasizes tactics for gaining compliance.
Research Focus

9. Expert Power
Sources of Power
9
Formal
Power
Personal
Power
Bases of
Power
Coercive Power
Reward Power
Legitimate Power
Referent Power

10. Dependence – the Key to Power
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the greater B’s dependence on A, the
more power A has over B.
Dependence increases when the resource you control is
• Important
• Scarce
• Non-substituable

11. What Creates Dependence? – Importance
11
Downy brand generates > $1
billion in sales a year for the
consumer products giant P&G.
Marketers?Engineers

12. Power Tactics
12
Power tactics are ways in which individuals
translate power bases into specific actions.
• Rational persuasion
• Inspirational appeals
• Consultation
• Personal appeals
• Ingratiation
Personal Power
(“softer” tactics)
• Exchange
• Coalitions
• Legitimacy
• PressureFormal Power
(“harder” tactics)
Fig. 1 – Nine distinct influence tactics

13. Effectiveness of Power Tactics
13
• The effectiveness of some influence tactics depends on the
direction of influence (shown in Exhibit 13-1).
• Other factors that affect the effectiveness of influence include:
• the sequencing of tactics
• a person’s skill in using the tactic
• and the organizational culture.

14. Effectiveness of Power Tactics
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• Should begin with “softer” tactics. If these fail, you can
move to “harder” tactics.
• A single soft tactic is more effective than a single hard
tactic.
• Combining two soft tactics or a soft tactic and rational
persuasion is more effective than any single tactic or
combination of hard tactics.

15. POLITICS: POWER IN ACTION
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16. Power in action
When people get together in groups,
power will be exerted.
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When employees in organizations
convert their power into action,
we describe them as being
engaged in politics

17. Organizational Politics
Political behavior
“Activities that are not required as part of a
person’s formal role in the organization
but
that influence, or attempt to influence,
the distribution of
advantages and disadvantages
within the organization”
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18. Organizational Politics
Political behavior
examples
• Withholding key information from decision makers
• Spreading rumors
• Leaking confidential information to the media
• Exchanging favors with others in the organization for mutual
benefit
• Lobbying on behalf of or against a particular individual or
decision alternative
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19. Factors Contributing to Political Behavior
• Not all groups or organizations are equally
political.
– In some organizations, politicking is overt and
rampant
– While in others politics plays a small role in
influencing outcomes
• Why this variation?
– Factors that appear to encourage political behavior
• Individual Factors
• Organizational Factors
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20. Factors Contributing to Political Behavior
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21. How Do People Respond to
Organizational Politics?
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22. Impression Management
“The process by which individuals attempt to
control the impression others form of them”
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23. Impression Management (IM)
Techniques
• Conformity
– Agreeing with someone else’s opinion to gain his or her approval is a form of ingratiation.
– Example: A manager tells his boss, “You’re absolutely right on your reorganization plan for the
western regional office. I couldn’t agree with you more.”
• Favors
– Doing something nice for someone to gain that person’s approval is a form of ingratiation.
– Example: A salesperson says to a prospective client, “I’ve got two tickets to the theater tonight that I
can’t use. Take them. Consider it a thank-you for taking the time to talk with me.”
• Excuses
– Explanations of a predicament-creating event aimed at minimizing the apparent severity of the
predicament is a defensive IM technique.
– Example: A sales manager says to her boss, “We failed to get the ad in the paper on time, but no one
responds to those ads anyway.”
• Apologies
– Admitting responsibility for an undesirable event and simultaneously seeking to get a pardon for the
action is a defensive IM technique.
– Example: An employee says to his boss, “I’m sorry I made a mistake on the report. Please forgive me.”
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24. Impression Management (IM)
Techniques
• Self-Promotion
– Highlighting one’s best qualities, downplaying one’s deficits, and calling attention to one’s achievements is a
self-focused IM technique.
– Example: A salesperson tells his boss, “Matt worked unsuccessfully for three years to try to get that account. I
sewed it up in six weeks. I’m the best closer this company has.”
• Enhancement
– Claiming that something you did is more valuable than most other members of the organizations would
think is a self-focused IM technique.
– Example: A journalist tells his editor, “My work on this celebrity divorce story was really a major boost to our
sales”
• Flattery
– Complimenting others about their virtues in an effort to make oneself appear perceptive and likeable is an
assertive IM technique.
– Example: A new sales trainee says to her peer, “You handled that client’s complaint so tactfully! I could never
have handled that as well as you did.”
• Exemplification
– Doing more than you need to in an effort to show how dedicated and hard working you are is an assertive
IM technique.
– Example: An employee sends e-mails from his work computer when he works late so that his supervisor will
know how long he’s been working
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25. Summary and Implications for
Managers
• As a manager who wants to maximize your power, you will
want to increase others’ dependence on you
• Try to avoid putting others in a position where they feel they
have no power
• An effective manager accepts the political nature of
organizations
• Those who are good at playing politics can be expected to get
higher performance evaluations and, hence, larger salary
increases and more promotions than the politically naive or
inept
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26. THE CASE
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27. Case summary
Samantha Parks
is the owner and CEO of
Sparks
New York agency that develops advertising, promotions, and
marketing materials for high-fashionfirms

28. Case summary
Samantha Parks
overseeing most projects from start to finish
The firm has grown
it necessary to delegate more
and more decisions to her associates

29. Samantha Parkshas been approached by a hairstyling chain
wants a comprehensive redefinition of its
entire marketing and promotions look
Should
Samantha
manage this project
her traditional way delegate
major parts to her employees

30. Why do you have to "sweat
the small stuff“? “Outsource”
to your employees and …
30
You need to stay
very close to your
creative core and
watch out these
'creative’ guys, they
just want to take off
your bread.

31. 1. If you were Samantha Parks, how would you prioritize which
projects or parts of projects to delegate?
31
Without GOOGLE!!
End products
Core products
Core business
Core competency
Advertising, promotions,
and marketing materials
for high-fashion firms.
Develop Fashion
projects & products
High quality services
depends on IP -
intellectual proprietary

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2. What makes her decisions so hard: How can she deal with
these concerns without giving up too much control?
“I hire good people,
creative people, to run
these projects, and I
worry that they will see
my oversight and
authority as interfering
with their creative
process.”
Divide the tasks into smaller
chunks and discuss on the
level of reporting and
interfering of tasks.

33. Use RACI model in this case to explain why they need to
control projects and to what certain they should involve in.
33
Do they have a
right to control
projects and
keep in the loop
on important
decisions just so
they can remain
in charge?
Should
executives try
to control
projects to
maintain their
position of
authority?

34. 4. What are some tasks in
an organization that a top
executive should never
delegate to others?
34
John Fitzgerald
Kennedy (1917-1963)
President of the United States (1961-1963)
Presidential campaign speech proposing
the United States Peace Corps
San Francisco, California, USA
November 2, 1960
(As reported by The New York
Times, November 3, 1960, page 32)
“Give me a fulcrum,” Archimedes is
reported to have said, “and a place to
stand—and I will move the world.” The
tools I have suggested can be our
fulcrum—it is here we take our
stand—let us move the world down
the road to peace.

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36. 36
Thank you!

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References
• Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, Organizational
Behavior, Pearson Education, Inc., 2013

38. 38http://langmai.org/tang-kinh-cac/vien-sach/thien-tap/quyen-luc-dich-thuc