The document summarizes a lecture on power, politics, and organizational conflicts. It discusses the nature of power and how it is used in organizations. Managers can use power to control resources and influence decision making. The sources of power include formal roles, personal attributes, and the ability to control resources and contingencies. Organizational politics involve activities to increase power and influence goals. Conflicts arise when groups compete over scarce resources and have differing goals. Conflicts can be managed through negotiation and changing group behaviors.

1. LECTURE 10:
Power, politics and
conflicts
Lecturer: NGO THE NAM

2. LECTURE CONTENTS
1. The nature of power and politics
2. Sources of power
3. Organizational politics
4. Organizational conflicts
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3. 1. The nature of power
and politics
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4. The nature of power and politics
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 Power, the ability of one person or group to cause another
person or group to do something they otherwise might not have
done, is the principal means of directing and controlling
organizational goals and activities
 Organizational politics are activities in which managers
engage to increase their power and pursue goals that favor
their individual and group interests.
 Managers at all levels may engage in political behavior to
gain promotion or to influence organizational decision making in
their favor.

5. Effects of power and politics
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 (1) managers can use power to control people and other
resources so that they cooperate to achieve an
organization’s current goals, and
 (2) managers can also use power to engage in politics
and influence the decision-making process to promote new,
more appropriate organizational goals.

6. 2. Sources of power

7. Sources of individual power
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8. Sources of formal individual power
 Legitimate power (quyền uy do chức vụ mang lại)confers on a manager the legal
authority to control and use organizational resources to accomplish organizational goals.
 Reward power (Quyền uy do đãi ngộ) is the power to give pay raises, promotion, praise,
interesting projects, and other rewards to subordinates
 Coercive power (Quyền uy do trừng phạt mang lại) is the power to give or withhold
punishment. Punishments range from suspension to demotion, termination, unpleasant
job assignments, or even the withholding of praise and goodwill.
 Information power (Quyền uy thông tin) is power stemming from access to and control
over important organizational facts, data, and decisions.
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9. Sources of Informal personal power
 Expert power (quyền uy trình độ chuyên môn) is informal
power that stems from superior ability or expertise in
performing a specific task or role.
 Employees who gain power and influence in a group
because they are liked, admired, and respected are said to
possess referent power.
 Charismatic power (Quyền uy từ bản chat lôi cuốn của
người lãnh đạo) is an intense form of referent power
stemming from a person’s unique personality, physical
strengths, or other capabilities that induce others to believe
in and follow that person.
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10. Sources of functional and divisional power
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11. Sources of functional and divisional power
Ability to Control Uncertain Contingencies
 A contingency is an event or problem that might occur and therefore must be planned for, by having the
people and resources in place to deal with it should the event arise
Irreplaceability
 A function or division gains power when it is irreplaceable, that is, when no other function or division can
perform its activities.
 All functions and divisions are irreplaceable to a certain degree. How irreplaceable they are depends on
how easy it is to find a replacement for their expertise
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12. Sources of functional and divisional power
Centrality
 Centrality means how vital or crucial its activities are to the operation of the entire
organization and the degree to which it is positioned to gain access to important information
from other functions.
Ability to Control and Generate Resources
 Centrality means how vital or crucial its activities are to the operation of the entire
organization and the degree to which it is positioned to gain access to important information
from other functions.
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13. 3. Organizational
Politics: the use of
power

14. Organizational Politics: the use of power
▸ Organizational politics are activities that managers engage in
to increase their power. Once they acquire it, they can use
power to influence decision making so that the organization
pursues goals that favor their individual, functional, and
divisional interests.
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15. Organizational Politics: the use of power
▸ Tactics for increasing individual power
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16. Managing organizational politics
 It is important that top managers use organizational politics to increase performance and
effectiveness.
 The management of organizational politics is a major responsibility of the CEO because only
this role possesses the legitimate power to exercise control over all other managers.
 To avoid power struggles, an organization must have a strong CEO who can manipulate and
balance its power structure so that no manager or coalition of managers can become strong
enough to threaten the organization’s future effectiveness
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17. 4. Organizational
conflicts

18. Organizational conflicts
 Organizational politics gives rise to conflict as one person or group
attempts to influence the goals and decision making of an organization to
advance its own interests—usually at the expense of some other person or
group.
 Organizational conflict is the self-interested struggle that arises when the
goal-directed behavior of one person or group blocks the goal-directed
behavior of another person or group.
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19. Organizational conflicts
Negative sides of organizational conflicts
 It leads to lower organizational performance
 Conflict occurs because managers have not designed an organizational
structure that allows people, functions, or divisions to cooperate to achieve
corporate objectives
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20. Organizational conflicts
Positive sides of organizational conflicts
 It can often increase organizational performance if it’s carefully managed and
negotiated.
 Conflict can increase organizational performance because it exposes
weaknesses in organizational decision making and design and prompts the
organization to make changes.
 Managers realign the organization’s power structure and shift the balance of
power in favor of the group that can best meet the organization’s current needs
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21. Organizational conflicts
Sources of organizational conflicts
Differentiation in an organization occurs when employees and tasks are split up into
different subunits or groups, such as functions and divisions, so they can produce goods
and services more effectively.
 The splitting of the organization into functions or divisions produces conflict,
however, because this leads the different subunits to develop different functional
orientations and makes status inconsistencies apparent
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22. Organizational conflicts
Sources of organizational conflicts
Task relationships generate conflict between people and groups because
organizational tasks are interrelated and affect one another. Overlapping
authority, task interdependence, and incompatible evaluation systems may
stimulate conflict among functions and divisions
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23. Organizational conflicts
Sources of organizational conflicts
Scarcity of Resources
 Competition for scarce resources produces conflict.
 Conflict over the allocation of capital occurs among divisions and between divisions and
corporate headquarters.
 Other organizational groups also have an interest in the way a company allocates scarce
resources. Shareholders care about the size of their dividends. Employees want to maximize
their salaries and benefits. Managers in competition for scarce resources may fight over whom
should get the biggest pay raise.
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24. Organizational conflicts
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Pondy’s model of organizational
conflicts

25. Negotiating: resolving conflicts
 Negotiation is the process in which parties with conflicting interests meet together
and make offers, counteroffers, and concessions in the attempt to resolve their
differences.
 Negotiation is an important technique that managers use to increase the likelihood
of reaching compromise between individuals and groups in conflict.
 Through negotiating and bargaining, the parties to a conflict discuss different ways
to allocate resources in order to reach a solution acceptable to them all.
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26. Negotiating: resolving conflicts
Individual level of conflict management
Some reasons of individual level of conflicts:
 a clash of personalities,
 work-force diversity,
 a basic disagreement about how the work should be performed, or about
the performance of another person
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27. Negotiating: resolving conflicts
Individual level of conflict management
Steps in the process to deal with conflicts
1. A manager meets with both the employees in conflict and forcefully outlines the way their behavior is affecting the way
they perform their jobs and other members of the department.
2. The manager summarizes the dispute between the employees in a written form, creating a report that carefully matches
both sides of the case to identify the main factors in dispute
3. The manager discusses the facts in the report with each employee separately acting as a neutral third party; the manager
uses the fact-finding report to work out a solution each employee can accept, going back and forth between the
employees until they can accept a common solution.
4. The manager meets with both employees to discuss the agreement and get their commitment to resolving the dispute.
Each employee also agrees to meet with the manager should subsequent problems arise.
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28. Negotiating: resolving conflicts
Group level of conflict management
 Group-level conflict management is aimed at changing the
attitudes and behaviors of groups and departments in
conflict.
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29. Ways of handling conflicts
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30. The end !