This document discusses power, leadership, and politics. It defines power as the ability to control one's environment and influence others. Leadership involves the right to provide guidance to others through influence. Power can come from formal positions within an organization or from personal characteristics. There are several types of power sources, including those that stem from expertise, relationships, control of resources, and managing critical problems. Organizational politics are influenced by factors like hierarchical structures and subjective performance standards. Leaders use various political tactics to gain and maintain power, such as developing key contacts, building relationships, and avoiding blunders that could undermine their power.

1. Power, Politics, and
Leadership

2. What is Power?
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3. • Power is a measure of a person's ability to control the
environment around them, including the behavior of
other people.
• The term authority is often used for power, perceived as
legitimate by the social structure.
• Power can be seen as evil or unjust; indeed, all evil and
injustice committed by man against man involve power.
• The use of power need not involve coercion (force or the
threat of force).
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4. •Leadership and Power
• Leaders have power in situations. This does not necessarily mean that
leaders should or do have power over people.
• Power is simply the right to provide leadership.
• As leadership involves influence over other people, power is usually
given by the group to the leader. So too can the group take the power
away if they are not satisfied with the leader.
• The exercise of power is a complex process and appears to be
dependent on context, personality and expertise.
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5. Sources and Types of Power
• To exercise influence, a leader must have power, the potential
or ability to influence decisions and control resources.
• Power is the third pillar of leadership, the other two being
knowledge and trust.
• Effective leaders use power appropriately, and know:
• When and how to be directive and when to delegate; and
• When and how to be consultative, providing guidance instead of being
directive.
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6. 05/26/17 Anjum N. Qureshi 6
S. No. Types and Sources of Power
1 Power granted by the organization (Position power)
2 Power stemming from characteristics of the person
(Personal power)
3 Power stemming from ownership
4 Power stemming from providing resources
5 Power derived from capitalizing upon opportunity
6 Power stemming from managing critical problems
7 Power stemming from being close to power

7. Position Power: Most obvious and important
• Also called "Legitimate Power”, refers to power of an individual because of
the relative position within an organization.
• It is formal authority delegated to the holder of the position.
• Is legitimate power enough to produce effects on others or influence them
as desired by the leader?
• Leader team of experts (Doctors)
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8. Position Power: Most obvious and important
S.
No.
Source of Position Power
1 Legitimate Power: the lawful right to make a decision and
expect compliance is called legitimate power.
2 Reward Power: the authority to give employees rewards for
compliance is referred to as reward power.
3 Coercive Power:: the power to punish for noncompliance; it is
based on fear.
4 Information Power: the power stemming from formal control
over the information people need to do their work. The sales
manager who control sales leads holds considerable power.
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9. Personal Power
• Three source of power stem from characteristics or
behaviors of the power actor:
• Expert Power
• Referent Power
• Prestige Power
• These are classified as personal power because they are
derived from the person rather than from the
organization.
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10. Personal Power
• Expert Power: Expert Power is the ability to influence others
through specialized knowledge, skills, or abilities.
• It is an individual's power deriving from the skills or expertise
of the person and the organization's needs for those skills and
expertise.
• Unlike the others, this type of power is usually highly specific
and limited to the particular area in which the expert is
trained and qualified.
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11. Personal Power
• Referent Power: is the ability to influence others through
desirable traits and characteristics.
• It means the power or ability of individuals to attract
others and build loyalty. It's based on the charisma and
interpersonal skills of the power holder.
• Prestige Power stems from one’s status and reputation. A
manager who has accumulated important business
successes acquires prestige power.
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12. Power Stemming from Ownership
• Executive leaders accrue power in their capacity as agents acting on
behalf of shareholders.
• The strength of ownership power depends on how closely the leader
is linked to shareholders and board members.
• The leader’s ownership power is also associated with how much
money s/he has invested in the firm.
• An executive who has a major share in the company is less likely to
be fired by the board.
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13. Power Stemming from Providing
Resources
• According to this perspective, the organization requires a continuing
flow of human resources, money, customers and clients, technological
inputs, and materials to continue to function.
• Individuals who can provide these key resources accrue power.
• An important consequence of resource related power is that when
leaders start losing their power to control resources, their power
declines.
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14. Power Stemming from Capitalizing
on Opportunity
• Power can be derived from being in the right place at the right time and
taking the appropriate action. (Colin Powel)
• What about Gen. Musharaf, Zardari
• It pays to be ‘where the action is’ in order to gain power through
capitalizing on opportunity.
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15. Power Stemming from Managing
Critical Problems
• The strategic contingency theory of power suggests that units
that are best able to cope with the firm’s critical problems and
uncertainties acquire relatively large amounts of power.
• Another important aspect this theory concerns the unit’s
centrality.
• It refers to the extent to which a unit’s activities are linked into the
system of organizational activities.
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16. Power Stemming from Managing
Critical Problems
• A unit has high centrality when it is an important and integral
part of the work done by another unit.
• Holding a position of centrality does influence the power a
worker, and therefore, his/her unit can exert. (Shaukat Tareen)
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17. Factors that Contribute to Organizational
Politics
• People want power for many different reasons, which is why
political behavior is so widespread in organization.
• A number of individual and organizational factors contribute to
political behavior:
S.
No.
Factors contributing to political behavior in
organizations
1 Pyramid-shaped organization structure
2 Subjective standards of performance
3 Environmental uncertainty and turbulence
4 Emotional insecurity
5 Machiavellian tendencies
6 Disagreements that prevent rational decision making
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18. • Pyramid-shaped organization structure: A Hierarchical Organization
Structure is a pyramid-shaped system that arranges the relations
between the entities within an organization in a top-down way. ...
• The power is accumulated at the top of the rung.
• Subjective standards of performance are based on the personal
preferences of the manager rather than based on any measurable results
to be achievable.
• It leads to political behavior because people they do of not think
organization has objective and fair way judging performance.
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19. •Environmental uncertainties and turbulence:
•When people or organization units they represent
operate in unstable and unpredictable
environment, they tend to behave politically.
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20. • Emotional insecurity is a feeling of general unease or nervousness
that may be triggered by perceiving oneself to be unloved, inadequate
or worthless ...
• This causes them to engage in politics.
• A person who is insecure;
• lacks confidence in their own value and capability,
• trust in themselves or others, or
• has fears that a present positive state is temporary and will let
them down and cause them loss or distress by "going wrong" in
future.
• Machiavellian tendencies refers to a person's tendency to deceive and
manipulate others for personal gain
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21. Political Tactics and Strategies
• To make effective use of organizational politics, leaders must be
aware of specific political tactics and strategies.
• There are many. We will examine a few.
• Political Behavior: under this heading we will examine political
behaviors
1. Gaining power
2. Building relationships with superiors and co-workers; and
3. Avoiding political blunders
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22. Political Tactics and Strategies
• All political tactics are aimed at acquiring and maintaining
power, even the power to avoid a difficult assignment.
• Six techniques to gaining power:
1. Develop power contacts
2. Control vital information
3. Keep informed
4. Control lines of communication
5. Bring in outside experts (leaders bring in outside consultants to
legitimate their positions)
6. Make a quick showing (a display of dramatic results can help gain
acceptance for one’s efforts)
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1. Strategies and Tactics aimed Directly at Gaining Power

23. Political Tactics and Strategies
• Much of the organizational politics involves building positive
relationships with network members who can be helpful now or
later.
• Here are some strategies and tactics most often used:
1. Display loyalty
2. Manage your impression
3. Ask satisfied customers to contact your boss
4. Be courteous, pleasant, and positive
5. Ask advice
6. Send thank you notes to large numbers of people
7. Flatter other sensibly
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2. Strategies and Tactics Aimed at Building Relationships

24. Political Tactics and Strategies
• 3. Avoiding Political Blunders: a strategy for retaining power is to
refrain from making power eroding blunders which can prevent one
from attaining power.
• Criticizing the boss in a public forum
• Bypassing the manager
• Overt displays of disloyalty
• Being a pest
• Being or perceived as a poor team player
• Burning your Bridges
• Declining an offer from top management
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25. Political Tactics and Strategies
• A technique of gaining power can be devious if practiced in the
extreme.
• a person who supports a boss by feeding him/her insider
information that could affect the price of company stock is being
devious.
• Dysfunctional strategies may in the long run erode a leader’s
effectiveness by lowering his/her credibility.
1.Back stabbing
2.Embrace or demolish
3.Setting a person up for failure
4.Divide and rule
5.Playing territorial games.
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Dysfunctional Political Tactics and Strategies

26. Exercising Control over
Dysfunctional Politics
• Carried to excess, organizational politics can hurt an
organization and its members.
• To much politicking can result in wasted time and effort,
thereby lowering productivity.
• Lower commitment
• Lower moral
• Loss of people
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27. Exercising Control over
Dysfunctional Politics
• Leaders must combat political behavior when it is
excessive and dysfunctional.
• In a comprehensive strategy to control politics,
organizational leaders must be aware of its causes and
techniques.
• For example; during a downsizing the CEO must be alert of back
stabbing and attempts to please him/her.
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28. • Open communication can help constrain the impact of
political behavior.
• Avoiding favoritism
• Setting good examples at the top of the organization can
help reduce the frequency and tendency of political
behavior.
• Politics can also sometimes be constrained by a threat to
discuss questionable information in a public forum.
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29. Building Relationships with
Superiors
• Network with Influential People
• Help your Manager Succeed
• Volunteer for Assignments
• Flattery
• Use information Power
• Appear Cool Under Pressure
• Laugh at Boss’ Humor
• Express Constructive Disagreement
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30. Building Relationships with
Co-Workers
• Maintain honest and open relationships
• Make others feel important
• Express interest in others’ work
• Be diplomatic
• Exchange favors
• Ask advice
• Share constructive gossip
• Buddy up with Tech-People
• Follow Group Norms
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31. Practical Tips for Managing
Organizational Politics
Reduce System Uncertainty
Reduce Competition
Break Existing Political Fiefdoms
Prevent Future Fiefdoms
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