Power politics and ethics

Jayashree Sadri and Sorab Sadri
POWER, POLITICS AND EHICS
Professor Jayashree Sadri
and
Dr Sorab Sadri

WHY STUDY POWER AND
AUTHORITY?
 To achieve excellence decisions have
to be strategically taken and
implemented so that organizational
goals are met optimally.
 This process involves the interplay of
power and authority hat must be
understood.

DEFINITIONS: POWER
(A) Ability to enforce a decision.
(B) Capacity to influence attitude and
behavior of others.
(C) Willingness and ability to use brute force
to carry forth a design.
(D) Create general public opinion that is
favorable to self or desired objective.

Each of these four definitions has a positive
and negative aspect:
(a) + When the values of both parties are identical –
acceptance
- When the values of both parties differ – rejection
(b) + When you act by example and practice what you
preach-trust
- When you say something and act differently – mistrust
© + When you have an end and achieve it anyway – Clarity
- Doing something for hidden agenda – confusion
(d) + Building on strength and underplaying weakness –
Creative
- Finding faults in everything - destructive

Managers should use their power to create:
1. Proper reward system (which should be
fair and transparent)
2. Proper opportunities for public
recognition(which is a better motivator)
3. Effective counseling systems(to prevent
deviant behavior).
4. Create conducive work
environment(where honesty, hard work,
openness and integrity is rewarded).

Ethics and Power
 For all four of them ethics is related to
Power in so far as it affects people’s
behavior and their response to the
environmental stimuli.
 If you want an ethical environment then
use power fairly and selflessly.

The Link
 As a rule certain causal relationship is
accepted:
Power - Authority - Ethics

The Link
 Authority legitimizes power. Alternatively,
power when legitimized becomes
Authority
 What sustains authority is Ethics.

Kinds of Authority
 Traditional (Culture specific)
 Charismatic ( Person specific)
 Rational-Legal (Structure specific)

Ethics thus enters the calculus of power:
1. How is power used? (Negatively or Positively)
2. Who uses it? (Who is supposed to or who is
not supposed to)
3. Why is it used? (For selfish interest or self-less
goals)
3. Why is it withheld? (To spite others or to
protect self-interest)

Subjective Perception
 Whether or not an action is ethical is
determined by how one examines the
issues raised by these four questions.
E.g. According to the traditionalist
reading the Mahabharata, Yujishthir was a
stayavadi (pursuer of truth) who on dying
went straight to heaven (along with his
dog). According to an objective social
scientist he was a person who gambled
away his riches, his kingdom and his wife.

Bases of Power
 Legitimate Power: is power that is granted by
virtue of one’s position in the organization.
 Illegitimate power: is power usurped or derived
through falsehood and deceit. (illusion)
 This is basically structural in context because the
organizational structure and design denotes
where the person is located.

Reward Power
 Reward Power is the extent to which a person
control rewards that are valued by another.
 In any organization where there is clarity and
transparency the disbursement of reward power
is positive and acts as a motivator.
 In an organization where the degree of discretion
and arbitrariness is high reward power is
negative and promotes organizational politics.

Expert Power
 Expert Power is the extent to which a
person controls information that is
valuable to someone else.
 Control over information is a source of
power in itself.
 Organizations where HRIS is developed
and trust relations are evident, power of
information is positive.

Coercive Power
 Coercive power is the extent to which the
person has the ability to punish,
physically or psychologically harm
someone else.
 If used only as a deterrent to be seen but
never felt then it is positive.

Referent Power
 Referent Power is basically power through
identification. This type of power comes
from the desire on the part of the other
persons to identify with the agent wielding
power. Referent power does not always
correlate with formal organizational
authority.

Ethicality of Power
Kind of power Positive Trait Negative Trait
Legitimate Helpful & Humble Pompous &
Rude
Reward Open & Trusting Closed&
Suspicious
Expert Promotes creativity Promotes
Politics
Coercive Discipline Vindictive
Referent Promotes Growth Prevents
Growth

Link
 In understanding the relation between
basis of power and ethicality of power one
thing must be clear. The manager is more
often than not the victim of his/her
upbringing and takes his/her experience
on the domestic front into the office or
shop floor. Such managers need
psychiatric help and counseling from
expert HR facilitators. [Beware of self-
styled NLP experts].

Contd..
 Their ethics are contingent upon the
influence brought to bear on their
personal lives and the fact that they are
unable to separate personal life from
official life.

A Clarification
 Many management thinkers speak of
delegating authority. That is wrong
since authority is never delegated.
What is delegated is the power to make
decisions.

F U D Factor in Decision Making
 People who use the concept of power
negatively create dependency situations
so that they thrive at the expense of
others. Then they feed on the FUD Factor:
FEAR – UNCERTAINITY - DOUBT

Manipulative Control
 We are used to parents threatening us
with ghosts and priests, pundits, dastoors
and mullahs speaking of hell.
 Manipulative managers similarly feed on
the fear they create intentionally in the
minds of others and that is highly
unethical.
 They then create dependency situations
and thrive on it.

What creates dependency?
The manipulative manager acts such that:
 Importance of the individual.
 Scarcity of ability to solve problem.
 Non Substitutability of the individual.

Personal Power and Positional Power
 Personal Power resides in the person,
regardless of the position being filled.
 Positional Power resides in the position,
regardless of who is filling that position.

Positional Power Vs Personal Power.
 High Positional Power/Personal Power and
Low Personal Power/Positional Power can
give the Manager only Moderate Overall
Power.
 High Positional Power and High Personal
Power can give the Manager Strongest
Overall Power.

Definition of Politics
 When a person or a group works outside
its job responsibilities to influence a
decision that is likely to bring benefits
desired by the person or the group for
personal interests then that person or
group is said to be indulging in
organizational politics.

 Organizational politics are activities
carried out by people to acquire, enhance
and use power and other resources to
obtain desired outcomes.
 These outcomes could be financial
(kickbacks), situational (nepotism) or
dominational (oppression).

 Politics is power in action.
 There is no place where politics does not
exist.
 Lord Acton said “ all power corrupts and
absolute power corrupts absolutely”

We say
 All power corrupts and the threat of losing
power corrupts absolutely.
 Power is a great aphrodisiac

Factors influencing political behavior.
 Individual factors:
High self-monitors
Internal Locus of Control
High match between man and job
Organizational investment
Perceived job alternatives
Expectations of success

Organizational Factors
 Reallocation of resources
 Promotional opportunities
 Low trust relations
 Role ambiguity
 Unclear performance evaluation system
 Zero-sum reward practices
 Democratic decision making
 High performance pressures
 Self-serving senior managers

Something to chew on
 It is generally believed that political behaviour
is unethical. This is not so.
 It is generally believed that politicians are
corrupt. That is also not so.
Ninety percent of politicians are corrupt and
that gives the rest ten percent a bad name.
Henry Kissinger

Think this through
 In management too we must never
generalize. But treat each case objectively
and on its merits.
 Political behavior is not per se unethical.

Perhaps
 If you are willing to tell a white lie for a
good cause it is acceptable.
 If you are bending the truth for the greater
good of man then it is acceptable.
 If you are playing political game to
improve the general lot of workmen then it
is ethical (e.g. Trade Unions).

Then Again
 If you are circumventing (not breaking)
legal provisions so that a majority of
employees benefit and society as a whole
does not suffer then it is ethical.

Impression Management
 Every manager likes to put his best face
forward for public viewing and hide the
side of his character that is ugly.
 He tries to always create a favorable
impression of his self in the eyes of
others. That is called impression
management.

I M
 Organizations are nowadays known to
appoint Liaison Officers, Officers on
Special Duty and Public Relations
Agencies to improve their organization's
public image. This is ethical.

I M
 But in improving that public image certain vital facts are
massaged or important lacunae are hidden then it is
unethical.
 When the principal task of the liaison officer or Public
Relations Officer is to convert black money into white then
it is clearly unethical.

Bribery and Relationship Building
When does bribery begin and
relationship building end?

Bribery and Relationship Building.
 When you give someone a divali gift it is bribery? Is it
unethical?
 When do you give a bribe and when do you build social
relationships?
 Are you conscious of the difference?

Three conditions hold if an action is ethical.
 There is no clear quid pro quo.
 The value of the gift is not so high that eyebrows
are raised . (Giving a car as a divali gift.)
 All gifts that are received are declared by the
executive receiving the gift to top management
so that transparency is ensured.(This is done in
IBM, General Motors, Tata Steel, Sundaram
Fasteners.etc.)

Techniques of Political Behavior.
 Controlling information
 Controlling lines of communication
 Using outside experts
 Controlling Agenda
 Game Playing
 Building Coalitions
 Controlling Decision Parameters

Limiting the effects of Political Behavior.
 Opening Communication.
 Reducing Uncertainty.
 Being Aware.
 These three enable us to raise the level of
social consciousness.

THANK YOU.

Power politics and ethics

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