Final Project on Power and Politics

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Power refers to a capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B, so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes. This definition implies a potential that need not be actualized to be effective and a dependency relationship.

Where does power come from? What is it that gives an individual or a group influence over others? The answer to these questions is a five-category classification:-

Compliance achieved based on the ability to distribute rewards that others view as valuable

The power a person receives as a result of his or her position in the formal hierarchy of an organization

Influence based on possession by an individual of desirable resources or personal traits

¨ Reason: Use of facts and data to make a logical or rational presentation of ideas

¨ Friendliness: Use of flattery, creation of goodwill, acting humble, and being friendly prior to making a request

¨ Coalition: getting the support of other people in the organization to back up the request

¨ Bargaining: Use of negotiation through the exchange of benefits or favors

¨ Assertiveness: Use of a direct and forceful approach such as demanding compliance with requests, repeating reminders, ordering individuals to do what is asked, and pointing out that rules require compliance

¨ Higher authority: Gaining the support of higher levels in the organization to back up requests

¨ Sanctions: Use of organizationally derived rewards and punishments such as preventing or promising a salary increase, threatening to give an unsatisfactory performance evaluation, or withholding a promotion

When people get together in groups, power will be exerted. People want to carve out a niche from which to exert influence, to earn awards, and to advance their careers. When employees in organizations convert their power into action, we describe them as being engaged in politics.

Those activities that are not required as part of one’s formal role in the organization, but that influence, or attempt to influence, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the organization.

Politics is a fact of life in organizations. Organizations are made up of individuals and groups with different values, goals and interests. This sets up the potential for conflict over resources. Departmental budgets, space allocations, project responsibilities, and salary adjustments are just a few examples of the resources about whose allocation organizational members will disagree.

May be the most important factor leading to politics within the organizations is the realization that most of the “facts” that are used to allocate the limited resources are open to interpretation.

In some organizations politicking is overt and rampant, while in others, politics plays a small role in influencing outcomes. Why is there this variation? Recent research and observation have identified a number of factors that appear to encourage political behavior.

Empowerment: power, culture and leadership - a strategy or fad for the millennium?

Steven H. Appelbaum,, Danielle Hébert, Sylvie Leroux

This article examines four dimensions of power: various resources to influence the outcome of decision-making; controlling access to those processes; through hegemonic process to legitimize power through culture and norms; and determining the limits of power. A critical perspective from other behavioral sciences will present various designs.

Empowerment exists in an organization when lower level employees feel that they are expected to exercise initiative in good faith on behalf of the mission even if it goes outside the bounds of their normal responsibilities; and if their initiative should lead to a mistake - even a serious one - they trust that they will not be arbitrarily penalized for having taken that initiative.

Empowerment in the workplace can be examined through various perspectives and presents many facets. Some of the most important components of empowerment in the workplace has been examined in this article, namely: the organizational culture and structure, the concept of employee empowerment and the approach to leadership that empowers.

The first step in gaining insight into the concept of empowerment in the workplace is to examine the notion of power itself and how it influences the process of empowerment, be it from the perspective of organizational leadership or from the perspective of the employee.

In the competitive world, individuals continually strive for power and control over their environment. It is the most fundamental and most easily recognized of primal needs. There is never enough of it - without it we feel powerless. Acquiring power is in everything we say, do, and read. Power has always been at the center of human motivation. Power is believed to be exercised in four dimensions.

By using various resources to influence the outcome of decision-making processes.

Through hegemonic processes, which means the legitimization of power through cultural and normative assumptions.

To empower means to give power to. Power, however, has several meanings. In a legal sense, power can mean authority, so that empowerment can mean authorization. Power also may be used to describe capacity. However, power also means energy. Thus to empower can mean to energize.

¨ The first lever is a clear vision and challenge. Highly empowered people feel that they understand top management's vision and strategic direction for the organization.

¨ The second lever is openness and teamwork. For people to feel empowered, they must feel they are part of a corporate culture that emphasizes the value of the organization's human assets.

¨ The third lever is discipline and control. Highly empowered people report that their organizations provide clear goals, clear lines of authority, and clear task responsibilities. While they have autonomy, they are aware of the boundaries of their decision-making discretion.

¨ The fourth lever is support and a sense of security. In order to feel that the system really wants empowered employees, individuals need a sense of social support from their bosses, peers, and subordinates.

According to the author, Most empowered people have four characteristics in common:

(1) Empowered people have a sense of self-determination (this means that they are free to choose how to do their work; they are not micro-managed).

(2) Empowered people have a sense of meaning (they feel that their work is important to them; they care about what they are doing).

(3) Empowered people have a sense of competence (this means that they are confident about their ability to do their work well; they know they can perform).

(4) Finally, empowered people have a sense of impact (this means that people believe they can have influence on their work unit; others listen to their ideas).

According to the author, Most employee in the organization have four characteristics in common:

(1) Choice is the opportunity you feel to select task activities that make sense to you and to perform them in ways that seem appropriate. The feeling of choice is the feeling of being free to choose - of being able to use your own judgment and act out of your own understanding of the task.

(2) Competence is the accomplishment you feel in skillfully performing task activities you have chosen. The feeling of competence involves the sense that you are doing good quality work on a task.

(3) Meaningfulness is the opportunity you feel to pursue a worthy task purpose. The feeling of meaningfulness is the feeling that you are on a path that is worth your time and energy - that you are on a valuable mission, that your purpose matters in the larger scheme of things.

(4) Progress is the accomplishment you feel in achieving the task purpose. The feeling of progress involves the sense that the task is moving forward, that your activities are really accomplishing something.

Thomas and Velthouse's model of empowerment embodies four distinct concepts: intrinsic motivation, internal justification for decision making, shared responsibilities, and integration for problem solving. These concepts are more specifically defined as follows:

(1) Intrinsically motivated behavior refers to people behaving consistently with an organization's culture because they have internalized the culture's values and traditions.

(2) An intrinsically motivated employee is more likely to have internal justification for actions taken. Senior workers who have assimilated into the culture's value system know what to do and help others learn the culture by intervening where they see behavior that is inconsistent with their company's culture.

(3) When sharing responsibilities, management releases some of its responsibility and authority to the levels or units in the organization that deal directly with the product or service. Day-to-day decision-making responsibility is left in the hands of workers who have learned the culture and have been empowered.

(4) Integrating with co-workers for problem solving is often a key component of a participative management process, yet small, local-group, problem-solving efforts take on greater significance in an empowered work unit. These problem-solving groups are often spontaneous, arising out of the need for the work unit to solve a problem that has arisen from its being empowered.

Low Sui Pheng

Low Sui Pheng, Low Sui Pheng is Associate Professor at the School of Building and Real Estate, National University of Singapore, Singapore

While modern management literature abounds with theories on how best to achieve managerial efficacy )including the concepts of power in organizations, authority, empowerment, organization politics, employees' resistance to change, leadership style and conflict management(, it is timely to remember the basic guiding principles laid down in the Holy Bible which are still very applicable today. Although some of these principles may be at the back of their minds, many managers today are awash with complicated modern management concepts, so much so that the simple but yet time-tested wisdom enunciated in the Holy Bible is conveniently brushed aside or overlooked. The guiding principles highlighted in the paper suggest that this should not be the case. Instead, modern management concepts should be synthesized with these guiding principles to attain managerial efficacy.

Power refers to a capacity which the manager has over the behavior of an employee so that the employee will do something he or she would not otherwise do. Bases of power refer to what the manager has those gives him power. There are four types of power bases:

(1) Coercive power - the coercive power base is dependent on fear. The manager has coercive power over employees if they can dismiss, suspend or demote them.

(2) Reward power - the opposite of coercive power is the power to reward. Material rewards would include salary and wage increase, commissions and fringe benefits.

(3) Persuasive power - if a person can decide who is to be hired, manipulate the mass media, control the allocation of status symbols or influence a group's norms, they have persuasive power.

(4) Knowledge power - when an individual controls unique information and when that information is needed to make a decision, that individual has knowledge-based power.

The types of power bases are, however, dependent on the sources of power. Sources of power reveal where managers get their power base.

(1) Position power - position power resides in the position regardless of the person holding the job.

(2) Personal power - personal power resides in the person regardless of his or her position in the organization, for example, if that person has charisma.

(3) Expert power - those who have expertise in terms of specialized information can use it to manipulate others.

(4) Opportunity power - being in the right place at the right time can give the opportunity to exert power.

Authority is power that has been legitimized within a specific social context. Only when power is part of an official organizational role does it become authority.

Responsibility is an obligation to do something with the expectation that some act or output will result. Authority is closely linked to responsibility because a manager responsible for accomplishing certain results must have the authority to use resources to achieve those results.

The relationship between responsibility and authority must be one of parity, that is, the authority over resources must be sufficient to enable the manager to meet the output expectations of others. There are, however, some important differences between authority and responsibility.

Managers are usually quite willing to hold individuals responsible for specific tasks but are reluctant to delegate sufficient authority for them to do their jobs well. In effect, managers try to rid themselves of responsibility for results but yet are unwilling to give away their cherished authority over resources.

The verb to empower means to enable, to allow or to permit and can be conceived as both self-initiated and initiated by others. Empowerment is the process of enabling workers to set their own work-related goals, make decisions and solve problems within their sphere of responsibility and authority. Management can:

Unfortunately, there are many barriers to the empowerment of employees. There is still a widespread belief among managers that to empower subordinates is to lose one's own power. One way to overcome such a perception is to make sure that managers who empower their subordinates are not subsequently blamed for their subordinates' failures nor ignored when their subordinates succeed.

A concept which is closely related to power and authority in organizational settings is politics or political behavior. Politics are often viewed as synonymous with dirty tricks or back-stabbing and as something distasteful, should best be left to others. However, political behavior in organizations, like power, is pervasive.

The biblical truths which serve as guiding principles for the behavior of members within organizations are set out below:

A formal questionnaire was prepared for each organization and detailed survey was conducted. The respondents included officers & workers of the organization. We shall carry out analysis of both the organization separately in the following paragraph.

Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation had established Natural Gas Fertilizer Factory (NGF) at Multan in 1962 with Ammonia and Nitric Acid plant of 200 tons each per day with Ammonium Nitrate and Urea as the final products having daily production of 330 and 180 tons respectively. The plant was not able to achieve the rated capacity and it was supplemented with an Amonpac unit in 1968 with daily production of 60 tons of Ammonia. This unit was also not able to fulfill the guarantee tests.

In pursuance of the Government decision, Pakarab Fertilizers Limited (PFL), a company in public sector was introduced on 15th November, 1973 as a joint venture between the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company with share holding in the capital at 52% and 48% respectively.

Pakarab Fertilizers Limited (PFL) is a private limited company having a Board of Directors comprising of 11 members including the Chairman:

The Board of Directors has appointed a full time managing director. The Managing Director as Chief Executive of the company is responsible for the efficient management and operation of the plants. There are four general manager assisting MD. They are:

Under each general manager, there are two or three senior managers. Under senior manager there are manager then assistant managers and finally supervisors. is the Chief Executive of the company and is answerable to the Board of Directors. The company has two functional offices i.e. the corporate office presently located at Lahore and manufacturing plant at Multan.

since power is centralized hence is not practiced at various levels of hierarchy.,

most of the individuals in the organization work willingly without power enforcement.

Day to day work, decision making and strategic decision in the organization rests with managing director.

To gain the financial benefit no power the organization does not use power for deciding the financial benefit.

Delegation of power to various committee is practiced and normally a combined committee from different department is formed to recruit and discharge the employed

Except for managing director and General Manager all other managers are normally promoted from Personal administrations and industrial relation department.

The department has grown in no. of employees relative to other departments significantly

There is not much difference in the budget allocation relative to other departments

The department is given preference on the other departments but it is based on equality

Labor union is used legitimate powers to settle various issues with the management of the organization labor unions do not effect the top level management decisions

v Various decisions in the organizations organization on the basis of logical arguments, evidence and reasons.

v Friendly Manager enjoy more power than others. Those managers who uses friendliness logic, reason, and evidence are more effective in the organization.

Bargaining power is used between the management and unions / workers to settle down various issues.

The officers at various level do use the assertiveness for timely completion of various task.

The manager at various level in the organization use their authority reference for getting things done

Various sanctions are applied to ensure timely accomplishment of task. Normally unsatisfactory performance appraisal threat is used.

· The workers are satisfied with the management style with respect to power implementation.

· The workers are satisfied with the existing promotion system in the organization.

· The workers manage their benefits from the management through union bargaining and negotiations

· Benefits being offered to the workers are not the total discretion of management /supervisors.

· The workers are satisfied with the performance appraisal procedure and they don’t face any pressure / threat form the management and supervisors in this regard.

· The workers are satisfied with the way the managers implement decisions at various levels.

· Attitude of the management is friendly towards the subordinate and workers are feeling satisfied with the reward and punishment procedure in vogue.

Principle Office of State Life Insurance Corporation is at Karachi, which deals with all the regions and zones. There are 15 divisions in P.O. and total 26 Zonal Offices of State Life Insurance Corporation in Pakistan. In Karachi there are 3 zones, where as 2 zones are in Lahore. In Multan Region there are six Zonal Offices at various divisional and district headquarters. The details of various zonal offices in Multan zone are given in the following table.

Regional Offices

Zonal Offices

Multan Region

Multan

Sahiwal

Faisalabad

Rahim Yar Khan

D. G. Khan

Bahawalpur

The organization has following Regional Office and one Zonal Office at Multan. The major departments of the Zonal Office are:-

In most of the cases the major departments are being headed by Assistant General Managers (AGM) , whereas few departments are headed by Managers also. The overall head of the zonal organization is the Zonal Head.

Some of the individuals are willing to work and in some situations power is used in order to getting things done.

Few people in the organization are power hungry. These people comes from almost all the departments and try to dominate their positions.

Power exist in all the department and sometimes managers from Accounts / Personnel / Marketing Departments try to influence their position in day to day work and strategic decision making in the organization. Some times committees are formed depending upon the nature of the task. Under normal circumstances Zonal Head enjoys the maximum power.

While dealing with the Labour Unions some times “Reward” and some time “Legitimate” power is used.

Human Resource Department normally hire and fire but sometimes committee are formed from different department in order to recruit or discharge employee.

Since organization is market oriented so marketing department enjoy more power. About 80% of power is enjoyed by the marketing department in this organization.

People from marketing department are very rapidly promoted and major proportion of top level management consists of these marketing people. Approximately 60-70% of the top level management comes through marketing department.

The department has large offices and better facilities as compared to other departments.

The department has grown in no. of employees relative to other departments significantly.

More budget is allocated to this department as compare to other department because this department brings all the business for the organization.

There are no extra professionals or expertise working in the department. However it is changing due to competitiveness in marketing environment.

Bargaining, high power relation and reasoning is used as power tactics to solve the various issues.

Labor union uses legitimate powers to settle various issues with the management as given in labor laws. Some times they may use illegitimate power to pressurize the management so that management may take decision according to unions.

Managers at various levels commonly practice both legitimate and illegitimate political behavior.

The concepts of impression management is prevailing in the organization and various techniques such as, conformity, favor, flattery, association are used depending upon the situation.

v Various decisions in the organizations are taken on the basis of logical arguments, evidence and reasons.

v Those managers who use friendliness logic, reason, and evidence are more effective in the organization.

v Normally collations among the managers and workers do affect the top level decision-making.

Bargaining power is used between the management and unions / workers to settle down various issues.

The officers at various level do use the assertiveness for timely completion of various task.

The manager at various level in the organization use their authority reference for getting things done

Various sanctions are applied to ensure timely accomplishment of task. Normally unsatisfactory performance appraisal threat is used.

Labor union and other coalition at times force not to implement certain decision.

· The workers are satisfied with the management style with respect to power implementation.

· The workers are satisfied with the existing promotion system in the organization.

· The workers manage their benefits from the management through union bargaining and negotiations

· Benefits being offered to the workers are, the total discretion of management /supervisors.

· The workers are satisfied with the performance appraisal procedure but sometimes they do face pressure / threat form the management and supervisors in this regard.

· The workers are satisfied with the way the managers implement decisions at various levels.

· Attitude of the management is satisfactory towards the subordinate and workers are feeling satisfied with the reward and punishment procedure in vogue

After having analyzed all important aspects of both organizations following comparative analysis is drawn. The analysis has been derived under five major aspects of power and politics. Which were kept in view during the survey. The analysis shows a clear picture that how power and politics is being practiced in the two organizations.

Analyzing power with respect to management perspective, Pakarab fertilizer have more simple and straight forward applications of various concepts of power. In most of the circumstances the Managing Director is enjoying all sorts of legitimate power. Normally in the organization reward power basis are followed strictly. However while dealing with unions expertise power basis are also applied. Whereas for recruitment and discharge purpose combination of various power basis is used.

In case of State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan centralized and legitimate power concepts is followed. However at times task are achieved through enforcement of power instead willingness. There are people in the organization who are power hungry and use various political means to achieve power. Although manager from various departments at all levels have some power but marketing and sales department enjoy over riding in decision making. Sometimes committee are also formed for decision making. Power is mainly being practiced moderately on multiple basis such as reward, expertise and legitimate.

In case of Pakarab fertilizers ltd the organization is a manufacturing concern. Therefore, Personal and Administration Department has major role to play. Hence power lies with personal and administration department. Except Managing Director and General Manager all others Seniors Managers in the organization come from personal and Administration Department. The department plays major role in formation of various teams and committees. The department has potential of growths for various employees. Relatively more budget is allotted to this department. The department has relatively more strategic resources.

Since State Life Insurance Corporation Pakistan is a market oriented organization, its power lies in Marketing & Sales Department. Most of the Managers at Sub Zonal Level and above normally come from marketing department.

The employees from Marketing and Sales Department enjoy much more privileges and facilities as compare to their equal status employees. Although at times these peoples are not much educated.

Coalitions among Managers , Supervisors and workers are existing in Pakarab Fertilizers ltd. These coalitions do effect the top management for their decisions. While in State life insurance both ie. Formal and informal type of coalitions exists. In addition some hidden coalitions have also being observed. All these coalitions rarely effect the top level decisions in State Life Insurance Corporation.

Friendliness , Reasons, Logic and Assertiveness are used in Pakarab Fertilizers for achieving goals. State Life Insurance Corporation exercises a mix of various power tactics for timely completion of work. Both the organization do have certain gray areas.

Pakarab Fertilizers workers appear to be more satisfied with their management and implementation of various rules and regulation, which concern power and politics. In case of State Life Insurance Corporation, the worker at times don’t feel comfortable with the organizational setup and implementation of various rules and regulations concerning power and politics. However the workers seemed to be satisfied with compensation, reward and promotion system.