Power and political in organization

1. ABSTRACT
2. Introduction
3. Definition power
4. Empowerment and authority
5. Different between authority and power
6. management, authority differs from power
 Nature:
 Flow
 Organization charts
 Level of Management
 Legitimacy:
 Position and Person
7. Bases of power
 The origins basses or source of power
 The interpersonal basis of the power
 The origins/ sources or bases of power
8. The different parts in the organizational origins
i. Reward power
ii. Coercive power
iii. Legitimate power
iv. Expert power
v. Referent Power
9. Three dimensions of power
i. Channel
 Physical power
 Informational power
 Emotional power
ii. Intents
 Positive power
 Negative power
iii. Deliberateness
 Reactive power
 Proactive power
10. Politics: power in action
11. power a need for leadership
12. Characteristics of Power
13. Sources of power
14. Politics
15. Organizational and political
 Private Company
 Public Company
16 Conditions supporting organizational politics

 Personal characteristics

 Scare resources

 Tolerance of politics

 Complex and ambiguous decisions

17 Types of Political Organizations

18 Factors Contributing to Political Behavior in Organizations
19 Use of Political Strategies and Tactics in Organization
20 Develop Power Contacts and Relationships:
21 Conclusion
22 Reference

ABSTRACT:
This study reviewed] descriptively, the impact of power and politics in
organizations using a global context and found that power and politics are
relational in organizations and form the Pivots around which group and
individual activities revolve. They are used to ensure that assignments are carried
out, that procedures are followed and that existing rules are set up to extract
obedience, that structures are respected and are used as I he u/tomato instrument
of organizational control and a mechanism for modifying employee behavior for
organization performance, effectiveness and efficiency. It concludes that power
and politics are basic needs as well as behavioral tendencies of individuals and
groups. Individuals use power to satisfy their needs or get what they want. Groups
or organizations use power and politics to control their members maintain and
preserve themselves. Power and politics are integrated processes that have to be
managed and used effectively in order to achieve individual and organizational
cohesion and ventilate their differences

INTRODUCTION
 Power and pol tics are part of human nature. But they are among the least
understood behavioral tendencies. How people acquire and exercise power,
function within power and authority structures in social organizations, and behave
politically is not yet fully understood due to the level of the development of
theoretical and empirical knowledge in the field. This chapter explores the nature
and practical implications of power and pol tics with particular reference to
organizations. It concludes with a critique of heir relevance to the problems of
social ordering.

Introduction of power

When we speak of power we do not mean men power over nature, or means of production, or
over himself, we actually mean man’s control over the mind’s and actions of other men. When
we speak of political power we refer to the mutual relations of control among the holders of
public authority and people at large. Political power and physical force are two different things.
When violence or physical force becomes the practical actuality and people it amounts to
negation of power. Physical power can be an instrument of power but not power in any sense.
Political power is a psychological relation between those who exercise it and those over it is
exercised. It gives the former control over certain actions of the latter through the influence
which the former exerts over the latter’s mind

Meaning of power

The concept of power is quite complex and it is not easy to provide a commonly acceptable
definition. It shall, therefore, be desirable to discuss some definitions of power to reach an
acceptable conclusion
Prof. Morgenthau defines political power as “a psychological relation between those who

Exercise it and those over whom it is exercised

According to Achwarzenberger “The power is capacity to impose one’ will on others by reliance
on effective sanctions in case of non- compliance

In the broad sense, power can be defined as “the ability or capacity to control others and get
them to do what one wants them to do and also to see that they do not what them to [Link] does
not want

Empowerment and authority

Empowerment is related to the word power. In English, the concept leans on its original meaning
of investment with legal power- permission to act for some specific goal or purpose.

The new meaning of the concept includes mainly references to power that develops and is
acquired. People are managing to gain more control over their lives, either by them selvesor with
the help of others. The form to be empowered relates to what is both a process and an outcome to
the effort to obtain a relative degree of ability to influence the world Authority is the ability to
exercise influence over a group of people

Different between authority and power

The terms Authority and Power have different meanings in management. Authority is the right
given to a manager to achieve the objectives of the organization. It is a right to get the things
done through others. It is a right to take decisions. It is a right to give orders to the subordinates
and to get obedience from them. A manager cannot do his work without authority. According to
Henri Fayol, "Authority is the right to give orders and power to exact (get) obedience.

A manager gets his authority from his position or post. He gets his authority from the higher
authorities. The lower and middle-level managers get their authority from the top-level
managers. The top-level managers get their authority from shareholder

Authority always flows downwards. It is delegated from the top to the bottom. Also shown in
below picture

TOP MANAGERS

MIDDLE MANAGERS

FIRST LINE MANAGERS

 Power is a broader concept than authority. Power is the ability of a person or a group to
influence the beliefs and actions of other people. It is the ability to influence events Power can be
personal power. A person gets his personal power from his personality or from his expert
knowledge. Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Programmers, etc. get their power from their expertise
and professional knowledge. Power can also be legitimate or official power. This power comes
from a higher authority

 In management, authority differs from power in the following ways:-

 Nature:
Authority is the formal right given to a manager to make decisions or to command. Power
is the personal ability to influence others or events.
 Flow:
Authority flows downwards in the organization. This is because it is delegated by the
superiors to the subordinates. Power can flow in any direction. Even subordinates have
power over their superiors, if they can influence their behavior. So power can flow
upwards, downwards or horizontally.
 Organizational Charts:
Authority relationships (superior-subordinate relationships) can be shown in the
organization charts. Power relationships can not be shown in organization charts.
 Level of Management
Authority depends on the level of management. Higher the level of management, higher
will be the authority and vice-versa. Power does not depend on the level of management.
Power can exist at any level of management. Even a lower-level manager or a worker can
have power to influence the behavior of a top-level manager
 Legitimacy:
Authority is always official in nature. So it is legitimate. Power need not be official in
nature. So it need not be legitimate
 Position and Person:
Authority is given to a position or post. The manager gets the authority only when
he holds that position. Power resides (lives) in the person who uses it

Bases of power
i. The origins basses or source of power

The bases of power are divided onto different attributes. To know about the knowledge of the
power about its use in the first stage is identify that some individuals and groups have more
power than others why it is. Power rottenly comes from several sources at the same time and
some of these sources are located within and individual or groups some sources comes from the
nature of the organization and some other sources may be arise from the situations of power

ii. The interpersonal basis of the power

Several different scheme has been suggested that sources of power should be divided in to
different parts but according to French and Raven's (1959) five basis of power; the original
scheme only gives the ideas about these bases but some sources derived from the power holder
positions and some others sources derived from the personal characteristics these are divided into
two groups

iii. The origins/ sources or bases of power

The different parts in the organizational origins are discussed as under:

Reward power:

Someone who handles the distribution of rewards to other people he has some special power then
other people, because he's providing the value and rewards to others. the more formally
structured an organization the more likely it is that this type of power will be limited by rules, for
instance, supervisor may be have only authority to make recommendations about increased
rewards for the subordinators, but the main and actual decision is the prerogative of a higher
level manger. The use of reward power is also affected by informal custom and practice
arrangements.

Coercive power:

Coercive power is the totally different from the reward power. Coercive power is the ability to
inflict punishment which means to force someone to do something against his wish. Coercive
power is possibly physical harm but sometime other threats could be used but its main purposes
compliance.
Coercive power is the power of dictators, financial, expert and personnel. Examples of coercive
power are all governments. Although mostly it is use as negative but also it is often seen to keep
the peace. For children's who know no better about anything parents used the coercive power.

 Legitimate power:

Legitimate power is the formal rank or role which means resources; knowledge, technical skills
and access to others. Legitimacy power come from coercive power or higher power. Examples of
legitimate power are Kings, police men and managers. These people have the legitimate power
because obey them because of their position not by their personality. When they fall from their
position people do not do so. An example this kind of power could be the authority that a manger
holds over a subordinate or that a teacher has over a student.

Expert power:

Expert power is the power of superior knowledge and skills. When a person has strong
knowledge and skills that someone as requires then he has expert power. Like; if a person has
strong knowledge about anything then he can get the better level as compare to those who don't
have much power like doctors. This form of power is very common power. Examples of expert
power are specialist engineers and trade unions. These all use this power to get benefits and
when they want to maintain their selves.

Referent Power:

Referent power is the power when people want to be like you, your attributes and trades. The
most common examples of referent powers are celebrities and social leaders. When social
leaders or celebrities come in any place in the front of the public then public like them and wants
some miracles through they can get the personality just like them. Due to referent power people
use this power in negative sense and some time they use their power in positive sense like ;the
social leader can use his power anywhere to protect his self from others and could give order to
any one for any work. That is why some time people feel fear due to this. “Power that arises
because of a person's desirable resources or personal traits

”Three dimensions of power:

There are three dimensions of power.

i. Channels:

There are three different channels in which power is enacted

 Physical power:

Physically power is the power of strength or skills. Individually; physically powers come
from having weapons.

 Informational power:
 Informational power comes from knowledge it often comes from the control of access to
information.
 Emotional power:

Emotional power is the social power of affect using emotion and body language

ii. Intents:
Intent means in which sense the power is used. There are two ways of power in which it
is used
Positive power
Positive power is used for good purpose and it does not harm.
 Negative power
This kind of power is used to harm others or other negative emotions.
iii. Deliberateness:
There are two triggers of power which lead to power being used

Reactive power
Reactive power is use in the response to situations
Proactive power
Proactive power used consciously. For example; using physically strength to attack
someone

This table shows the uses of power by understanding channels and sources of power
in which these are used either these are physical, informational or emotional. Uses
of power Nature Physical informational Emotional
 Uses of Nature Physical Informational Emotional
power

Reactive Positive Do not harm Open book allow access Respond to

calls for help

Negative Allow harm Do not inform deny Ignore Reject

access calls

Proactive Positive Defend Inform, teach warm of Comfort

danger Nurture

Negative Attack Do Withhold information Taunt

harm Blackmail, deceive Seduce

 Politics power in action

Politics includes the activities, which are not a part of an individual’s formal role in the
organization but affect the advantages and disadvantages with the organization. Organizational
politics is the influence to obtain results not allowed by the organization or to obtain allowed
results with the help of means that are not allowed .From the above definite the following points
are clear.

 Political behavior is not a part of an individual’s job’s requirement.

 It includes effort to influence the goals, criteria or processes used for decision
making.
 It includes many political behavior like refusing to give important information to
decision makers spreading rumors and leaking confidential information etc.

Research was conducted and question was asked that if “Politics is important to achieve
power in organization

Power and leadership

 The core of leadership is power. As mentioned earlier, power is the ability to influence
other people in one's favor. A manager may exercise formal authority to produce
voluntarily, or non-voluntarily to get compliance from subordinates, but a leader relies on
 the informal power in the form of persuasion and inducement to generate voluntary
support. Powerful managers are more likely to delegate and share their authority with
subordinates, reward their subordinates' accomplishments, and promote teamwork which
enhances the power over subordinates. However, powerless managers tend to be bossy
instead of relying on voluntary cooperation of subordinates
 Power a need for leadership:

The concepts of power and leadership have been and will continue to be inter connected. While
an individual may exert power without being a leader, an individual cannot be a leader without
having power. Authors defined power simply as „the potential to influence others.‟ This
definition helps demystify power and puts into perspective the importance of using power in
order to be an effective leader. In organizational settings, leaders must exert power to achieve
individual, team, and organizational goals. Leaders must be able to influence their followers to
achieve greater performance; their superiors and peers to make important decisions; and stake
hold ensure the vitality of the organization

We wanted to gauge the perception leaders have of their own sense of power. Based on the
sample of leaders surveyed, most recognize that they possess power at work. There is also a
notable correlation between how powerful a leader believes he or she is at work and that leader’s
level in the organization Leaders at a higher organizational level tended to rate themselves as
more powerful at work, while those lower in the organization AL hierarchy tended to rate
themselves as less powerful .Most of the people believe that their organizations work to
empower their people at all levels, and their organization rewards leaders for empowering
people. Organizational trends relative to power and leadership suggest that while power is not
typically misused by top leaders, it does tend to be concentrated to a select few
individuals. However, the flatter organizational structures and self-directed work teams that were
first implemented through the the empowerment movements of the 1980s and1990s are
becoming commonplace. This trend may increase the level of empowerment that employees
experience in future years. Organizations also reward leaders who empower the people they
lead, thereby encouraging overall employee empowerment; however, fewer organizations take
the opportunity to teach leaders how to effectively use the power they possess.

 Sources of power

When most people think about power, their minds go immediately to the control that High-level
leaders exert from their positions atop the organizational hierarchy. But power extends far
beyond the formal authority that comes from a title (or from having corner office with a
view).Leaders at all levels have access to power; often that power goes unrecognized or
underutilized. Previous research in this area has identified seven bases of power that leaders may
leverage.
  The power of position is the formal authority that derives from a person’s title or Position
in a group or an organization.
 The power of charisma is the influence that is generated by a leader’s style or Persona.
 The power of relationships is the influence that leaders gain through their formal and
informal networks both inside and outside of their organizations.
 The power of information is the control that is generated through the use of evidence
deployed to make an argument.
 The power of expertise is the influence that comes from developing and communicating
specialized knowledge (or the perception of knowledge).
 The power of punishment is the ability to sanction individuals for failure to conform to
standards or expectations.
 The power of reward is the ability to recognize or reward individuals for adhering to
standards or expectations.

Leaders can be more effective when they emphasize the power of relationships and
the power of information, and also develop their other available bases of power. Strategies or
leveraging power effectively include:

Make relationships a priority. Identify the people with whom you need to establish or develop a
relationship. Your ability to use the power of relationships will be compromised if you are not
connecting with the right people. Invest time and energy in to your existing relationships. Seek to
understand others better and acknowledge the needs of others in order to build the social capital
required to influence others now and in the future. Repair damaged relationships and the image
others may have of you. Look for ways to reestablish trust with others through face-to-face
interaction and the sharing of honest feedback.

 Characteristics of Power

Certain characteristics of power influence the behavior of the power users: dependency
relationship, power expansion, and paradox of power

 Dependency relationships

People in authority gain power over others because these people depend on those in authority for
something. In organizations, managers have power over employees because employees depend
on them for organizational rewards. This dependency is not one-sided because employees also
have some power over their superiors who have to depend on them (their subordinates) for
productivity, cooperation, and emotional support

 Power expansion

People in power have the freedom to make decisions, and can do various things, good or bad,
unlike their less powerful peers. This means the more powerful a person is, the wider the range
of behavioral options. Since they cause other people to respond positively to their wishes, they
feel secure in taking risks. However, as the power increases, there are more chances and
temptations to abuse power. Dependent people do not challenge the power abuser for fear of
reprisal or because they may not have the means to challenge the despot. A good example can be
seen where dictators increase their positive as well as negative behavioural options by making
other people increasingly dependent on them for survival, while reducing their dependency on
other people

 Paradox of power

In order to acquire power, one has to have the desire for power and be in a position where it can
be exercised. The more power a manager attempts to exert over other people, the less power he
actually has. That is, one person's effort to increase power is often perceived as a reduction in
another person's power. The perceived threat produces conflict and resistance, which works
against power expansion and the net result is that both parties lose the power to influence each
other.

On the other hand, a manager can increase power by sharing it with subordinates. A person who
receives something from another person usually wants to give something in return, the net result
being that both parties increase the amount of influence they can exert on each other

 POLITICS

The term politics originates from Greek word “polis". Aristotle opines that it is " zoon ;
politikon", which means political animal and suggests that man can only reside in a group(i.e.
public) that necessarily leads to politics. Politics is the study of influence and the influential.
Influence is measured on the basis of the number of shares one or a group has in the preferred
values or attributes. The more values or attributes shared, the greater the influence

One of the other definition which serves to explain it is “politics is the process of seeking and
using power”

Politics can simply be defined in three ways:

 Firstly, it attempts to discover the general principles, formation and functioning of

government.
 Secondly, it is concerned with people and the way in which they make decisions and
the way those decisions are reached.
 Thirdly, politics is that part of the social sciences which treats the foundations of the
state and the principal of government, governmental, social and economic programs,
international relations, organizations and cooperation.
Politics goes beyond the activity of government, the political parties and the politicians.
Politics is a universal phenomenon that is; it is present in all human organization such as
the family, trade unions, corporations, universities, etc. In all these organizations, politics
is characterized by struggle for power and influence, conflict, bargaining, reconciliation,
resolution and consensus

 ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS

Difference between private company and public company

i. Private Company
A company with private ownership is called private company. It does not need to meet
the strict Securities and Exchange Commission filing requirements of public companies.
Private companies may issue stock and have shareholders. However, their shares do not
trade on public exchanges and are not issued through an initial public offering. In
general, the shares of these businesses are less liquid and the values are difficult to
determine.
ii. Public Company
A company that has issued securities through an initial public offering (IPO) and is traded
on at least one stock exchange or in the over the counter market. Although a small
percentage of shares may be initially "floated" to the public, the act of becoming a public
company allows the market to determine the value of the entire company through daily
trading
Organizational politics
Many people regard organizational politics as something negative (e.g., pursuing self-
interests at the expense of others) and something to be minimized. Consequently,
although most people know that organizational politics are common, they avoid saying so
when it concerns one’s own behavior. It is more common to talk about politics when
complaining about a loss to a friend than it is in the context of one's own political
maneuvering. When we win on an issue, we call it leadership; when we lose, we call
it politics. In many organizations, politics is a taboo subject, which makes it difficult fori
ndividuals to deal with this crucially important aspect of organizational reality.
It can be defined as Attempts to influence others using discretionary behaviors to
Promote personal objectives” Another author Dub in defined organizational politics as
"Informal approaches to gaining power through mean other than merit or luck”

Conditions supporting organizational politics

 Personal characteristics
 Scare resources
 Tolerance of politics
 Complex and ambiguous decisions
 Types of Political Organizations
There are many different types of political organizations that are involved in
influencing political decisions:

i. Candidate Committees
: Candidates typically have exploratory or campaign committees. These committees are
designed to do fundraising, manage the
Candidate’s election campaign, and generally work to the candidate nominated or
elected. Candidate committees are completely separate from party committees and from
most advocacy groups for legal reason
.ii. Political Parties:
Political parties are groups of people who have banded to gather to express their common
goals by putting their chosen candidates on the
election ballot so the public can vote for them. Political parties have different types ofeve
nts and committees that operate at the federal, state, and local level.

Advocacy Groups:

Advocacy Groups do not run candidates and do

not participate directly in campaigns. Instead they try to influence public opinion orelecte
d officials. Depending on the type of organization, they are allowed to do certain things
and not others. Types of advocacy groups include 501(c) groups that are very restricted in
what they can do (typically only voter registration and minor issue education). 527
advocacy groups can do voter mobilization and issues advocacy. PACs can raise and
spend hard money to elect or defeat a candidate. Or they can raise and spend soft money
to do issues advocacy

Factor influencing power and politics. (Organization)

The political behavior of individuals in the organization is influence by variety of factors.
These factors can be broadly categorized into individual and organizational factors. .

 Individual Factors
: There are individual factors where individuals play politics to satisfy their personal
needs. These personal or individuals needs are like to
gain power for control and to influence decision-making process of the [Link]
aim of such individuals is to increase the area of their influence. They try to sustain
power as it helps to obtain personal needs and fulfill desires. In organizations, individuals
play politics as they have great desire and high need of gaining power. Such types of
individuals are basically internals and self-monitored people. There are many individuals
who play politics because of their expectation of quick success in life at any cost
.ii. Organizational Factors:
 There are some of the organizational factors that influence the individuals to play politics
in the organizations .these factors are as follow

Limited Resources in the organization

: When there are limited resources in the organization then every individual in the
organization wants to have optimum resources. It results in making individuals getting
engaged hem selves in politics to get the maximum advantage of the distribution of
resources.
•Interpretation of limited resources

: The interpretation of limited resources like position, power, promotion etc. in the
organization makes individual engage in the politics. The individual who craves for such
resources feels that they may be deprived of such resources in the process of distribution
of resources and so they play politics in the organization.
 •Uncertainty in decision-making
: There are some individuals who take advantage of the situation where there is
uncertainty and ambiguity indecision-making because of unclear rules and
policies.
 Performance evaluation:
The individuals tend to play politics in the organization when performance
evaluation and its outcome are subjective ,qualitative and unclear
 •High Performance pressure
: The individuals play politics when they are enforced with high performance
pressure. The politics playing in the
Organization becomes measure to pressurize authority to withdraw control and lower the
performance target.
•Decision-making culture:
- Democratic and participative decision-making culture of the organization is also liable
to organizational politics as every individual wants to enhance his/ her importance and
thereafter give opinion on crucial and important matter.
•Affecting lower level persons: -
The lower level persons get affected when they experience persons at higher level
playing politics
 Factors Contributing to Political Behavior in Organizations
A number of individual and organizational factors contribute to political behavioral

Pyramid-shaped organization structure:

A pyramid concentrates power at the top. Only so much power is therefore available to
distribute among the
many people who would like more of it. Each successive layer on the organizationchart
has less power than the layer above. At the very bottom of the organization, workers have
virtually no power. Since most organizations today have fewer layers than they
previously had, the competition for power has become more intense.
ii. Subjective standards of performance:
People often resort to
organizational politics because they do not believe that the organization has an objective
andfair way of judging their performance and suitability for promotion. Similarly,
when managers have no objective way of differentiating effective people from
the less effective, they will resort to favoritism
.iii. Environmental uncertainty and turbulence:
When people operate in an unstable and unpredictable environment, they tend to behave
politically. They rely on organizational politics to create a favorable impression because
uncertainty makes it difficult to determine what they should really be accomplishing. The
uncertainty, turbulence, and insecurity created by corporate mergers or downsizing is a
major contributor to office politics.
iii. Emotional insecurity:
Some people resort to political maneuvers to ingratiate themselves with superiors because
they lack confidence in their talents and skills
.v. Manipulative tendencies:
Some people engage in political behavior because they want to manipulate others,
sometimes for their own personal advantage.

 Use of Political Strategies and Tactics in Organization

To make effective use of organizational politics, leaders must be able to make appropriate
use of specific political strategies and tactics. Remember that ethical behavior is regarded
as an important requirement for effective leadership. Let's look at a representative group
of political tactics and strategies, categorized in the following two sections as ethical or
unethical, although many of the strategies and tactics could fall into either category,
depending on motivations and methods of implementing them. Used with
tact, diplomacy, and good intent, ethical influence tactics can be quite
effective. Sequencing of tactics is another important consideration. In general, it is best to
begin with the most positive, or least abrasive, tactic. If you do not gain the advantage
you seek, proceed to a stronger tactic

Essentially Ethical Political Strategies and Tactics

This section describes a sampling of ethical political behaviors, divided into three related
and overlapping groups: strategies and tactics aimed at
 directly gaining power,
 building relationships with superiors and coworkers, and
  Avoiding political blunders. All of these approaches help a leader gain or retain
power. They also help the leader cope with the fact that organization sari not
entirely rational.
Strategies and Tactics Aimed Directly at Gaining Power.
It could be argued that all political tactics are aimed at acquiring and maintaining power,
if we consider power in a broad scope.

Develop Power Contacts and Relationships:

After powerful people have been identified, alliances with them must be established.
Cultivating friendly, cooperative relationships with powerful organizational members and
outsiders can make the leaders because much easier to advance. These contacts can
benefit
a person by supporting his or her ideas in meetings and other public forums. Oneway to
develop these contacts is to be more social, for example, throwing parties and inviting
powerful people, although they may not be available.
[Link] an Early Showing
: A display of dramatic results can help gain acceptance for one's efforts. Once a person
has impressed management with his or her ability to solve an important problem, that
person can look forward to working on problems that will bring greater power.
iv. Keep Informed:
It is politically important to keep informed. Successful leaders develop a network to help
them keep abreast, or ahead, of developments within the firm. For this reason, a
politically astute individual befriends key staff members and executive administrative
assistants, for example.
v. Control Vital Information
Power accrues to those who control vital information. For example, many former
government or military officials have found power niches for themselves in industry as
a Washington representative of a firm that does business with the government. The vital
information they control is knowledge of whom to contact to shorten some of the
complicated procedures in getting government contracts approved.
vi. Control Lines of Communication:
Related to controlling information are con-trolling lines of communication, particularly
access to key people. Administrative assistants and staff assistants frequently control an
executive's calendar. Both insiders and outsiders must curry favor with the conduit in
order to see an important executive. Although many people attempt to contact executives
directly through email, some executives delegate the responsibility of screening email
messages to an assistant

Strategies and Tactics Aimed at Building Relationships.

 Much of organizational politics involves building positive relationships with network
members who can be helpful now or later. This network includes superiors, subordinates,
other lower-ranking people, coworkers, external customers, and suppliers. The following
are several representative strategies and tactics
:i. Provide Favors and Develop Ingratiation:
A skillful leader always has a positive balance of favors given, and can draw on that
balance when something is needed in return.
iii. Display Loyalty:
A loyal worker is valued because organizations prosper more with loyal than with
disloyal employees. Blind loyalty--the belief that the organization cannot make a
mistake--is not called for; most rational organizations welcome constructive criticism. An
obvious form of loyalty to the organization is longevity, although its value varies.

Develop a Reputation as a Subject Matter Expert

Expertise is one of the major sources of power. Others come to and ask help from an
expert
.iv. Rational Persuasion:
Using this form of influence helps create an impression that you are reasonable and fair,
and also avoids creating resentment that can result from heavy-handed influence tactics.
iv. Bring in Outside Experts for Support:
To help legitimate their positions, executives will often hire a consultant to conduct a
study or cast an opinion.
One possible problem to avoid is that, consciously or unconsciously, some consultantsma
y slant things to support the executive's position. This tactic would be consider unethical
if the executive is intent
Avoiding Political Blunders
A strategy for retaining power is to refrain from making power-eroding blunders
.Committing such politically insensitive acts can also prevent one from attaining power.
Several leading blunders to avoid are described next.
i. Embarrassing or criticizing the boss in a public forum:

One of the oldest saw sin human relations is to "praise in public and criticize in private."
Yet, in a moment of anger or stupidity, we may blurt out something that can be costly.
ii. Surprising the boss:
Surprises, particularly negative ones, are not appreciated.
iv. Bypassing the boss:
Protocol is still highly valued in a hierarchical organization. Going around the boss to
resolve a problem is therefore hazardous. You might be able to accomplish the bypass,
but your career could be damaged and your courses limited.
v. Declining an offer from top management:
Turning down top management, especially more than once, is a political blunder. You
thus have to balance your other interests against the blunder of refusing a request from
someone powerful in the organization. An increasing number of managers and
professionals today decline opportunities for promotion when the new job requires
geographic relocation. For these individuals, family and lifestyle preferences are more
important than gaining political advantage on the job.3.12 Potentially Unethical Political
Strategies and Tactic Any technique of gaining power can be unethical if practiced in the
extreme and with negative intentions. For example, a person who supports a boss by
feeding him or her insider information that could affect the price of company stock
is being unethical. Some approaches are almost unequivocally unethical, such as the
described next. In the long run they can erode a leader's effectiveness by lowering his or
her credibility
.i .Back Stabbing
: The ubiquitous back stab requires that you pretend to be nice, but all the while plan
someone's demise. A frequent form of back stabbing is to initiate conversation with a
rival about the weaknesses of a common boss, encouraging negative commentary and
making careful mental notes of what the person says.
When these comments are passed along to the boss, the rival appears disloyal and foolish.
Email has become a medium for back stabbing
.ii. Purge All But Loyalists:
The ancient strategy of purge those you have conquered suggests that you remove from
the organization rivals who suffered past hurts through your efforts; otherwise the
wounded rivals might retaliate at a vulnerable moment
.iii. Set a Person Up for Failure:
The object of a setup is to place a person in a position where he or she will either fail
outright or look ineffective. For example, an executive whom the CEO dislikes might be
given responsibility for a troubled di-vision whose market is rapidly collapsing. The
newly assigned division president cannot stop the decline and is then fired for poor
performance
.iv. Exert Undue Pressure:
Even if you have the power to do this, it would been ethical if used to further your
interests at the expense of others
Exercising Control over Functional Politics
Although necessary, organizational politics can hurt an organization and its members
when carried to excess. Too much politicking can result in lower morale, higher turnover,
and wasted time and effort, thereby lowering performance. To avoid these negative
consequences, leaders should combat political behavior when it is excessive and
dysfunctional. Some steps that can help accomplish this follow.
i. To control politics
, organizational leaders must be aware of its causes and techniques. For example, during
a downsizing, the CEO can be on the alert for instances of back stabbing and transparent
attempts to please him or her
.ii .Open communication
also can constrain the impact of political behavior. For instance, open communication
can let everyone know the basis for allocating sources, thus reducing the amount of
political behavior. When communication is open, it also makes it more difficult for some
people to control information and pass along gossip as a political weapon
.iii. Avoiding favoritism
is a potent way of minimizing politics within a work group. If group members believe
that getting the boss to like them is much less important than good job performance in
obtaining rewards, they will try to impress the boss through task-related activities.
Setting good examples at
the top of the organization can help reduce the frequency and intensity of organizational
politics. When leaders are nonpolitical in their actions, they demonstrate in subtle ways
that political behavior is not welcome. It may be helpful for the leader to announce during
a staff meeting that devious political behavior is undesirable and un professional
.v. Goal correspondence
is another way of reducing the extent of political behaviorism for individuals and the
organization to have
Goal correspondence
, i.e., share the same goals, with thorough understanding of what they mean. If political
behavior will interfere with the company and individuals achieving their goals, workers
with goal congruence are less likely to play office politics excessively.
CONCLUSION
4.1 Impact of Organizational politics on society

i. Unemployment:
Organizations affect by bad internal politics is the cause of unemployment and unequal
distribution of wealth. The procedure of recruitment is controlled by the most influential
political group in the organization, the concept of merit and effectiveness cannot be
achieved.
ii. Loss of ultimate Goal:
The goal set by authority in formation of organization is hurt by
organizational politics. Mostly in public organization the purpose of public welfare can’t
be achieved under the influence of personal interest groups.
iii. Performance pressure and Stress:
The individuals play politics when they are enforced with high performance pressure.
The politics playing in the organization becomes measure to pressurize authority to
withdraw control and lower the performance target. This will result in many mental
illnesses and affect the health of stakeholders of organization.
iv. Pessimism use of resources:
Organizational successes depend upon resources and asset sit possesses. When these
resources are mismanaged the objective which organization is trying to achieve becomes
harder. Bad politics and absence of harmony within organization leads to unbeneficial
use of scarce resources.
v. Demotivation:
Individuals need a safe and encouraging environment to render their skills and work. The
performance of organization is the key indicator for ensuring this environment but when
organization depicts the picture of uncertainty and chaos individuals are demotivated to
work there.
Impact of politics on organization and employees:

i. Decrease in overall productivity

Politics lowers the output of an individual and eventually affects the productivity of the
organization.
Common observation says that individuals who play politics at the workplace payless
attention to their work.
They are more interested in leg pulling and back biting. They spend most of their
times criticizing their fellow workers.
ii. Affects Concentration
Individuals find it difficult to concentrate on their work. They are more interested in
Spoiling the other person’s image in front of the superiors.

An individual involved in politics is bound to make more mistakes as his focus is

somewhere else.
iii. Spoils the Ambience
Politics leads to a negative environment at the workplace.
It spoils the relationships amongst individuals. An individual playing politics at the
organization is disliked by all.
iv. Changes the Attitude of employees
Politics changes the attitude of the employees.
Even the serious employees lose interest in work and attend office just for the sake of
it.
Internal politics do not allow employees to give their hundred percent at work.
v. Demotivated employees
A non-performer
can be the apple of his boss’s eye simply due to politics, thus
Demotivating the performers.
 Discussions are essential at the workplace to extract the best out of employees.
Evaluating the pros and cons of an idea always helps in the long run.
Employees playing politics always look for an opportunity to tarnish the image of the fell
owworkers.
Employees feel demotivated when they are not rewarded suitably or someone whohas
not worked hard gets the benefits due to mere politics.
vi. Increases Stress
It is rightly said that problems evaporate if discussed. Individuals find it difficult to
confide in any of their fellow workers due to the fear of secrets getting leaked.
Politics increases the stress level of the employees. Individuals are not machines who
can work continuously for 8-9 hours without talking to others. It is important to have
friends at the workplace who help you when needed.
vii. Wrong Information
Employees indulged in politics manipulate information and it is never passed on in its
desired form.
Superiors get a wrong picture of what is actually happening in the organization.
A wrong person walks away with the credit in an organization where employees are
indulged in politics. Politics are those activities that are
not a part of an individual’s formal role in the organization,
but affect the advantages and disadvantages with the organization. Organizational
politics is the influence to obtain results not allowed by the organization or to obtain
allowed results with the help of means that are not allowed. Power and politics is
removed from the organization through accountability.

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