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Organizational Behavior

Power and influence are two critical aspects of the ways that people in organizations interrelate. Power is relatively simple -- it is about how you get what you want. Influence is trickier -- the text understands it as the reaction to power.

The author discusses issues relating to obedience. The acceptance of authority is discussed, and the author proposes that there are four conditions that must be met in order for authority to be accepted; these are not supported with evidence. The author then discusses what the reactions are to orders -- the different levels at which obedience manifests in the organization. There is a zone of indifference, which is basically those instructions that are carried out without any critical evaluation on the part of the person doing the job. Sometimes, however, an employee may feel that they are getting poor value out of their relationship with the organization, and may resist some instructions.

There are many sources of power and influence within the organization. Legitimate power comes from formal authority. Reward power comes from one's ability to reward people for their efforts and coercive power derives from the ability to punish people for their lack of compliance. Process power is when the person has control over resources and processes of the organization. Sometimes this will be closely aligned with formal power, but not always -- process power and formal power are often separated on job sites where tradespeople have the process power and the foreman the formal power. In offices, there is usually a closer alignment between these two forms of power.

Information power is related -- the more information one has the more power one has. Expert power is similar -- people who are viewed as experts are usually ascribed power even when they have little formal authority. Think of the long-serving veteran employee, who may hold a low post, but whom people turn to with their questions because that person knows everything about the company. Referent power and coalition power relate to one's ability to leverage interpersonal relations for power.

The next section discusses how to build power. When you understand the different sources of power -- above -- you can find ways to realize the maximum extent of your power in an organization, rather than simply relying on formal power. Knowledge of the different ways that one can acquire power is important politically, because it helps you to build the power you need to get what you need out of the job. This is political savvy -- knowing how to build power, and then utilize it in your dealings with others to get what you want. Influence capacity is the degree of influence that you could have; it is your potential influence. How you use that is your choice.

Managers play a key role in an organization. They have formal power -- and often other forms as well -- but they can also help others to acquire power. This is the process of empowerment. Essentially, empowering people is to give them the power that they need to do their jobs, and make their own decisions. Remember that there are many sources of power, including expert and informational, so empowerment does not just refer to giving out more formal authority; it can also mean giving people knowledge and confidence. There are limits to empowerment, however. Empowerment changes the power structure within the organization; power is not necessary a zero sum game but nor is it infinite.

There are two traditions of organizational politics -- the management of influence to get what you want (self-interest) and the other tradition looks at politics as leverage the self-interest of the people in the organization, usually for the benefit of the organization. In organizations, power tends to be split between formal and informal structures. With the self-interested view, people use a number of different political tactics to avoid problems, to redirect responsibility, and to defend turf.

Lastly, the author mentions governance. Managers may have self-interest, but ultimately they are supposed to be agents for the shareholders, and act according, in the interests of the shareholders. So there are sometimes conflicts between these interests in the organization. At the organisational level, a lot of the way power is structured in the organization is done at the top levels.

Chapter 13: This chapter focuses on leadership. The first point is to differentiate between management and leadership. Leadership is more about influencing individuals; management is more about allocating resources. They are related, and work together, but they are not the same thing.

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Leadership theory has evolved quite a bit over the course of several decades. It used to be viewed that leadership was based on traits -- if you had these traits you would probably be a good leader. Trait theory then evolved to behavior theory -- it wasn't the traits that were important, it was how those traits manifested themselves in behavior. Since then, many other leadership theories have been argued as well.

One model is situational-contingency, which argues that leaders will change their leadership style based on different situations. So for one problem a leader might be more autocratic, and for another more of a supporting leader. There are probably leaders who fit this style, but some leaders are fairly rigid in their style, to their detriment often. One particular type of contingency leadership is path-goal theory, where the leader will change the path depending on the nature of the goal. Among the different styles identified within this context are directional, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented. So a leader can influence by setting people in the right direction, but providing them with the support resources, by getting involved or by setting goals. Hersey & Blanchard developed the situational leadership model to describe the situations under which each of these might be optimal.

There is a category of leadership study that focuses on what are known as "follower-centric" approaches. While the other types of leadership theories have focused on the leaders themselves, follower-centric approaches seek to understand leaders through the lens of the people being led. Implicit leadership theories focus on different "cognitive categories" of leadership, and different categories of follower response. Some followers are passive in their response, so mostly deferential and waiting leadership direction. Others are more proactive, and may respond better to leaders who provide direction and support, but otherwise are not heavy-handed in their leadership style.

There is a discussion of charismatic leaders, as there is some reason to believe that one's personal charisma is an important aspect of leadership, because it engages followers. There is also the concepts of transactional and transformational leaders. The transactional leader is geared towards routine performance. While sometimes given short shrift, most of the best companies in the world got to their place through routine excellence. Transformational leadership makes for better headlines -- this is a leader who can change the vision or culture of a company, transforming it into something new. This type of leader is better when the company is struggling, or in a changing industry, or otherwise has some impetus to transform itself -- charisma and inspiration play a big role in transformational leadership.

Lastly, the chapter touches on leader-member exchange theory. This posits that leaders will develop different relationships with different subordinates -- some are high quality relationships and others less so, but this affects the leader's influence, and evidence has shown that work outcomes are different…worse in the low quality relationships.

Case Study #12 -- Faculty Empowerment and the Changing University Environment

1. I would prefer to be in a school with less standardization, given the choice. Standardization in education does not provide the opportunity to get ahead -- you merely tread the same water as the rest of the class. It is good to learn the basics, but the cost of education is high, and you want to feel that you are getting superior value for your investment.. Where the instructor has a higher degree of empowerment doubtless has more risk. If the instructor isn't very good, being empowered with flexibility will not help. So the empowerment has to derive from a number of different sources -- not just being able to modify the assignments and choose different materials but having the skills to do so as well. A good instructor will flourish in an empowered environment, and I want to be at a school with good instructors who are empowered to do a superior job. The upside is higher.

2. Moving a faculty from one that is more empowered to one that is less empowered is an interesting challenge. First, on a formal basis, it may be difficult to justify stripping formal powers away from, well, anybody. The school will have to rely on its formal authority, because even if it has a high degree of influence, reducing autonomy tends not to work well with adults. On an informal basis, this is just as difficult. Part of empowerment is not just allowing people to do….....

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