MGMT2100 Study Guide - Final Guide: Spiritual Gift, Job Satisfaction, Ingratiation
Power and Politics
Power is:
• The ability to produce intended and foreseen effects on others.
• The probability that a person will act as another person wishes.
• The greater B's dependency on A, the greater the power A has over B (the General Dependency
Postulate).
• Power is intended influence.
Power Typology
Formal/
Position
based
power
• Legitimate - power derived from your rank or position, whether in an organisation, family, or other
social group, eg: prime minister or police man.
• Reward/Coercive - being able to reward or punish people for doing what is required.
• Resource (gatekeepers) - when you have control over valued resources, withholding or bestowing these
resources can be used as forms of either punishment or reward, eg: secretary, junior HR staff, payroll
people.
Personal
Power
• Expert - derived from having unique, in-depth information or skill, eg: Microsoft Office specialist.
• Referent (includes persuasiveness) - charisma: the 'gift' of power often associated with leadership
(connected to appearance, emotions and status).
o If not, then you can rely on Network Power: 'who you know' and 'how you know them'.
o Ability to persuade also gives you a better chance at gaining compliance.
o Persuasion linked to a person's credibility and integrity.
o Integrity - soundness of moral character; an honest person.
o Credibility - the objectively determined truthfulness, follow-through, and accuracy of a person.
o The amount of credibility you have is determined by how much belief, confidence and faith
other people have in you.
• Network/relationships
Which Bases of Power are More Effective?
• Personal sources are often more effective than formal power.
• Both expert and referent power are positively related to employees' satisfaction with supervision, their
organisational commitment, and their performance, whereas reward and legitimate power seem to be
unrelated to these outcomes.
• Coercive power usually backfires.
• How to increase perceived power? - to create dependency, you should communicate importance,
scarcity, nonsubstitutability.
Influence Tactics
Three Outcomes of Influence Tactics
1. Commitment - the highest goal and most successful outcome.
o The target of the influence attempt is enthusiastic about carrying out the request and thus
makes a full effort towards doing so.
2. Compliance - the influence attempt is only partially successful.
o The target person is apathetic about carrying out the effort and thus only makes a modest
effort.
3. Resistance - the influence attempt is unsuccessful.
o The target is opposed to carrying out the request and thus finds ways to either not comply or
to do a poor job.
Rational
Persuasion
• Using logical arguments or factual evidence to influence others and convince them a proposal or
request is workable and likely to achieve a goal.
• Does require assertiveness and research to make this effective.
• Your level of credibility matters.
Inspirational
Appeal
• Developing emotional commitment by appealing to a target's values, needs, hopes and aspirations.
• Involves displaying emotions and appealing to group members' emotions.
• Possessing personal magnetism (charism) in the eyes of the group members makes this easier.
• For this to be effective, the leader must understand the values and motives of the group members.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The ability to produce intended and foreseen effects on others. The probability that a person will act as another person wishes. The greater b"s dependency on a, the greater the power a has over b (the general dependency. Expert - derived from having unique, in-depth information or skill, eg: microsoft office specialist: referent (includes persuasiveness) - charisma: the "gift" of power often associated with leadership (connected to appearance, emotions and status). If not, then you can rely on network power: "who you know" and "how you know them": ability to persuade also gives you a better chance at gaining compliance, persuasion linked to a person"s credibility and integrity. To create dependency, you should communicate importance, scarcity, nonsubstitutability. Appeal: using logical arguments or factual evidence to influence others and convince them a proposal or request is workable and likely to achieve a goal.
