COMMERCE 1BA3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Power Politics, Gynoecium, Role Conflict
3 May 2018
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Power politics and ethics
Who wants power
• Those high o McClellad’s Need for poer(N-Pow)
• Came up with difference between positive and negative power
o Have strong need to influence
▪ In meetings not comfortable saying nothing
o Often have negative stereotypes
• McClelland argues that the most effective managers institutional aagers:
o Have high n-pow
o Use their power to achieve organizational goals
o Adopt a participatie or coachig leadership style
o Are relatively unconcerned with how much others like them
o Uses power for good of institution rather than personal gain
o Better in giving subordinates sense of responsibility, clarifying priorities, instilling team
spirit
• Copariso to persoal poer aagers ad affiliatie poer aagers
• Personal power people:
o Fame
o Fortune
• Affiliative power managers:
o Considered mostly about being well-liked
An alternate view: how do subunits obtain power?
• Subunit power: the degree of power held by various organizational subunits, such as
departments
• What is it that causes a subunit to gain power?
o scarcity of resourcesthose that have money, MRI etc
o uncertaintytake something uncertain and make it more certain
o centralityactivities that are more central to the workforce
o substitutabilityone that has little power can easily be substituted, who has these
certai traits that you do’t?
• View that sees power as something that accrues (comes) to organizational subunits that cope
with organizational sub problems
• Something in macro shakes you, new power gained
o ex. 9/11, firefighters got all the power
o ex. organization doing well, then get slapped with huge lawsuit
organizational politics
• The pursuit of self-interest in an organization, whether or not this self-interest corresponds to
organizational goals
• Conscious, self-conscious and intentional
• Would be countered if detected by those with different agendas
Difference between ethics and morals
• Ethics (how you are expected to behave, above water line, ex. code of ethics)
o Something you choose to comply with
o An acceptable set of standards/behaviours
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