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Chapter 15 - Influence, Empowerment, and Politics
15-15
(i) Political coalitions have “fuzzy boundaries,” meaning they are fluid
in membership, flexible in structure, and temporary in duration, and
they may not coincide with formal group membership.
(ii) Coalitions are a potent political force in organizations and there
have been recent examples of coalitions forcing the resignation of
the CEO.
(d) Networks are loose associations of individuals seeking social support
for their general self-interests. They have broader and longer-term
agendas than do coalitions.
iii) Political Tactics
(1) Table 15-1: Eight Common Political Tactics in Organizations presents
the results of research determining the political tactics that happen most
frequently. See Slide 15-35
(a) Attacking or blaming others.
(b) Using information as a political tool.
(c) Creating a favorable image.
(d) Developing a base of support.
(e) Praising others (ingratiation).
(f) Forming power coalitions with strong allies.
(g) Associating with influential people.
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(h) Creating obligations (reciprocity).
(2) These tactics can be classified as reactive or proactive—the intent of a
reactive tactic is to defend one’s self-interest while a proactive tactic seeks
to promote the individual’s self-interest.
(3) Table 15-2: Are You Politically Naive, Politically Sensible, or a
Political Shark? can assess one’s attitude toward organizational politics.
iv) Impression Management
(1) Impression Management Overview
(a) Impression management: any attempt to control or manipulate the
images related to a person, organization, or ideas. See Slide 15-
37
(b) Impression management encompasses how someone talks, behaves,
and looks.
(2) A Conceptual Crossroads
(a) Impression management is an interesting conceptual crossroads
involving self-monitoring, attribution theory, and organizational politics.
(b) High self-monitoring employees are likely to be more inclined to
engage in impression management than would low self-monitors.
(c) Impression management involves the systematic manipulation of
attributions.
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(3) Making a Good Impression
(a) Impression management often strays into questionable if not unethical
territory.
(b) Tactics for favorable upward impression management include job-
focused, supervisor-focused, or self-focused tactics. See Slide
15-38
(c) A moderate amount of upward impression management is necessary,
but too little or too much can be ineffective.
(d) Excessive flattery and ingratiation can backfire by embarrassing the
target person and damaging one’s credibility.
(e) The risk of unintended insult is very high when impression
management tactics cross gender, racial, ethnic, and cultural lines.
(f) The Real World/Real People: Linda Hudson Made Her Point with a
Strong First Impression profiles how one executive made a lasting
impression in a job interview.
(4) Making a Poor Impression
(a) Motives for trying to make a bad impression in the workplace include:
(i) Avoidance: employee seeks to avoid additional work, stress,
burnout, or an unwanted transfer or promotion.
(ii) Obtain concrete rewards: employee seeks to obtain a pay raise
or a desired transfer, promotion, or demotion.
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(iii)Exit: employee seeks to get laid off, fired, or suspended, and
perhaps also to collect unemployment or workers’ compensation.
(iv)Power: employee seeks to control, manipulate, or intimidate
others, get revenge, or make someone else look bad.
(b) Unfavorable upward impression management tactics include:
(i) Decreasing performance: restricting productivity, making more
mistakes than usual, lowering quality, neglecting tasks.
(ii) Not working to potential: pretending ignorance, having unused
capabilities.
(iii)Withdrawing: being tardy, taking excessive breaks, faking illness.
(iv)Displaying a bad attitude: complaining, getting upset and angry,
acting strangely, not getting along with coworkers.
(v) Broadcasting limitations: letting coworkers know about one’s
physical problems and mistakes, both verbally and nonverbally.
(c) Ways to manage employees who try to make a bad impression include
providing more challenging work, greater autonomy, better feedback,
supportive leadership, clear and reasonable goals, and a less stressful
work setting.
v) Research Evidence on Organizational Politics and Impression
Management
(1) White men have a better understanding of organizational politics than do
racial and ethnic minorities and white women.
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(2) Political behavior is viewed more favorably when performed against a
target of the opposite gender.
(3) Perceived higher levels of team politics were associated with lower
organizational commitment, lower job satisfaction, poorer job
performance, and lower unit effectiveness.
(4) Political maneuvering was found to be commonplace and backstabbing
behavior reportedly triggered reciprocal back-stabbing.
(5) Cultural differences impact impression management.
vi) Managing Organizational Politics
(1) Organizational politics cannot be eliminated, but political maneuvering can
and should be managed to keep it constructive and within reasonable
bounds.
(2) Measurable objectives are management’s first line of defense against
negative expressions of organizational politics.
(3) An individual’s degree of politicalness is a matter of personal values,
ethics, and temperament.
(4) A moderate amount of prudent political behavior generally is considered a
survival tool in complex organizations.
(5) Table 15-3: How to Keep Organizational Politics within Reasonable
Bounds provides practical recommendations on managing organizational
politics.
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BACK TO THE CHAPTER-OPENING CASE
1. Which influence tactics are evident in this case study? If you were Deborah
Dunsire’s mentor or personal coach, which tactic would you advise her to rely on
the most? Explain.
a. The nine generic influence tactics are: rational persuasion, inspirational
appeals, consultation, ingratiating tactics, personal appeals, exchange,
2. Which type of power, socialized or personalized, has Deborah Dunsire used
most effectively in her professional life? Explain.
a. Socialized power is directed at helping others. Deborah has relied more
on socialized rather than personalized power. She opted to transition from
3. What specific power bases have played a role in Deborah Dunsire’s career
success? What is her strongest power base in her present position? Explain.
a. The five bases of power include: reward, coercive, legitimate, expert, and
referent power. Deborah likely uses her expert power when drawing upon
4. Which layer on the initiative pyramid in Figure 15-3 best characterizes Deborah
Dunsire’s management style? How has this helped her succeed?
a. The highest level in the initiative pyramid would best characterize Deborah
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Dunsire’s management style. She is quite willing to take action without
5. If you were being interviewed by Deborah Dunsire for a managerial position, how
would you go about making a good impression to land the job?
a. Favorable upward impression management tactics that could be used in a
job interview include job-focused, supervisor-focused, and self-focused
To gain further insight and knowledge about Millennium Pharmaceuticals, visit its
website: http://www.millennium.com/ and explore the content under “About Millennium.”
OB IN ACTION CASE STUDY: You’re Driving Us Crazy. You’ve Got to Back Off
1. What influence tactics and power bases are evident in this case? Explain.
a. The nine generic influence tactics are: rational persuasion, inspirational
appeals, consultation, ingratiating tactics, personal appeals, exchange,
coalition tactics, pressure, and legitimating tactics. Early in the expansion
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2. How does the distinction between socialized power and personalized factor into
this case?
a. Socialized power is directed at helping others, while personalized power is
directed at helping oneself. Early in the expansion process, Doug relied
3. How would you describe Doug Rauch’s behavior change in terms of Figure 15-2?
Explain.
a. Figure 15-2 illustrates how power can be shifted to the hands of
employees gradually, step by step. At the start of the expansion process,
4. How does this case bolster the argument in favor of delegation?
a. Delegation is a recommended tool for lightening a manager’s work load
5. What advice would you give to a manager who micromanages?
a. Managers who micromanage are likely to stifle the creativity, motivation
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6. Do you think Doug Rauch’s shift in management style made organizational
politics more or less likely in the Trader Joe’s organization? Explain.
a. Students may have differing opinions. Triggers of political behavior
LEGAL/ETHICAL CHALLENGE: Payback Time?
What are the ethical and practical implications of the following actions?
1. Don’t say anything. What goes around comes around. Julie deserves to be
taken down a peg or two. It’s only fair.
2. Alert Julie’s boss so the report gets corrected and Julie gets in trouble.
3. Privately tell Julie about the mistake in hopes of making her a political ally and
possibly even a friend.
4. Grow up! It’s not about you and your petty rivalries. Excellent customer service
should be your top priority.
5. You have an obligation as an employee to speak up and help the entire company
succeed.
6. Invent other options. Discuss.
Discussion:
Not taking action to prevent a report with errors from being distributed would be an
example of organizational politics. The employee is looking to enhance his or her self-
interests rather than the interests of the organization. By using information as a political
tool, the employee would be resorting to one of the eight common political tactics used
in organizations. The current scenario describes a personality conflict, which is a
dysfunctional conflict since it will negatively impact the organization’s interests (see
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Chapter 13). It may very well be that Julie’s incivility is the root cause of this personality
conflict, but that does not mean that ignoring the report error is the best course of
action.
Table 13-1 provides practical recommendations for dealing with personality conflicts.
The first step is to communicate directly with the other person to resolve the conflict by
emphasizing problem solving and common objectives, not personalities. Employees
should avoid dragging coworkers into the conflict. Finally, if the dysfunctional conflict
persists, the employee should seek help from direct supervisors or human resource
specialists. The employee in this case should follow these steps before sabotaging
Julie’s career and perhaps his or her own career. Julie’s error will likely become
common knowledge, either before or after the report is published, but if the firm’s
managers find out that someone could have prevented the report from being published,
that person will probably be viewed far more critically than Julie for making the error.
One of the recommendations from Table 15-3 for keeping organizational politics in
reasonable bounds is to use an ethics filter where employees should only engage in
actions that they would feel comfortable doing on national television. If employees
facing a situation described in the current case believe that they would face negative
consequences if their actions were to become public knowledge, they should not
engage in the action, even if by doing so it helps one of their disliked colleagues. Julie
may well deserve to be “taken down a peg or two” but the potential negative risks to the
employee seem to outweigh the benefits of doing nothing. The employee should put
the interests of the company ahead of his or her personal interests and make sure the
report is fixed.
INTERNET EXERCISE
http://business.twitter.com/
In the previous chapter, you learned about various social media that businesses can
use to connect with their customers, their employees and other stakeholders. One fast-
growing social media platform is http://www.twitter.com. Twitter allows users to read,
write and share messages of up to 140 characters. These messages, or Tweets, are
increasingly being used by firms as powerful social influence tools. In this exercise, you
will learn more about how Twitter operates and the best practices of using this social
media as social influence tool.
To learn more about the business aspect of Twitter, go to http://business.twitter.com/.
Under the “Learn the Basics” section, read the content under “What is Twitter” and “Best
Practices.” Under the “Optimize Your Activity” section, read the case studies for “Best
Buy,” “Etsy,” “jetBlue,” and “Moxsie.”
Chapter 15 - Influence, Empowerment, and Politics
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Questions:
1. Do you follow anyone on Twitter? If yes, whose Tweets do you read and why? If
no, how could Twitter help you to get better connected?
2. Chapter 15 presents nine generic influence tactics. Based on the information
you read in the business case studies, how can businesses effectively use
Twitter and these tactics for social influence?
3. Identify the potential disadvantages of using Twitter and what could be done to
address the limitations of this social media.
4. How could a firm best use Twitter in the face of a public relations crisis or
scandal?
INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES
1. An interesting individual-level account of influence that can liven up the
classroom can be found in “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by R. B.
Cialdini (Harper Paperbacks, 2006).
2. See “Topic 17: Power and Conflict” in “An Instructor’s Guide to an Active
Classroom” by A. Johnson and A. Kinicki (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2006).
3. The April 2000 issue of Journal of Management Education contains two
exercises dealing with power. See “Manufacturing Power Relations: An
Organizational Simulation” by J. Kern in Journal of Management Education,
2000, Vol. 24(2), pp. 254-275; and “Power and the Changing Environment” by J.
Barbuto, Jr. in Journal of Management Education, 2000, Vol. 24(2), pp. 288-296.
TOPICAL RESOURCES
1. See “The Effect of Applicant Influence Tactics on Recruiter Perceptions of Fit and
Hiring Recommendations: A Field Study” by C. Higgins and T. Judge in Journal
of Applied Psychology, 2004, Vol. 89(4), pp. 622-632.
2. See “Considering Rational Self-Interest as a Disposition: Organizational
Implications of Other Orientation” by B. M. Meglino and A. Korsgaard in Journal
of Applied Psychology, 2004, Vol. 89(6), pp. 946-959.
3. See “Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of
Corporate Governance” by M. Gelter in Independent Review, 2007, Vol. 12,
pp.142-146.
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VIDEO RESOURCES
1. Expert Jeffrey Pfeffer discusses the operation of power and influence in
organizations in “Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations”
(Insight Media).
2. Self-empowerment is the topic of the film "Even Eagles Need a Push" (CRM
Films).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Think of a time when someone such as your supervisor at work, your professor
at school, or one of your family members wanted to get you to perform a specific
task. Describe the influence tactics the person used to influence your actions.
2. Steve Jobs, the legendary co-founder and long-time chief executive officer of
Apple Inc., possessed a high degree of social power. Based on your general
knowledge of him, describe Steve’s bases of power and how he used them to
change the world.
3. This chapter stated that empowerment may be easy to understand, but it is
difficult to implement. Discuss why this is true.
4. Table 15-1 describes eight common political tactics in organizations. Describe a
context in which you have observed these tactics being used by others or times
when you have used these tactics.
5. Analyze the potential advantages and disadvantages of deliberately attempting to
create a poor impression at work.
SUPPLEMENTAL EXERCISE 1: MR. MIYAGI’S POWER BASES1
APPLICATION
This exercise relates French and Raven’s five power bases (reward, coercive,
legitimate, expert, and referent) to a scene from the film The Karate Kid (1984,
Columbia Pictures). The relationship between the two main characters, Daniel and Mr.
Miyagi, may be used to explore the extent to which Mr. Miyagi holds each of the five
power bases. A description of the relevant scene is provided below but the
recommended approach is to show an actual clip from the film.
1 Adapted from E. Baker III, “Wax on – Wax off”: French and Raven at the Movies” Journal of Management
Education, November 1993, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 517-519.
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* * *
Over a period of several days, a young teenager washes and waxes several cars,
sands a wooden deck by hand, and paints the fence and home of an older man. He
works long and hard, often far into the night. Amazingly, the young man neither expects
nor receives monetary compensation for all his work! The taskmaster is strict, and
requires rigorous adherence to instructions. The smallest detail is strictly observed.
The taskmaster is a maintenance man for a small apartment complex. Why is the
young man performing all of these exhausting chores? Why isn’t he spending his time
on more enjoyable teenage activities?
The process of working, painting, sanding, and waxing ultimately helped Daniel develop
the key techniques necessary for the foundation of his karate training. They
represented the movements necessary to the basic karate defensive blocking
techniques. However, Daniel perceived no connection at the time he was performing
the work.
Again, the question becomes – Why is Daniel performing these chores? What hold
does Mr. Miyagi have over him? What’s the source of his power over Daniel?
After defining each of French and Raven’s power bases, ask students which are
applicable to the relationship between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. There is not a contract
between the two, so it’s unlikely that legitimate power is the source. Although Mr.
Miyagi has promised to teach Daniel karate skills, at the time of Daniel’s intensive work
efforts no teaching or learning have occurred (from Daniel’s point of view). This
suggests reward power is not the source. However, students might validly argue that
the expectation of learning karate serves as the reward for Daniel. Coercive power is
unlikely, as Mr. Miyagi does not punish Daniel in any way. Most students will argue for
the existence of expert power, since Mr. Miyagi does possess the skills that Daniel
wants to learn. Finally, although referent power probably was not a power source at the
beginning of their relationship, it likely became one as Daniel grew to know and respect
Mr. Miyagi over time.
SUPPLEMENTAL LECTURETTE 1: TRYING TO LOOK BAD AT WORK – WHY?2
APPLICATION
This lecturette provides supplemental coverage of impression management.
Specifically, this lecturette describes an article by Becker and Martin looking at why and
how employees want to create a poor impression at work.
2 Adapted from T. Becker and S. Martin, “Trying to Look Bad at Work: Methods and Motives for Managing Poor
Impressions in Organizations” Academy of Management Journal, 1995, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 174-199 and A. Buchholtz,
“Intentionally Looking Bad at Work” Academy of Management Executive, 1995, Vol. 9 No. 3, p. 82.
Chapter 15 - Influence, Empowerment, and Politics
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* * *
The intent of Becker and Martin was to discover how and why employees intentionally
look bad at work. In a review of the literature, Becker and Martin report a survey in
which 25% of the respondents reported “playing dumb” on one or more occasions. Men
reported playing dumb with 17% and 14.9% of the time with their co-workers and
bosses, respectively. Working women were less likely than men to play dumb at work;
9.4% reported playing dumb with their coworkers and 7.2% reported using this tactic
with their bosses.
The authors distinguish between managing poor impressions and self-handicapping.
According to Becker and Martin, “self-handicapping involves any behavior or choice of
performance setting that enhances an individual’s opportunity to excuse failure and
accept credit for success.” That is, self-handicapping is a form of impression
management that may involve the handicapper’s looking bad, but the ultimate goal is to
look bad in one sense only in order to look good in a “wider, more ego-involving sense.”
Becker and Martin conducted a pilot study in which they asked 36 upper division
students to describe a real-life example when either they or someone else intentionally
made himself or herself look bad at work. A content analysis of these responses
yielded the categories reported in the text. That is, the methods for intentionally looking
bad at were: decrease performance, not working to potential, withdraw, displaying a bad
attitude, and broadcasting limitations. The motives for such behavior included:
avoidance, obtain concrete rewards, exit, and power. In a larger study of 164 business
students, over half of the respondents reported witnessing a case of someone
intentionally looking bad at work.
Becker and Martin suggest a framework for future work in this area. They suggest
people’s motives for intentionally looking bad are a function of individual difference (e.g.,
need for achievement and self-esteem) and situational factors (e.g., task characteristics
and leader attributes). The authors theorize that individuals with a high need for
achievement will be less likely to engage in management of poor impressions because
this behavior would be less likely to result in long-term career advancement.
Chronically low self-esteem individuals will be more likely to manage poor impressions
because looking bad to others is consistent with their own negative self-perceptions.
Task characteristics such as jobs with low autonomy, insufficient feedback, and
uninteresting duties are hypothesized to motivate poor impression behavior. In the
Becker and Martin model, motives for intentionally looking bad lead to the intention to
engage in the management of poor impressions, which is the antecedent to the
intended method of managing poor impressions, which ultimately leads to poor
impression behaviors.
