PART FOUR – LEADERSHIP AND INFLUENCE PROCESSES IN
ORGANIZATIONS
Chapter Thirteen – Power, Influence, and Politics
Chapter Overview
The word power often conjures up a variety of thoughts, both good and bad. When used effectively,
power and influence are essential to every manager’s performance. When used inappropriately, power can
result in unethical behavior and be damaging to employees and organizations. Effectively using power
and influence is a skill, and misusing either can quickly derail your career. Conflict in organizations is
often about power and influence, and the way power is manifested in the organization and across
workgroups. Understanding what power and influence are and how to effectively use them will enhance
your success in any organization.
Politics is closely related to power and influence. In addition to impacting your own success as a manager,
politics is important to understand due to its negative effects on firm performance. In this chapter, we
discuss the nature of power, influence, and politics. After reading this chapter, you should have a good
idea of how to effectively use them in advancing your career and managing more effectively.
Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Identify and describe different kinds of position and personal power.
2. Discuss how individuals and groups obtain and use power.
3. Discuss influence and describe which influence tactics are the most and least effective.
4. Describe some of the factors that influence political behavior in organizations and the role of
impression management in power and influence.
Real World Challenge: Influencing Acceptance of Change at Church &
Dwight
Summary: Church & Dwight Co., Inc., founded in 1846, is a leading consumer packaged goods.
Company leaders realize that without new successful product launches, the company will lack organic
growth. One key part of the new strategy is splitting the marketing department into two parallel marketing
organizations.
Real World Challenge: How can Church and Dwight best influence their key marketing talent to
support the new strategy and embrace their responsibilities?
Real World Response: The company ensured that its current brand team would be involved in new
product development. Leaders applied rational persuasion to show that the new arrangement would
provide resources to do more with their own brands. Management used inspirational appeals to link the
strategy to company success. The change has been so successful that Church & Dwight is expanding the
new structure.
Chapter Outline
I. POWER IN ORGANIZATIONS
Power refers to a person or group’s potential to influence another person or group to do something
that would not otherwise have been done.
Power is held by individuals as well as by groups.
Noted scholar David McClelland found that the real driver of a leader’s performance was the
leader’s need for power, or the desire to control and influence others or to be responsible for others.
McClelland also identified leadership motive pattern: a high need for power (with high impulse
control) and a low need for affiliation.
Most experts agree that there are seven types of power. These are summarized in Table 13.1.
Legitimate, reward, and coercive powers come from the position one holds in an organization. The
levels of these powers are greater for employees in higher organizational levels.
Expert, informational, referent, and persuasive powers are types of personal powers. The levels of
these powers depend on characteristics unique to each person.
A. Position Power
Organizational authority gives a manager position power, which is power based on one’s
position in the organization.
We next discuss the three types of position power: power due to one’s job, power due to control
over rewards, and power due to control over punishments.
1. Legitimate Power
Legitimate power is a form of position power based on a person’s holding a managerial
position rather than anything the manager is or does as a person.
Legitimate power is the formal authority the firm gives a manager to hire new employees,
assign work, monitor employees’ work, and enforce organizational rules.
Subordinates comply because they believe that the managerial position gives the manager
the right to make certain requests of them.
In using legitimate power effectively, it is important to follow the proper channels of
communication and to be responsive to subordinates’ concerns.
2. Reward Power
Reward power is position power that involves the use of both tangible and intangible
rewards to influence and motivate followers.
Rewards are one of the strongest tools used by managers to inspire high performance.
Because rewards are such strong motivators, it is important to monitor the positive and
negative impacts they have on employee behavior.
If rewards are improperly used, they can decrease the motivation of employees who do not
expect to receive them.
To effectively use your reward power, offer attractive rewards, make reasonable requests,
and ensure that the rewards you offer are viewed as ethical and not as bribes.
3. Coercive Power
If a manager has the ability to punish subordinates, they can use position power to “coerce”
subordinates to comply out of fear or because people want to avoid being punished. This is
coercive power.
Threatening punishment can have negative side effects on employees, including stress,
resentment, decreased morale, and retaliation and can even cost the manager his or her job.
Although it can produce behavior change, use coercion only when absolutely necessary—
for example, if an employee is engaging in unsafe behaviors.
To most effectively use coercive power, it is also important to administer appropriate
punishment promptly and consistently, avoid appearing hostile, and give warnings and
punishment notifications in private.
B. Personal Power
A manager’s ability to influence others to give their full effort depends on the power or
capability she or he has to influence other people’s behavior or attitudes.
Personal influence gives a manager personal power, which is based on the characteristics of
that individual and stays with the individual regardless of where that person works.
There are four types of personal power that are based on a person’s unique characteristics and
that are independent of one’s formal position in an organization: power based on an individual’s
expertise, power due to control over information, power based on the respect of others, and
power due to the ability to persuade.
1. Expert Power
Expert power is based on an individual’s expertise in some area. People respond to expert
power because of their belief in the person’s knowledge, skills, or expertise.
Because an individuals’ knowledge is the foundation of expert power, it is a personal power
and can exist at any level in an organization.
To enhance your own expert power, become an expert in your company’s industry,
products, services, and systems, maintain credibility, act confident, and stay current in your
field.
2. Informational Power
Control over information is informational power.
These gatekeepers are able to exert power over others by providing or withholding
information that others need. Once shared, however, the informational power that
information provided is lost.
3. Referent Power
Referent power is another type of personal power based on a manager’s charisma or
attractiveness to others.
Subordinates behave as the manager does and wants because they seek his or her approval.
By consistently “walking the walk” and “talking the talk,” managers can use their referent
power to promote the attitudes and behaviors they desire in employees.
4. Persuasive Power
Persuasive power is due to the ability to use logic and facts to persuade others to adopt
one’s ideas or perspectives.
Good listening skills and identifying and appealing to the goals and motivations of the
other person can enhance your persuasive power.
II. USING POWER
It is important to adjust your use of power to the situation and person you are trying to influence.
Because the effects of referent and expert power rely on the employee’s internal motivation and
voluntary compliance, they are always appropriate. However, these types of power are not always
effective.
Legitimate, reward, and coercive power rely on external motivation and obligatory obedience.
Effective leaders tend to rely on expert and referent power more than legitimate, reward, or
coercive power.
Using legitimate, reward, and coercive powers to influence others is using power rather than
leadership.
Leadership is more effective to the degree that followers’ behaviors toward the leader’s goals are
voluntary and not coerced.
Through your speech and actions, you can use your power to motivate subordinates by arousing
appropriate motives in them.
A. Acquiring and Using Power
So how can you increase your power in your organization?
1. Acquiring Power
Your power is greater if the things you control are important, rare, and cannot be substituted
for by something else.
Table 13.2 gives you the opportunity to understand the amount of power you hold in your
own organization.
Developing your expertise and performing well can increase your power.
In addition to technical expertise, becoming an expert on your own company can make you
a valuable and powerful employee.
Identify emerging trends that will influence your industry or the economy as a whole.
Be sure that your work is relevant to important organizational problems and that you and
your work are visible to the people who control raises and promotions.
Network inside and outside your organization to develop positive relationships with people
who can be helpful to you throughout your career
2. Abuse of Power
Power in an absolute sense is neither good nor bad—what matters is how the power is used.
An important point to make about power is the potential for its abuse.
The abuse of power is using any type of power to demean, exploit, or take advantage of
another or influencing someone to do something the person later regrets.
Disrespecting individual dignity and interference with job performance or deserved rewards
are abuses of power.
In addition to financial damage, the results of the abuse of power may include decreased
employee satisfaction and helping behaviors, increased employee deviance, and increased
turnover.
It is important to remember that having power does not mean that you must use it. Having
power also does not guarantee that using it will be effective in influencing desired behavior.
Unchecked authority can result in the abuse of power. Managers should not have free rein
to do whatever they want—managers’ power should match their responsibilities.
Regularly reviewing managers’ behaviors and performance and holding them accountable
for their actions is important.
Perhaps the best known types of power abuse are bullying, abusive supervision, and sexual
harassment.
B. Empowerment
The degree to which power is shared and an employee has the authority to make and implement
at least some decisions is empowerment.
Empowerment can increase the flexibility and responsiveness of organizations.
Essentially, empowerment requires two things:
(1) that managers allow those beneath them to have more power and control over their work,
and (2) that managers provide training, resources, and coaching to give them the skills and
confidence to act empowered.
Just telling an employee that he or she is empowered is not enough. Employees must have the
skills to do what they are empowered to do and believe that they can successfully do it.
Being an ethical leader is a source of power because it eliminates hidden agendas and builds
trust.
Technology can empower employees to solve problems themselves.
C. How Subunits Obtain Power
A workgroup’s, department’s, or subunit’s power is derived either from its control of resources
or through its strategic power.
The more desirable and important the resources controlled by a group, the greater the group’s
resource power.
Groups that occupy a central role in decision making wield greater strategic power by
influencing higher-level decisions.
1. Resource Scarcity
Power is greater for subunits that control scarce resources that are vital to the organization
as a whole. When resources are plentiful, subunit power differences are often reduced.
2. Centrality
A subunit’s activities are central to the extent that they influence the work of many other
subunits, when their impact is more immediate, and when the subunit has a critical impact
on the firm’s key product or service.
This is one reason why production and marketing departments tend to have greater power
than human resource departments.
3. Substitutability
A subunit’s power is reduced to the extent that others inside or outside of the organization
can also perform its responsibilities.
The labor market has a big influence on substitutability—when a subunit’s skills become
scarce in the labor market, the power of that subunit increases.
4. Uncertainty
Organizations do not like surprises or uncertainties.
The subunits most capable of coping with uncertainty or of guiding the organization
through a period of increased uncertainty tend to have greater power.
III. INFLUENCE IN ORGANIZATIONS
Influential people have power, but not all powerful people have influence.
Leadership is in large part an influence process that involves the use of various powers or
interpersonal styles to affect the behaviors and attitudes of others.
But whether a leader’s use of power to influence someone will be successful depends on whether
the other person allows him- or herself to be influenced.
How much formal power or authority a manager has is not nearly as important as the amount of
influence the manager has over subordinates.
A. Influence Tactics
People apply their power to influence the behavior of others through influence tactics.
Influence tactics should be matched to the situation and to the person being influenced, and can
be learned with practice. Responses to influence attempts are not always positive, however.
Table 13.3 summarizes some influence tactics along with the possible responses to them.
Of the various influence tactics, rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, and consultation
have been found to be the most effective, and pressure is the least effective.
Using more than one influence tactic at the same time can increase your effectiveness as long as
the tactics are compatible.
Influence attempts are often unsuccessful on the first try and require the skilled use of a
sequence of tactics over time.
CASE STUDY: Influencing Decisions
Summary: You are a manager responsible for choosing one new project to support. Each project has
merit, and you feel that they all have an equal chance of success. As the meeting comes to a close, your
team members each make a last-minute appeal to win your support.
1. What influence tactics did each staff member use?
Jose is using ingratiation through flattery. Kris is using inspirational appeals, appealing to the
manager’s aspirations for the company. John is using rational persuasion, citing market research.
2. Which influence tactic do you think would best persuade you to choose that person’s idea?
Why?
Answers will vary. I would choose John’s idea because he has put forth a very logical appeal based
on facts.
3. Which influence tactic do you think would be least effective in persuading you to choose that
person’s idea? Why?
Again, answers will vary. Ingratiation would be the least effective because flattery is covering up a
lack of ideas and a lack of facts in support of the project.
B. Role of National Culture in Influence Effectiveness
Understanding diverse cultures, values, and perspectives enhances your sensitivity to what is
important to others and how to best influence them.
Influence tactics are also most effective when they are consistent with the social values in the
national and organizational cultures.
Global Issues: Effectiveness of Different Influence Tactics Depends on
National Culture
Summary: National culture affects the appropriateness of different influence tactics. Managers from
Hong Kong and Taiwan believe that exchange and rational persuasion are the most effective influence
tactics. However, Taiwanese managers use inspirational appeals and ingratiation more than Hong Kong
managers, who use pressure. Direct, task-oriented influence tactics are seen as more effective by Western
managers than by Chinese managers, who prefer tactics involving personal relations, avoidance, or an
informal approach. Understanding this difference is important to expatriates and those in a multicultural
workplace.
Matching your influence techniques to the context and to the person is important for upward as well as
downward influence. One study found that host-country managers who demonstrate upward influence
tactics that are culturally appropriate to the parent company’s national culture will be more promotable.
Exchanging benefits and coalitions are associated with promotability in German rather than in domestic
Ecuadorian firms. Upward appeal assertiveness is associated with promotability in American rather than
in domestic Ecuadorian firms. Being aware of sources of power and receptiveness will improve
effectiveness as a manager.
C. Persuasion Skills
Because persuasion gets people to do things differently because they want to, not because they
have been ordered to, it is a more effective way to lead.
Because most people are resistant to altering their habits, managers need to use persuasion
skills whenever they need to create change.
Persuasion is much more than a sales skill.
Here are some recommendations for being more persuasive:
Build credibility based on both your skills and your relationships
Do not begin with a hard sell
Search for shared ground and be willing to compromise
Develop compelling positions based on a few convincing arguments
Connect with people emotionally rather than relying solely on logic
Create a continuous feedback loop
Be patient – people are rarely persuaded on the first try
D. Upward Influence
In addition to using influence to guide the behavior of subordinates, upward influence can also
be used to influence superiors.
Upward influence is an important aspect of influence and contributes substantially to individual
effectiveness in organizations.
There are six primary upward influence tactics:
1. Ingratiation: using flattery and acting polite, friendly, or humble to put the supervisor
in a good mood
2. Exchange: offering to trade favors or rewards for compliance
3. Rationality: using logic, planning, reason, and compromise
4. Assertiveness: using aggression, nagging, and verbal confrontations or giving orders
5. Coalition formation: seeking the support of other organization members to show a
united front
6. Upward appeals: making informal or formal appeals to organizational superiors for
intervention
Your source(s) of power generally determines which upward influence tactics you tend to use.
It is also important to adjust your influence tactic to suit the boss you are trying to influence.
The six upward influence tactics can be used alone, but are often used in combination with each
other in what are called upward influence styles.
The four upward influence styles are:
1. Shotgun: This style uses the most influence and emphasizes assertiveness and
bargaining. Shotgun managers use many different tactics. This style is associated with
the highest levels of job tension and personal stress.
2. Tactician: This style uses an average amount of influence and emphasizes reason.
Tacticians tend to have considerable influence in their organizations over budgets,
policy, and personnel and rely heavily on reason and logic to gain compliance. This
style is associated with the lowest levels of job tension and personal stress.
3. Bystander: This style uses little influence with superiors. Between 30 and 40 percent of
managers are classified as bystanders.
4. Ingratiator: This style primarily uses a friendliness strategy but also uses the other
influence strategies to some extent.
IV. ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS
Organizational politics are social influence attempts directed at people who can provide rewards
that will help promote or protect the self-interests of the actor.
Effectively influencing others through persuasion, generating support, and inspiring trust are the
core of effective politics.
Employees who have been negatively affected by politics tend to perceive politics to be a negative
influence in organizations, whereas those whose interests were advanced through political means
tend to view it as a useful tool.
Organizational politics are the result of both individual employees and the culture of the
organization.
Eugene McKenna identified these common political tactics in organizations:
1. Controlling information: restricting information to certain people
2. Controlling lines of communication: establishing gatekeepers to restrict access
3. Using outside experts: “do the bidding” of management
4. Controlling the agenda: ensures only certain topics are discussed
5. Game playing: leaking information, etc
6. Image building: “spin doctors” project a desirable image
7. Building coalitions: befriending powerful others and starting small subgroups to promote
specific aims
8. Controlling decision parameters: try to influence decisions before they are made
9. Eliminating political rivals: even promotions get them out of the way
When politics are constructive rather than destructive, they are unnoticeable.
Employees who perceive that others get ahead by acting politically engage in more political
behaviors themselves.
Organizational culture is thus influenced by the perceived degree of political activity and how the
employees in that organization react to these perceptions.
Political skill involves having interpersonal influence as well as social astuteness, which involves
showing respect for others’ ways of thinking.
Developing a strong network and being perceived by others as sincere also reflects high political
skill.
Political skill has been found to be positively related to job performance.
A. Causes of Political Behavior
Conflict is at the core of organizational politics.
Uncertainty increases political behavior.
Scarcity of valued resources (e.g., transfers, raises, office space, budgets) also promotes
political behavior.
Some individuals desire to avoid conflict, and therefore tend not to resist others’ influence
attempts.
Because employees who “don’t rock the boat” are not viewed as threatening opponents, they
may be welcomed into the “in-group” and receive valued outcomes simply for not interfering
with a politically acting individual’s or group’s agenda.
Organizational policies sometimes reward and perpetuate political behavior. Individually
oriented rewards induce individually oriented behavior, which is often self-interested and
political in nature.
Rewarding political behavior can induce those who have not acted politically in the past to do
so in the future.
B. Managing Organizational Politics
Politics is pervasive and because political skill has been found to decrease job stress so it is
worth developing your skills in this area.
Formal rules and procedures can help to reduce the occurrence of political behavior.
Clarifying job expectations; opening the communication process; confronting employees acting
inefficiently, unethically, or irresponsibly; and serving as a good role model can all decrease
political behavior.
Keeping the number of employees assigned to each manager at a reasonable level is another
way to decrease political behavior.
Managing politics is about managing power. If you understand the motivations and aspirations
of your subordinates, you can help them to attain what they most want without resorting to
politics or the inappropriate use of power.
V. IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
Impression management is the process of portraying a desired image or attitude to control the
impression others form of us.
Impression management is not inherently a bad thing, in fact, most people regularly engage in some
form of interpersonal deception.
People who are higher in the personality trait of self-monitoring, which reflects having a high
concern with others’ perceptions of us and adjusting our behavior to fit the situation, are more likely
to engage in impression management behaviors.
People who engage in impression management often take great care to be perceived in a positive
light.
Impression management techniques are commonly used by job applicants in interviews with
positive results.
Self-promotion may not work as well on the job, however, because the supervisor has a better
opportunity to observe what you can really do. In fact, self-promotion is related to lower
performance evaluations.
Table 13.5 presents some tips for detecting impression management and deception on the part of
others.
Summary and Application
When used properly, power, influence, and politics are essential tools for managerial success. When used
improperly, power, influence, and politics can undermine trust, result in unethical behavior, and create a
toxic organization.
Position power (legitimate, reward, and coercive powers) is derived from the position one holds in an
organization. Personal power (expert, informational, referent, and persuasive powers) comes from the
unique characteristics of individuals regardless of their position in the organization.
Involvement gives subordinates influence in the decision being made; empowerment gives subordinates
the ability and authority to make the decision themselves.
Rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, and consultation are the most effective influence tactics, and
pressure is the least effective. The six primary upward influence tactics are ingratiation, exchange,
rationality, assertiveness, coalition formation, and upward appeals.
Uncertainty, scarcity of valued resources, and organizational policies can influence political behavior.
Impression management involves the communication of a desired image or attitude to influence the image
others form of us.