Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Chapter 8 – Power and Organizational Politics
Slide 1 – Opening
Slide 2 – Chapter Objectives
•Devote time and energy to clarifying goals
•Support the empowerment of others
•Maintain your awareness of political issues
•Be nice
Slide 3 – Political Institutions
•Although many people are uncomfortable talking about power, and although there certainly are
disagreements about the moral and practical implications of the use of power, power politics are,
at least to some extent, inescapable in organizations. All types of organizations, from churches to
professional associations, small companies to large corporations, elementary schools to private
universities, and families to large social groups, as well as governmental organizations at all
Slide 4 – Positive and Necessary
•An awareness and understanding of power politics helps us to understand some important facets
of organizational behavior and can contribute to our success in groups and organizations. People
who acquire and use power appropriately are better able to obtain necessary support and
resources for programs, people, and priorities.
Slide 5 – Defined
•In today’s organizations, rarely is it the best strategy to simply order or openly coerce someone to
do something. Power and organizational politics in the contemporary environment often are more
subtle and are exercised in relationships that are more egalitarian and involve the use of shared
power.
Slide 6 – Early Voices
•It is useful to begin our examination of power with Machiavelli’s The Prince, written during the
early 16th century. There are three basic themes in this often-cited and well-known book.
•He introduced the notion of power as a function of dependency and independence and of politics
Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 7 – Early Voices
•Weber wrote broadly about society, government, and organizations but was particularly
concerned about the nature of power and the question of why people obey others or are willing to
be controlled by them.
•Weber argued that the last of these, the legal–rational form of authority, was superior to other
forms of power. It was superior, he said, because in this form authority and power were
institutionalized and depersonalized in bureaucratic organizations where their exercise was
controlled by rules, hierarchy, and reporting relationships.
Slide 8 – Early Voices
•Bertrand Russell (1938) defined power as “the production of intended effects” and suggested that
it takes several forms. Traditional power is that which is characterized by habit, mostly passive
assent to institutional authority such as with priests and kings. Power that is not based on assent
or agreement is called “naked power” or coercion. Revolutionary power is based on active dissent
so as to unseat traditional power. Russell also considered a number of secondary or derivative
forms of power.
Slide 9 – Changing Perspectives
•Whereas early voices such as those of Machiavelli, Weber, and Russell focused principally on
power as exercised by a single executive or official over members of an organization, by the
1950s power had become a subject of interest in social psychology.
Slide 10 – Questioning Authority
•The 1960s were not only a period of political unrest in the United States but also an era that
called into question the nature of power and authority and who should have the “right” to tell
people what they could or could not do. In organizations, attitudes about the types of power that
individuals were willing to grant their “superiors” underwent a marked shift.
Slide 11 – Questioning Authority
•In a look at the political nature of organizational decision making, Allison used the Cuban missile
crisis to demonstrate how an overreliance on rational theories could lead to distortion and
incomplete understanding of the way in which organizations actually operate. He did so by
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 12 – Sources of Power
•Legitimate power arises from people’s values and beliefs that someone has the right to exert
influence over them and that they have an obligation to comply. These values and beliefs may be
culturally instilled, reinforced by social or organizational structure (e.g., hierarchy), or designated
by a legitimating agent or process (e.g., elections). In public organizations, this type of power
often is derived from people’s positions or job titles.
•Reward power is just what the label implies—power arising from our ability to reward other people
for behaving as we want them to. Reward power involves influencing others by providing positive
outcomes and preventing negative ones. Reward power is similar to positive reinforcement.
•Coercive power is the opposite of reward power. Coercive power is based on our ability to apply
Slide 13 – Seeking Power
•Pfeffer suggests having power may be more important than good performance.
Slide 14 – Recognizing Power
•Recognizing the exercise of power and politics in an organization is important to understanding its
influence on organizational behavior and in protecting ourselves from some of its negative
consequences. But this can be difficult. Just as power comes from a variety of sources, its
exercise can take a number of forms.
Slide 15 – Recognizing Power
•The advantages of the more subtle forms are that they are less likely to be met with open
resistance. People tend to balk at open power plays. So, using these cons and third faces of
power can help you to accomplish organizational objectives without coercing people to cooperate.
Slide 16 – Balancing Power
•These power-balancing operations, then, either decrease dependence (Styles 1 and 2) or
increase the dependence of other people (Styles 3 and 4). Because Styles 1 and 2 decrease our
dependence on the organization, they can be less desirable for the organization. Because Styles
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
3 and 4 increase the dependence of other people while not decreasing our dependence on the
organization, they can result in increasing our involvement in the organization and, at the same
time, making us more valuable to it.
Slide 17 – Balancing Power
•Wrong called unilateral power “integral,” whereas “intercursive” power occurs where there are
differing spheres of influence between parties. Wrong suggested that integral, or “one-way,”
power often causes people to attempt to limit or resist it. These attempts can take the form of
creating countervailing power (thereby transforming it to an intercursive power relationship);
Slide 18 – Structural Aspects
•Kanter argued that structural determinants—opportunity, mobility, perceived political power,
dependency, influence in garnering resources and rewards for subordinates, and numerical
representation—are critical to understanding the influence of power in organizational behavior.
She concluded that, to correct this, organizations must seek to expand opportunity and mobility,
empower people, and balance numerical representation.
Slide 19 – Positive or Destructive?
•Unfortunately, as with many other facets of human behavior, there is not a clear yes/no answer.
Power and organizational politics can be a positive and constructive force or a negative factor in
organizations.
Slide 20 – Positive or Destructive?
•We are left with no clear answer. Politics and power are an organizational fact of life, and they
can have both positive and negative consequences. If we manage our dependencies and are
sensitive to political issues, then we can go a long way toward avoiding the negative aspects of
power.
Slide 21 – Managing Power
•Organizational politics are most likely to occur when the stakes are high, resources are limited, or
goals and processes are unclear. Although there might be relatively few things that we can do to
change the importance of an issue, or the uncertainty and resource scarcity that might surround
it, goal ambiguity is something that we can influence. By seeking clarification of goals, or by
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 22 – A Positive Climate
•Gotsis and Kortezi suggest that fostering a positive organizational climate requires not only
eliminating negative political behavior, but also developing positive ethical political behavior such
as collaboration and constructive conflict management.
Slide 23 – Gaining Skills
•Having political skills, particularly networking skills, is very important to professional success.
Political skills have been shown to be associated with getting more promotions, higher perceived
career success, and perceived organizational mobility.
Slide 24 – Empowerment
•Although the concept of empowerment has been popular in recent management literature, there
is some confusion and lack of clarity regarding what empowerment actually is. It has been argued
that empowerment often is oversimplified and treated primarily as a management technique.
Slide 25 – Empowerment
•The process of moving from powerlessness to empowerment consists of five stages.
Slide 26 – Empowerment
•Managers will likely behave in ways that thwart the empowerment of others, because they believe
that doing so protects their own power.
•“The success of employees can make them successful.”
Slide 27 – Empowerment
•This sense of organizational values is expressed as visions for the future. Once managers work
with others to create these visions, they must then engage in political processes, such as
negotiating for support and building coalitions. From there, they must recognize and build on
healthy interdependencies balanced with autonomy. In short, they need to avoid sticking their
Slide 28 – Power and Public Service
•As the subject of power has been debated throughout history, notions of the role and rightness of
power have evolved and changed. In general, although there has been a growing acceptance
and recognition of power as a facet of organizational behavior, Americans are ambivalent about
its exercise in the absence of authority and standards of legitimacy.
•Because power can take so many forms, and because its use by public servants can profoundly
influence the meaning of law, justice, and governance in everyday life, it is important to focus on
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
the legitimacy of its use in that context. Particularly in the public sector, Friedrich argues that the
authoritative exercise of power must be based on legitimacy and grounded in reason and values.
Slide 29 – Ways of Acting
•Enhance your personal power by considering all of its possible sources
•Make yourself visible and indispensible
•Take charge of your own empowerment
•Use power constructively and effectively
Slide 30 – Ways of Acting
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