Organizational power and politics are essential to any company’s performance. Managerial skills are complex issues that require a manager’s expertise and professional knowledge, especially during the decision-making process. With Politics and power becoming new issues in organizational management strategies, many companies globally are keen on handling matters to do with them. This is because two aspects play a pivotal role in creating a conducive organizational culture that promotes employee cohesion, thus, better market performance. According to Rusell (2019), informal corporate politics helps enhance free interaction among employees across all management levels. It is through organizational politics that an organization would actualize its objectives of managing its activities with a horizontal management structure that empowers junior members through duty delegation. This paper proposes how politics and power can positively influence a Bluevine’s organizational culture under the subheadings: dynamics of corporate politics and governance, Influence of Politics and Power, Sources of Power, Leadership Behavior, and Culture and Leadership Influence.
Understanding the dynamics of power and politics
According to Griffin, Phillips, & Gully(2019), organizational power is the ability of an individual to control or influence other people in a business company. On the hand, corporate politics describes interactions between people structured by an authority. For that reason, politics in an organization uses power and influence to achieve goals not officially recognized or approved by the organization (Griffin, Phillips, & Gully, 2019). Besides, organizational politics and power can be understood as many things: governance, a social role, and the exercise of power, to name a few.
By understanding the dynamics of power and politics, the Bluevine’s management will align themselves with thoughts that may put them in a position to influence their employees toward achieving productivity. Furthermore, an organization that understands the dynamics of politics can effectively create an accommodating organizational structure. Members of an organization with knowledge about politics and power would have the skills necessary to handle conflicting agendas and shifting power bases. As Ross (2021) indicates, CEOs with significant influence can galvanize their teams to work toward common goals. Besides, this helps them focus on winning regardless of the consequences, maintain relationships, and achieve results simultaneously.
Although organizational politics keeps an organization on the truck with its scope and even going beyond achieving stipulated objectives, some actions of corporate politicking are only but resentments. Therefore, an organization needs to understand the extent of politics being experienced within the premises and beyond the company walls. By so doing, the management team will be in a position to solve conflicts and create a better organizational culture that fosters productivity. Besides, an organization can minimize or eradicate the adverse effects of power and politics, including bureaucracy and hierarchical management (Guthrie, 2021). Too much energy can be destructive, leading to retarded innovation, morale, performance, and organizational initiative.
Impact of power and politics on an organizational culture
Businesses rely on both human and material assets to function. The material resources of an organization are converted into completed or consumable goods by the human resources of that organization. Alternatives must be selected to convert the material assets of the company. Decisions must be made on the nature of the manufactured item, the types of raw materials to be sourced and included, the manufacturing methods to be utilized, the kinds of machinery to be used, the amount of money to be invested, where it will come from, etc. (Omisore & Nweke, 2014). Any of these scenarios call for picking a path. Each of these judgments or choices is political, and the decision-maker employs some form of authority to guarantee that their decisions are accepted. Because of this, the political analysis of power play and politics inside organizations provided by the influence of power and politics in organizations is illuminating. In an organization, power determines the behavior of others concerning one’s ends. In a group structure, the weight of a person’s behavior is detonated by control.
Moreover, power determines the probability of an individual to despite resistance without basing on chance rests. Leaders can influence their peers and subordinates by using power to control organizational resources. However, groups of people or specific departments are confined to power depending on the level of seniority and responsibility. Nonetheless, every company has its own culture and methods of getting things done, and this structure is based on authority and politics (Bicer, 2020). As a result, any new employee would know these differences before starting work. To this end, before beginning a new job, new employees need to take the time to understand the existing power dynamics in the workplace, particularly those involving positional authority, resources, and rewards.
Politics and power tend to influence the actions of members of an organization and are perceived to be self-directed and focus on self-interest without minding other members. Common examples include information being withheld from colleagues, failing to enforce policies appropriately, shifting blame, and accusing others of looking good (Rusell, 2019). Furthermore, various political factors commonly influence an organization’s political behavior, which also affects the culture. They include locus of control, the organization’s investment, and success expectation, considered internal factors. External factors examples are low trust, promotion opportunities, self-serving managers, democratic decision-making, and reallocation of resources.
Sources of power and how management can use them
The first source of power in an organization is an individual’s personality. The term “personality” describes an individual’s unique qualities, self-concept, emotional patterns, desires, interests, values, and abilities that have developed over time. One of the most attractive characteristics in a person is charisma because of the prominence it gives to the person’s ability to influence others. According to Omisore & Nweke (2014), charismatic leaders are influential because they exude some otherworldly radiance. Additionally, a leader must have more human features, including verbal aptitude, physic, and the ability to argue for positions successfully. Personality as a source of power in an organization is vital because it provides a wide range of influences that individuals’ thoughts, emotions, and actions have in the workplace; personality is a central concept in studying organizational behavior. Besides, how people act in groups, their perspectives, and their choices are shaped by their unique personalities, and they significantly influence the company, especially at top-level management.
Another source of power in a business organization is an office or structural position. Various power bases might be accessed partly by an office or structural position. In an organization, the official position of an individual gives them access to power. There might be little information provided by some positions, which are substantial coercive resources. In contrast, others might provide the capacity to the occupant to manipulate symbols or mobilize commitments that have been internalized into certain norms. According to Griffin et al. (2019), most managers try to raise awareness of their work by increasing their exposure to higher-ups. Also, they can do them by presenting their work orally, joining in on problem-solving task forces, disseminating achievement announcements, and looking for other ways to get their names out there.
How management could use this influence to benefit
Managers can use this authority to boost departmental benefits and employee output. Management might leverage various charges to maximize their impact and help the organization. Some types of powers and their effects on the organization are as follows:
Expert powers
Expertise as a source of influence describes the process through which one acquires or uses force due to expertise in a particular field. Such individuals are capable of carrying out the majority of necessary duties. This authority will help management focus on accomplishing the most important goals.
Position powers
This is an authority that comes with your position in the firm. One who holds a position of power is presumed to have done so via meritorious service, and this prestige can be utilized to inspire subordinates to do better work (Rusell, 2019).
Informational power
Informational power is the ability to influence others by disseminating or manipulating knowledge that only one person possesses. This gives them more influence than their coworkers (Rusell, 2019). Such a person can direct the efforts of others following the knowledge and understanding they have amassed.
Leadership Behavior and Culture
Leadership conduct and the culture of the business can both benefit from an examination of power and politics. Leaders are the ones responsible for the education and growth of their followers. Either those leaders will have a beneficial or harmful impact on the entire organization. This report recommends that managers train, retrain, and assess their employees to contribute to leadership growth. Besides, such actions will drive and affect our firm’s culture and behavior. Managers will steer the ship toward future success with the help of employee value propositions, complete openness, and emotional intelligence from our management. To achieve the cultural shift Tesla seeks in our company, and we must learn about, analyze, and employ the levers of political power.
Leadership influence
Leadership influence is very complex as many factors can drive it, such as leadership, communication, situation, and the leader. Outstanding leadership often influences others and makes them accomplish their work. This can be achieved by providing them with motivation, purpose, and direction (Seneca College, 2019). Leaders need to have an understanding of their people for them to be in a position to help them. Great leaders have a significant effect on the organization’s progress. On the contrary, a poor leader brings down the organization as the business will be less productive.
The balance of power and politics may influence a company’s leadership behavior and culture. Leadership’s actions may alter if they learn they can sway employees and the external market with the help of power and politics. The company may exert more control over its supply chain and, by extension, its customers (Ross, 2021). Therefore, the leadership will have little trouble accomplishing their goals, as they can employ politics and power. Given their political influence and support, they can use the measures necessary to achieve their goals. The nature of the culture shifts to become more like a power-driven culture in the company.
Importance and complexity of leadership behavior
Leadership behaviors are crucial to any organization’s success. Besides, leadership conduct is also highly nuanced and nuanced by individuals. To a large extent, a company’s culture is the result of the actions of its executives. To the extent that leadership exemplifies moral and ethical conduct, employees will believe that their workplace meets similar standards (Omisore & Nweke, 2014). Employees may feel unwelcome and uninspired at their workplace if leadership misbehaves or does not promote exemplary practices. Therefore, a company’s culture is dependent entirely on the actions of its top executives. It’s not easy to act ethically in various leadership circumstances, but the quality of the decisions you make as a leader ultimately hinges on how you carry yourself. Therefore this report advises keeping the organization’s ethical standards high to foster a highly moral culture.
References
Bicer, C. (2020). THE POWER AND POLITICS IN ORGANIZATIONS. Research gates,.221-245.
Griffin, R. W., Phillips, J. M., & Gully, S. M. (2019). Organizational Behavior: Managing people and organizations. South-Western College.
Guthrie, G. (2021). Organizational politics: Good? Bad? Here’s what you need to know. Web.
Omisore, B., & Nweke, N. N. (2014). The Influence of Power and Politics in Organizations (Part 1). Web.
Ross, S. C. (2021). Organizational strategy and organizational behavior. Organizational Behavior Today, 3-21.
Rusell, S. (2019). The Role of Upward Influence in Organizational Politics: A Discussion on the Effectiveness of Single and Combined Influence Tactics in an Upward Direction. Claremont College, 9-10. Web.
Seneca College. (2019). Organizational behavior Chapter 13: Power and politics – Organizational behavior. Web.