Politics and power turn out to be the two significant components that may considerably influence the development of any organization. To present the proper management in any organization, it is crucially essential to unite these different entities. People like to control situations. This is why leaders’ skills should be trained and developed. It is necessary to admit that power and politics help prevent a problem and improve it according to someone’s preferences.
This is why politics and power are connected in the way they could both influence the organizational processes. However, there are specific differences between management and politics in organizations. They have to be analyzed, compared, and contrasted to clearly define the role of politics and power in the organization’s development and comprehend how politics may influence ability in organizational life.
To find out the differences between power and politics, it is better to start by identifying the essence of power and politics separately. Power is considered a kind of ability that allows one to manipulate or even control different situations or people. Using power, it is quite possible to make someone change their mind, behavior, and even attitude to some concrete problem. In organizations, power means a lot and provides influential people to control the situation and make the necessary changes. Politics is the name of the processes during which people can make decisions.
Politics in organizations provide people with another opportunity – to analyze the situation and make decisions to improve conditions and develop further. Politics in organizations will be considered the use of power to achieve the desired goals and make things work following someone’s preferences. (Schermerhorn, 2005) Even though definitions of these two notions are quite different, these differences turn out to be relatively subtle. So, if we look closer at politics and power, we will find out that they pursue one of the same purposes – the possibility to influence other people, situations, and decisions. Influence has to be inherent to any manager and any leader. This is why a leader has to be a powerful politician. Only in this way, all their intentions will achieve positive results.
Is it possible that politics and power may influence each other? Of course, it could be. The example of how politics may impact ability taken from the article by Michelle Powers should help to clear up the situation. One nonprofit organization had certain relations with some politicians as they greatly influenced the voting system in this organization. This is why all federal funds, donations, and grants of the organization under consideration were funded. That organization had a minimal amount of power, and politicians were those who controlled the situation. This is how politics may influence ability in the organizational sphere. In this very example, power and politics turn out to be the same thing, and the company’s leaders cannot decide everything because real power is in the hands of politicians. (Powers, 2008)
This example also demonstrates that it is useless to compare politics and power in organizations because, as a rule, they are closely connected to each other and help control organizational processes and provide further development to the organization.
Reference List
Powers, M. (2008). Power and Politics – An Everyday Example. Associated Content. Web.
Schermerhorn, J. R., Hunt, J. G. & Osborn, R. N. (2005). Organizational Behavior. Wiley.