Introduction
Machiavellianism is a personality trait that supports manipulating to gain power. Business leaders and political administrators mostly used Niccolo Machiavelli’s writings in the first half of the 21st century. Scholars have used these guidelines to understand political dynamics and as guidelines for administrators, politicians, and managers. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the three Machiavellian perspectives, power, politics, and conflict, and how they are reflected in business lives. Relating to how to acquire power, one of the main masterpieces of Machiavelli,” The Prince,” centralizes its ideas on specific attitudes, tactics and strategies to achieve political success (Cosans and Reina, 2017). However, these attitudes and tactics are not moral because he advocates using evil means to achieve a stated goal. Machiavelli’s work has received responses from other famous authors arguing that his principles inspire state and corporation modern management techniques.
Machiavelli provided different perspectives to define the three perspectives covered in this paper. He stated that the needed concepts to gain and maintain power are duplicity, cunning, or bad faith (Cosans and Reina, 2017). In gaining power, states set laws that people obey because they fear the punishment that may be imposed if they break them. In addition, they believe that it is their moral responsibility to obey the law. Machiavelli believes that conflict is always present in a public’s internal and external environment and is essential in gaining power.
Concept of Power in Leadership and Business
Machiavelli
Regardless of the leadership style a leader uses, whether autocratic, transformational, or laissez-faire, they must be able to influence others to work toward the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Power is essential in influencing subordinates to get work done in an organization. According to Machiavelli, people are made to oblige to power in defending the state’s superior power (Cairns, 2005). Therefore, he states that it is the power that helps to enforce divergent views; thus, power is essential in politics. It is meaningless for a person to say they have the authority or power to command when they do not have superior political power (Cosans and Reina, 2017). A person who wants to gain power must know that they ought not to be good.
An example of Machiavelli’s application of power is in the Apple company. The company has used Machievelism in cutting competition of its major brands. The company has acquired most companies that have acted as its major competitors in the tech industry, such as Drive AI, which focuses on producing autonomous vehicles (Choo, Ping and Choo, 2021). The company later announced that it was creating its first electric and autonomous vehicle. This is in line with Machiavelli, whereby he advised the prince to apply any available tactics to ensure there is greatness in the city because the outcome justifies the means. Thus, Apple has applied all possible means, including buying competitor companies or introducing competitor products, because the outcome will justify the means.
French and Raven’s 6 Bases of Power
The five sources of power in an organization are expert power, referent power, legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, and informational power. Expert power is when someone has extensive knowledge in a certain field, such as a lawyer. Referent power is whereby an individual can influence due to admiration and charisma (Cairns, 2005). Legitimate power is using a given organizational position to influence decisions, while reward power is whereby a leader can influence rewards in an organization. Coercive power is led by a leader threatening a team of negative circumstances (Cosans and Reina, 2017). Finally, informational power is determined by the ability to manage the flow of information in an organization.
Power in Communication and Negotiation
Negotiation is another important aspect of any organization; thus, Machiavelli commented on it too. According to him, it is better for a leader to be feared than loved if they cannot be both (Cairns, 2005). In negotiation, it is not ideal for a party to try to be loved because it brings deception (Cosans and Reina, 2017). There is a high level of deception in a negotiation when there is a power imbalance. Thus, being nice is a prevalent trap that some parties fall into and is perceived by the other party as a tactic to conceal some information.
Politics
Organizational Politics
Organizational politics are the common informal efforts to influence, increase power, sell ideas, or achieve other organizational objectives. Politics in an organization stem from diversity in ideas and interests, which be solved, and that’s when politics arise (Cairns, 2005). Thus, organizations need effective ways of handling conflicting agendas and maintaining relationships with the parties. Therefore without adequate knowledge and skills in handling politics, an organization risks facing bureaucratic infighting, destructive power struggles, and parochial politics.
Theories
There are various theories that Machiavelli has developed concerning organizational politics. According to him, all humans are self-interested or selfish, making them want to pursue their self-interests before others (Cairns, 2005). This is why an organizational leader must be able to influence others and change their interests to focus on a common goal. Just like people have personal self-interests, organizations have collective behavior and interests they want to pursue. Machiavelli categorized this in theory known as political realism, which states that in all times and all places, the government and other organizations will pursue their interests with ruthless means as long as they achieve the goals. Relating to political realism theory, a leader should be able to control organizational politics and ensure that their goals are achieved.
Apple has demonstrated Machivellisim in its organizational politics to achieve its goals. The company’s CEO, Tim Cook, prevents conflict with his employees by having a powerful Human Resource to enhance career advancement, handle employee complaints and enable personal development (Choo, Ping, and Choo, 2021). Machiavelli told the prince about the importance of having goodwill in maintaining supremacy, but it may not please the public. That is why the CEO is widely loved by the employees, making it possible for him to influence internal and external company politics.
Conflict
Conflict is human nature due to limited resources that they must struggle to find. Since all humans are interested in these limited resources, they may get into conflict sometimes while trying to find them. Similarly, conflict in an organization is caused when employees pursue different interests. Due to limited resources and the self-interests of individuals, it is inevitable for a business to avoid conflict. The main types of conflict in an organization are task conflict, relationship conflict, and value conflict. Conflict in an organization has negative outcomes, including decreased productivity, work disruptions, high turnover, and absenteeism.
An example of a costly business conflict can be demonstrated by Apple. In 2003, Apple conflicted with some of its resellers because of its undue preference for its online and Apple stores (Choo, Ping, and Choo, 2021). The resellers filed a lawsuit because Apple was neglecting reseller stores due to its deteriorating relationships with them (Choo, Ping, and Choo, 2021). Therefore, Apple was accused of undercutting its dealers’ prices to drive customers away from other independent stores. This conflict between Apple and its resellers negatively affected their sales during the case (Choo, Ping, and Choo, 2021). This forced Apple to re-evaluate its relationship with resellers who retail their products globally.
Linking Theory to Practice
I have witnessed some of Machiavelli’s principles applied in real-life cases. For instance, there is a power difference in negotiation between senior organization managers and junior staff. For instance, an intern may be disadvantaged when negotiating salary expectations with a CEO because they have a high power imbalance. Politics have been displayed in the organization as some managers try to influence employees to back up their ideas. In such scenarios, they have to explain to the employees how they will benefit from the changes. Additionally, sometimes there is a conflict where I work as employees disagree on different issues. As such, each employee wants to push their interest beyond that of their colleagues.
Conclusion
Machiavellianism has been widely used for a long time in both state politics and businesses. Leaders have made decisions that are in line with Machiavelli’s different scenarios. He stated that power is earned through fear and not love. In addition, a leader cannot claim power without political superiority. However, avoiding conflict in an organization is inevitable because people have collective interests and goals they want to pursue. This paper has successfully evaluated its objective of understanding Machiavelli’s principles regarding leadership by exploring power, politics, and conflict.
Writing this assignment has helped me understand the theory by providing different elements I should research, which include power, politics, and conflict. I have been able to learn Machavelloism and connect it with these themes. This assignment provided insight into how a business operates using Machiavellism, which can help in decision-making. Machiavellism is widely applied in the business setting when making decisions against competitors. Some companies prefer to pin down their competitors or buy them, which is a pure application of Machiavellism.
Reference List
Cairns, G. (2005). Perspectives on a personal critique of international business. Critical perspectives on international business, 1(1), pp.43–55.
Choo, E., Ping, N., and Choo, E. (2021). A critical analysis of internal and external environment: Case study of Apple Inc. Journal of International Business and Management.
Cosans, C.E. and Reina, C.S. (2017). The leadership ethics of Machiavelli’s Prince. Business Ethics Quarterly, 28(3), pp.275–300.