Organisational Behaviour #10 - Power and Influence in Organisations

[samvara]

This took me a few days to write up, firstly because last week was tiring, depressing and headache filled - I've been channelling my energy into being cheerful and remembering why I love my life and not into study. Secondly because this didn't really grab me, I've done a lot of reading and thinking about power in organisations and maybe this felt a bit light on because of that.

We recapped on some communication from last week: Non-verbal communication involves actions, gestures and facial expressions etc. It transmits a lot of information, it influences the meaning of verbal and written communication, it is less rule-bound than verbal communication and is significant in emotional labour. Gendered communication differences can be crudely broken down into: Women: rapport talk, give advice indirectly and reluctantly, ask for information, are more sensitive to non-verbal cues. Men report talk, give advice quickly and directly, avoid asking for information and are less sensitive to non-verbal cues.

Power is the capacity of a person, team or organisation to influence others; it exists in potential and may not actually be exercised, it may not even be perceived by the entity holding it, and depends a lot on perception of the situation. There is such as thing as a 'counterpower' which is where if you hold the power to make someone do something, they still have the power to do it badly :p

In organisations we can define power in a number of ways:

1. Legitimate: where you hold power because of your job description or role (eg: a team leader is expected to assign tasks). The extent will be partially determined by the culture you are in, high power distance cultures take better to being given orders.
2. Reward: where you have the ability to give rewards and remove negative experiences (eg: pay bonuses, holidays, promotions)
3. Coercive: where you can punish people (peer pressure is coercion). this doesn't go one way in the work hierarchy, we can all be bullies if we insist on it :(
4. Expert: where you have power because you're good at something, you have knowledge or skills that other people value. Knowledge is, of course, power.
5. Referent: which is a terrible word; this is where people identify with you, like or respect you and feel loyalty/attraction/desire to please. Associated with charismatic leaders and using sports stars and actors as marketing devices.

Contingencies, by which I mean things that affect your power and execution of it:

• Substitutability: Can you be replaced easily? (You can decrease your substitutability by controlling tasks, controlling knowledge, controlling labour and through differentiation)
• Centrality: Is your job critical to the organisation?
• Discretion: Do you have freedom to exercise judgement?
• Visibility: Are people seeing you being cool?

The likelihood that you wielding your power will get your desired outcome is what you might expect (the moral of the story is pretty much to be good at your job AND charming, you'll need it):

1. Coercive power = resistance
2. Reward power = resistance and/or compliance
3. Legitimate power = compliance
4. Referent power = commitment
5. Expert power = commitment

Back to information for a moment - it really is powerful to be the one who knows stuff - if you have control over the information flow then you have power. This can be handy (sensitive information reaches the right people), and it can be skanky (playing office politics to isolate people and increase personal power at the expense of the organisation). It is common in organisations with centralised structures and is partially dependent on the kind of formal communication structure you set up.

*cough* communicate often and well :p

How we cope with information uncertainty also affects our power - if you can predict the market you can adapt, if you can absorb predicted losses/changes you will survive, if you can see problems coming you can prevent.

Networking and Power: this is all about cultivating social relationships, creating social capital (durable network), creating referent power and influencing the visibility and centrality contingencies.

Influencing Others: can be through any of the power bases and can be applied in any direction.

1. Silent authority: based on legitimate power, role modelling, common in high authority cultures (eg: I ask you to do something, you do it, I don't hassle you, or check on you because we both know you're going to do it - this can be a good thing in an environment of high energy and trust.) (hard)
2. Assertiveness: Interestingly this is expressed quite negatively as reminding, confronting, checking and threatening. This is actively applying legitimate power and coercive power. This may just be me responding to years of talk about women needing to be more assertive. (hard)
3. Exchange: Involves negotiation, networking, exchange of past benefits in return for compliance. (soft)
4. Coalition Formation: groups pool resources, use numbers to legitimise issue and gain power through social identity. (hard)
5. Upward appeal: wot it says on the tin - appealing to a higher authority or creating the alliance or perception of alliance with 'higher goals'. (hard)
6. Ingratiation/Impression Management: flattering, helping, seeking advice, actively shaping our public image. I'm told men do this more than women. (soft)
7. Persuasion: using logic, facts and/or emotional appeals to influence people. (soft)
8. Information Control: controlling people through controlling access to information - withholding, filtering, manipulating etc. (hard)

Soft tactics are generally considered more socially acceptable although the hard tactics are more acceptable in men than in women. I'm not sure I can begin to express how much it pisses me off that as a women, I get judged hard for using 'soft' tactics AND I get judged hard for using the 'hard' ones as well.

Things to remember: be expert, credible and attractive (I don't mean good hair, I mean people want to believe you), present all sides, present simple (or few) arguments, appeal to people emotions and inoculate people against future criticisms - finally, keep your audience self esteem high - consider the Reality Distortion Field generated by Steve Jobs.

We then talked about exam preparation a lot :)

Comments

[prk]

Possibly interesting exercise: Which forms of power and methods of influencing people do you have / use at work compared to OTW compared to circles of friends?

Prk

[samvara]

I've been thinking about it!

[prk]

Yay, would love to talk with you about it!

prk.