Power And Politics In Organizations
One of the most desired human wants is power. In the business world, power and politics, to a large extent, determine the growth, stability and continual success of companies. Before comparing and contrasting power and politics in organizations it would be beneficial to define each term. For the purpose of this paper, power is defined as the exercise of influence or control over another’s behavior, while politics is defined as the tactics used to obtain a desired goal, position or status in a company. Two examples of the abuse of power and politics, as it relates to management and leadership in an organization, is the failure of the management of some companies to give credit where it is due and the underhanded practices used by others for career advancement. Power and politics are the top two elements used in a company that either can cause the downfall or success of that company. Knowing the positions of power and politics and the role they play in a company is critical to the awareness of organizational ethics and leadership practices.
The organizational management and leadership practice of a company depend largely on power and politics. Power and politics within an organization involves resources, money, people, time and authority. Power is established by social responsibility, control, behavior, organizational culture, and empowered management teams. Politics is established by a personal structure surrounded by traditional and non-traditional self-indulged managerial positions and applying personal values and culture into business matters (Powers, 2008). The bases of power are divided into seven personal attributes. These are reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power, expert power, informational power, and connective power. Politics is influenced by behavior. Politics focuses on not only exercising power but also builds personal power (Unknown, 1998). Each leader uses either one or more of these powers to obtain and maintain the desired...
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