Power, Politics, and

Conflicts
Lt Col Farhan Iqbal
Activity
• Previous Lecture Summary:
Activity
• Yale Lecture: Introduction to Power and Politics| Prof. IAN Shapiro| 58 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDqvzFY72mg

We will listen to first 15 minutes in the class. Rest is your home assignment to listen carefully
Power and Leadership
• Read: Introduction to Power and Politics
• In organizational behavior (OB), power refers to the capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so
that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes.
• Someone can thus have power but not use it; it is a capacity or potential.
• Power is a function of dependence.
• The greater B’s dependence on A, the greater A’s power in the relationship.
• Dependence is based on alternatives that B perceives and the importance B places on the alternative(s) that A controls.
• Example 1: A person can have power over you only if he or she controls something you desire.
• If you want a college degree and have to pass a certain course to get it, and your current instructor is the only faculty
member in the college who teaches that course, she has power over you because your alternatives are highly limited
and you place a high degree of importance on the outcome, i.e., the your college degree.
• Example 2: if you’re attending college on funds provided by your parents, you probably recognize the
power they hold over you. But once you’re out of school, have a job, and are making a good income,
your parents’ power is reduced significantly.
• Example 3: Money is a powerful variable for dependence.
• A rich relative who controls family members merely through the implicit or explicit threat of “writing them out of the
will”?
• Another example is found on Wall Street, where portfolio manager Ping Jiang allegedly was able to coerce his
subordinate, analyst Andrew Tong, into taking female hormones and wearing lipstick and makeup. Why such power?
Power and Leadership
• Leaders use power to achieve goals. It requires congruence between the leader’s goal and
those who he led
• The direction of influence is downward. It minimizes the upward or lateral influence
• It defines the style of a leader
• It is about individual’s influence
• Power does not require goal compatibility
• Power works in all direction
• It focuses on tactics on gaining compliance
• It is about individual as well as group influence

• For a power situation to exist, dependence is necessary. This dependence come with if one
person or group has control over resources that the other person or group values. This is
usually the case in established leadership situations.
• However, power relationships are possible in all areas of life, and power can be obtained in many ways.
Bases of Power
• Two general groupings: Formal and Personal
• Formal Power.
• Based on individual position of a person in the organization
• It comes from three different sources
• Coercive Power. It depends on the target’s fear of negative results from failing to comply. On the physical level, coercive power rests on
the application, or the threat of application, of bodily distress through the infliction of pain, the restriction of movement, or the
withholding of basic physiological or safety needs.
• At the organizational level, A has coercive power over B if A can dismiss, suspend, or demote B, assuming B values her job.
• If A can assign B work activities B finds unpleasant, or treat B in a manner B finds embarrassing, A possesses coercive power over
B.
• Coercive power also comes also from withholding key information. People in an organization who have data or knowledge that
others need can make others dependent on them.
• When subordinates are being abused by supervisors, coercive power is the main force that keeps them from retaliating
• Reward Power Opposite of Coercive power. People comply with because it produces positive benefits; someone who
can distribute rewards that others view as valuable has power over them.
• These rewards can be financial—such as controlling pay rates, raises, and bonuses—or nonfinancial, including recognition,
promotions, interesting work assignments, friendly colleagues, and preferred work shifts or sales territories.
• Legitimate Power. It is the most common access of the power bases. to one or more of the power bases is through
legitimate power. It represents the formal authority to control and use organizational resources based on the person’s
structural position in the organization.
• Legitimate power is broader than the power to coerce and reward. Specifically, it includes members’ acceptance of the authority
of a hierarchical position. We associate power so closely with the concept of hierarchy that just drawing longer lines in an
organization chart leads people to infer the leaders are especially powerful.
• In general, when school principals, bank presidents, or army general speak, teachers, tellers, and brigadiers and below usually
Bases of Power
• Two general groupings: Formal and Personal
• Personal Power.
• Many of the most competent and productive chip designers at Intel have power, but they aren’t managers and they have no formal power. What
they have is personal power, which comes from an individual’s unique characteristics.8 There are two bases of personal power. It is not mutually
exclusive from formal power, but it can be independent
• Two Forms of Power: Expertise and Referent Power
• Expert Power. It is influence wielded as a result of expertise, special skills, or knowledge. As jobs become more specialized, we become
dependent on experts to achieve goals.
• It is generally acknowledged that physicians have expertise and hence expert power: Most of us follow our doctor’s advice. Computer
specialists, tax accountants, economists, industrial psychologists, and other specialists wield power as a result of their expertise.
• Referent Power. It is based on identification with a person who has desirable resources or personal traits. If I like, respect, and admire you, you
can exercise power over me because I want to please you. Example: Troy’s Movie dialogue, “I will tell that I lived in the times of Achilles.”
• It develops out of admiration of another and a desire to be like that person. It helps explain, for instance, why celebrities are paid millions of
dollars to endorse products in commercials. Marketing research shows people such as LeBron James and Tom Brady have the power to
influence your choice of athletic shoes and credit cards.
• With a little practice, you and I could probably deliver as smooth a sales pitch as these celebrities, but the buying public doesn’t identify
with us. Some people who are not in formal leadership positions have referent power and exert influence over others because of their
charismatic dynamism, likability, and emotional appeal. For example: Dr Adeeb Rizvi, Anwar Maqsood, Dr Bari, Hitler, Thick Nhan Hanh,
Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jinnah, Imran Khan, Abraham Lincoln, etc.
• Who else in your life has referent power over you?
• Research suggests the personal sources of power are most effective. Both expert and referent power
are positively related to employees’ satisfaction with supervision, their organizational commitment,
and their performance, whereas reward and legitimate power seem to be unrelated to these
outcomes. One source of formal power—coercive power—can be damaging.
Bases of Power
• Two general groupings: Formal and Personal
• Personal Power.
• Many of the most competent and productive chip designers at Intel have power, but they aren’t managers and they have no formal power. What they have is
personal power, which comes from an individual’s unique characteristics.8 There are two bases of personal power. It is not mutually exclusive from formal power,
but it can be independent
• Two Forms of Power: Expertise and Referent Power
• Expert Power. It is influence wielded as a result of expertise, special skills, or knowledge. As jobs become more specialized, we become dependent on
experts to achieve goals.
• It is generally acknowledged that physicians have expertise and hence expert power: Most of us follow our doctor’s advice. Computer specialists, tax
accountants, economists, industrial psychologists, and other specialists wield power as a result of their expertise.
• Referent Power. It is based on identification with a person who has desirable resources or personal traits. If I like, respect, and admire you, you can exercise
power over me because I want to please you. Example: Troy’s Movie dialogue, “I will tell that I lived in the times of Achilles.”
• It develops out of admiration of another and a desire to be like that person. It helps explain, for instance, why celebrities are paid millions of dollars to
endorse products in commercials. Marketing research shows people such as LeBron James and Tom Brady have the power to influence your choice of
athletic shoes and credit cards.
• With a little practice, you and I could probably deliver as smooth a sales pitch as these celebrities, but the buying public doesn’t identify with us. Some
people who are not in formal leadership positions have referent power and exert influence over others because of their charismatic dynamism, likability,
and emotional appeal. For example: Dr Adeeb Rizvi, Anwar Maqsood, Dr Bari, Hitler, Thick Nhan Hanh, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jinnah, Imran
Khan, Abraham Lincoln, etc.
• Who else in your life has referent power over you?
• Research suggests that personal sources of power are most effective. Both expert and referent power are
positively related to employees’ satisfaction with supervision, their organizational commitment, and their
performance, whereas reward and legitimate power seem to be unrelated to these outcomes. One source of
formal power—coercive power—can be damaging.
• Activity: Video| Personal Power is the process of Self Improvement| Lorraine Williams| 16 minutes
Dependence: The Key to Power
• The most important aspect of power is that it is a function of dependence. Which means the more the
dependence, the more the power. Conversely, the less the dependence, the less the the power. Like an old
saying: “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”
• This explains why most organizations develop multiple suppliers rather than give their business to only one. It also explains
why so many people aspire to financial independence. Independence reduces the power others can wield to limit our
access to opportunities and resources.
• An interview with Mr Sanghiania – a business tycoon. His son ousted him out of everything he has because he nominated
him legally to have all the power in the shape of his wealth.
• In the Mirzapur Web series, Munna Talpathi wants the power to rule Mirzapur that his father was not willing to give him
because of his fear. Fear of losing the status he has or fear that Munna does not have ability to command Mirzapur like he
does.
• What Creates Dependence
• Importance. If nobody wants what you have, it’s not going to create dependence. Note, however, that there are many
degrees of importance, from needing the resource for survivalto wanting a resource that is in fashion or adds to
convenience.
• Scarcity. Ferrucio Lamborghini, memorized the repair manuals of the tanks in the World war II and destroyed it to have that
knowledge only for him. This caught him favorable in the eyes of his superiors, who were impressed from his uncanny
ability to repair the tanks.
• Scarcity-dependence relationship in the power situation of the employment. Demand and supply rule for every thing. If a thing is less in demand, it
has not power. But, if it has more demand, people possessing it can charge premium price for it.
• Non-substituability. The fewer viable substitutes for a resource, the more power a personcontrolling that resource
has.
• At universities that value faculty publishing, for example, the more recognition the faculty member receives through publication, the more control
Politics: Power in Action
• Whenever people get together in groups, power will be exerted.
• People in organizations want to carve out a niche to exert influence, earn rewards, and advance their careers. If
they convert their power into action, we describe them as engaging in politics. Those with good political skills
have the ability to use their bases of power effectively. Politics are not only inevitable; they might be essential,
too.
• Definition of Organizational Politics
• There is no shortage of definitions of organizational politics. Essentially, this type of politics focuses on the use of power to affect
decision making in an organization, sometimes for self-serving and organizationally unsanctioned behaviors.
• Political behavior in organizations consists of activities that are not required as part of an individual’s
formal role but that influence, or attempt to influence, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages
within the organization.
• Examples from your organizations.
• Political behavior is outside specified job requirements.
• It requires some attempt to use power bases.
• It includes efforts to influence the goals, criteria, or processes used for decision making.
• The definition is broad enough to include varied political behaviors such as withholding key information
from decision makers, joining a coalition, whistle-blowing, spreading rumors, leaking confidential
information to the media, exchanging favors with others for mutual benefit, and lobbying on behalf of or
against a particular individual or decision alternative.
• In this way, political behavior is often negative, but not always.
Politics: Power in Action
• Organizations have individuals and groups with different values, goals, and interests. This sets up the potential for
conflict over the allocation of limited resources, such as budgets, work space, and salary and bonus pools.
• If resources were abundant, all constituencies within an organization could satisfy their goals. But because they
are limited, not everyone’s interests can be satisfied.
• Furthermore, gains by one individual or group are often perceived as coming at the expense of others within the
organization (whether they are or not). These forces create competition among members for the organization’s
limited resources.
• Maybe the most important factor leading to politics within organizations is the realization that most of the “facts”
used to allocate limited resources are open to interpretation.
• When allocating pay based on performance, for instance, what is good performance? What’s an adequate improvement? What
constitutes an unsatisfactory job?
• Because most decisions have to be made in a climate of ambiguity—where facts are rarely objective and thus
open to interpretation—people within organizations will use whatever influence they can to support their goals
and interests. That, of course, creates the activities we call politicking. One person’s “selfless effort to benefit the
organization” is seen by another as a “blatant attempt to further his or her interest.”
• Whether it is possible for an organization to be politics-free, we can say yes—if all members of that organization
hold the same goals and interests, if organizational resources are not scarce, and if performance outcomes are
completely clear and objective. But that doesn’t describe the organizational world in which most of us live.
• Read: Factors that Influence Political Behavior
• Read: Employees Response to Organizational Politics
Conflict
• There has been no shortage of definitions for the word conflict, but common to most is the
idea that conflict is a perception. If no one is aware of a conflict, then it is generally agreed no
conflict exists. Also needed to begin the conflict process are opposition or incompatibility, and
interaction.
• Broadly, Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has
affected or is about to negatively affect something the first party cares about.
• Conflict describes the point in ongoing activity when interaction becomes disagreement.
• People experience a wide range of conflicts in organizations over an incompatibility of goals,
differences in interpretations of facts, disagreements over behavioral expectations, and the
like. The definition covers the full range of conflict levels, from overt and violent acts to subtle
forms of disagreement.
• Functional conflict supports the goals of the group, improves its performance, and is thusa
constructive form of conflict.
• For example, a debate among members of a work team about the most efficient way to improve production
can be functional if unique points of view are discussed and compared openly.
• Dysfunctional Conflict hinders group performance is destructive.
• A highly personal struggle for control in a team that distracts from the task at hand is dysfunctional.
Types of Conflict
• Three forms
• Task conflict relates to the content and goals of the work.
• Relationship conflict focuses on interpersonal relationships. They are most destructive.
• It appears that the friction and interpersonal hostilities inherent in relationship conflicts increase personality clashes and
decrease mutual understanding, which hinders the completion of organizational tasks.
• Relationship conflicts also appear to be the most psychologically exhausting for individuals. This type of conflict can also be very
problematic for people who are new to the organization because they rely heavily on old workers to help them.
• Process conflict is about how the work gets done

• Loci of Conflict
• Dyadic conflict is conflict between two people.
• Intragroup conflict occurs within a group or team.
• Intergroup conflict is conflict between groups or teams.

• Video: Why There’s So Much Conflict at Work and What You Can Do to Fix It | Liz Kislik | 16 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l-AOBz69KU