Week 8

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour – Power and Influence


 Power and Influence
- Leaders have personal power
- Managers have position power – as they are given the power and authority to make
decision
What is power?
- Power - The ability of one person or group to cause another person or group to do something
that they otherwise might not have done
- Power can be a positive force, harnessing the wills of individuals for common purposes.
- Power is essential in everyday organizational life, present in relationships, organizations, and
across society.
- Power shapes our experiences of the world and our perception of ourselves as people.
- Power is inherent in social relations, shaped by factors such as race, class, and gender.
- Power operates within and between groups, with the feeling of the need to belong or gain
status shaping people’s behaviour.

Theoretical interpretations of power
- Three perspectives of power, each with their different interpretation
1. Power as a possession
The perspective that power is solely an individual's or group's possession is flawed as it individualizes
power and overlooks societal factors like gender and the labour-capital divide. While power is not a
fixed quantity, it is not a fixed possession, and there is no fixed quantity.
 Bases of Individual Power - French and Raven (1959)
 Formal/Hierarchical (hard power)
 Legitimate Power – An individual's socialization and belief in certain
groups, such as managers, determines their legitimate right to
command, influenced by cultural values and current social structure.
 Reward Power – the power to give pay raises, promotion, praise,
interesting projects, and other rewards to subordinates. The employee
must desire the reward in order for it to work.
 Coercive Power – The perception that one's boss has the power to
punish, whether it's strong punishments, it’s more legitimate and
accepted.
 Personal (soft power)
 Expert Power – Knowledge that another person needs but does not
have for instance, a lawyer’s advice as to whether an advertising
campaign is legal. What is essential for it to be valid is that the recipient
trusts the advice of the giver
 Referent Power – Being the type of person that others want to emulate.
Being friendly/supportive towards others.
 Information Power – the power that stems from access to and control
over information
2. Power through structure
 Steven Lukes’s three dimensions of power (1974)
 Lukes's theory highlights the invisible processes of power within
organizations.
 It explains how the more powerful can gain compliance from the less
powerful by explore societal structural aspects.
 He believes employees suffer from false consciousness, leading to a
lack of recognition of their 'true' interests.

, Introduction to Organisational Behaviour – Power and Influence


 This leads to a belief in a fixed society and management-led
organizations, which some argue is not universal.
 Lukes's recent edition acknowledges the multiple, sometimes
contradictory, interests and needs of workers.
 Dimension 1—observable conflict
 Robert Dahl's definition of power: A has power over B to the extent
that he can influence B to do something they wouldn't otherwise do.
Dahl's view focuses on observable behaviour, indicating power only
occurs during actual, visible conflict.
 Lukes argues this perspective is narrow, focusing only on observable
power, ignoring covert, less observable aspects.
 Dimension 2—behind-the-scenes agenda setting
 Power is defined as the ability to dictate what can or cannot be
discussed, known as behind-the-scenes agenda setting.
 Powerful individuals or groups can limit the range of topics that can
be discussed, keeping controversial issues 'off limits'.
 This can result in certain issues being excluded from decision-making,
such as employee pay rises, managerial incompetence, or proposals
by competing groups.
 Power can also be concealed, allowing the powerful to establish
'rules of the game' that privilege certain groups.
 However, power only occurs when there is a conflict or grievance, if
there is no conflict, consensus on the prevailing allocation of values is
assumed, making nondecision-making impossible.
 Dimension 3—social structure
 Power shapes our perception of the world, influenced by factors like
upbringing, media, and culture.
 Assumptions like managers' right to manage, shareholders' right to
profit, and hierarchical organizational forms are a product of this
culture.
 Workers often lack awareness of their true interests, leading to rarely
visible conflict between workers and managers.
 This dimension goes beyond behaviourism, arguing that the powerful
influence the wants and desires of the less powerful, distracting them
from their true interests.
 Karl Marx's concept of social existence determines consciousness,
stating that society's values shape how people perceive the world.
 Workers often participate in their own oppression, not knowing they
are oppressed.
3. Power as a product - Power as productive: Michel Foucault (1977)
Foucault, a French philosopher and historian, challenged traditional power theories. He viewed
power as both oppressive and creative, influencing behaviour and thinking. Foucault's views are
complex and lack a complete theory.
 Power/knowledge
 Academic disciplines like sociology and psychology produce new techniques
of power.
 These techniques, like personality tests and recruitment and selection, claim
to reveal the 'truth' about our identity and thought processes.
 Knowledge is not neutral but fundamentally linked to power, transforming
our understanding of ourselves.
 Power relations