Summary of "Leadership & Organizational Behavior" Chapter 10 Power and Influence in the Workplace & Chapter 12 Leadership in Organizational Settings

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Leadership & Organizational Behavior

Chapter 10 Power and Influence in the Workplace &

Chapter 12 Leadership in Organizational Settings

Anggit Tri Hapsoro

0600667460

MA2

Chapter 10

Power and Influence in the Workplace

Power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others.

Countervailing power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to keep a more powerful person or group in the exchange relationship.

Sources of Power in Organizations:

  • Legitimate power is an agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behaviors of others.
  • Reward power is derived from the person’s ability to control the allocation of rewards valued by others and to remove negative sanctions (i.e., negative reinforcement).
  • Coercive power is the ability to apply punishment. Exists upward as well as downward. Peer pressure is a form of coercive power
  • Expert power is Individual’s or work unit’s capacity to influence others by possessing knowledge or skills that they value
  • Referent power is the capacity to influence others on the basis of an identification with and respect for the power holder.

Information and Power

  • Control over information flow
  • Based on legitimate power
  • Relates to formal communication network
  • Coping with uncertainty
  • More power to those who can help firms cope with uncertainty
  • Prevention: The most effective strategy is to prevent environmental changes from occurring
  • Forecasting: trendspotters and other marketing specialists gain power by predicting changes in consumer preferences.  
  • Absorption: People and work units also gain power by absorbing or neutralizing  the impact of environmental shifts as they occur.

Contingencies of Power

  • Substitutability: A contingency of power pertaining to the availability of  alternatives.
  • Centrality: A contingency of power pertaining to the degree and nature of interdependence between the power holder and others.
  • Discretion: The freedom to exercise judgment, to make decisions without referring to a specific rule or receiving permission from someone else
  • Visibility: Symbols communicate your power sources (Educational diplomas, Clothing etc (stethoscope around neck). Salience (Location – others more aware of your presence)

Influence: Any behavior that attempts to alter someone’s attitudes or behavior.

Types of Influence:

  • Silent Authority: Influencing behavior through legitimate power without explicitly referring to that power base
  • Assertiveness: Actively applying legitimate and coercive power by applying pressure or threats
  • Information Control: Explicitly manipulating someone else’s access to information for the purpose of changing their attitudes and/or behavior
  • Coalition Formation: Forming a group that attempts to influence others by pooling the resources and power of its members
  • Upward Appeal: Gaining support from one or more people with higher authority or expertise
  • Persuasion: Label: Using logical arguments, factual evidence, and emotional appeals to convince people of the value of a request
  • Ingratiation/ Impress. Mgt: Attempting to increase liking by, or perceived similarity to, some targeted person
  • Exchange: Promising benefits or resources in exchange for the target person’s compliance
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Consequences of Influence Tactics

  • Resistance occurs when people or work units oppose the behavior desired by the influencer and, consequently, refuse, argue, or delay engaging in the behavior.
  • Compliance occurs when people are motivated to implement the influencer’s request at a minimal level of effort and for purely instrumental reasons. Without external sources to motivate the desired behavior, it would not occur.
  • Commitment is the strongest form of influence, whereby people identify with the influencer’s request and are highly motivated to implement it even when extrinsic sources of motivation are no longer present

Organizational politics: Behaviors ...

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