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Running head: POSITION PAPER: POWER, POLITICS, AND CULTURE 0

Position Paper: Power, Politics, and Culture

There is an internal system prevailing within the environment of every organization that dictates through politics and power. The influence of such an internal system is intense since it strongly controls the organizational functions showing the individual features of the organizational behavior. There is a minor between politics and power within the organization; this is similar to the structure of the conventional government political (Alapo, 2017). Various sources are there in the organization that keeps competing for the control of power, which is not a completely bad thing; however, things get worse when someone attempts to play filthy. Such an act leads to the creation of superiority, only my way, and unfair disciplinary measures at the workplace, putting an adverse impact on the employees (Cairns, 2017). It decreases the productivity of individuals leading to low productivity in the business. The morale and focus of the employees start decreasing gradually, affecting their concentration over the work, causing a high number of errors. It creates not only a negative relationship among the employees but also a race where all of them start struggling to gain the power position to dominate (Diochon & Nizet, 2019). The motivation level of the employees decreases marginally with a considerable increment of stress. The employees start passing wrong or manipulated information to the fellows affecting the organization adversely. The effect of such actions is very bad, which brings both short and long-term consequences for the organization.

An organization is ruled by various power sources such as legitimate power, expert power, referent power, coercive power, and reward power. The power that the individuals exercise sitting at the topmost positions of the organization is known as legitimate power; they enjoy these powers because of the organizational hierarchy. In the expert power scenario, the individuals holding power carry sufficient expertise and knowledge in the particular business area of the organization (Harris, 2019). Referent Power enables individuals to carry positive relationships or networking with other employees working within the organization; such individuals come with a charismatic personality having an ability to receive trust, admiration, and respect from others (Martinez, Kane, Ferris, & Brooks, 2012). Coercive Power compels the individuals in influencing others through sanctions, punishments, and threats. The ability that enables individuals to influence other workers through proper rewarding is called reward power. The employees are rewarded on the basis of their performance.

The awareness of management of all the sources of power within the organization authorizes them to allocate appropriate roles to the individuals as per their power. It means that the management can utilize its resources in the best possible manner (Scott, 2019). The proper utilization of resources by management increases the performance of the individual employees leading towards higher efficiency and growth of the organization.

The study of power and politics at the workplace supports the organization in identifying power sources. It means that the organization gets an opportunity to allocate the proper task to each employee working within the organization (Tanikawa & Jung, 2018). The organization can provide desired power to the leadership positions developing an appropriate power structure either in formal or informal style influencing the organizational performance positively. The leader gets the opportunity to create social networks within the organization (Valle, 2006). He/she also gets a fair opportunity to utilize all the available resources properly for receiving high performance to benefit the overall organizational performance. The leader will be able to allocate tasks to the workforce properly as per the organizational priorities to maximize the returns in a great manner (Alapo, 2017). The leader can bring all the employees at the common platform where they find it convenient to share information and complement each other through their skills as a team to improve overall organizational performance. The workforce also becomes aware of the expectations of the management from them, and they tend to focus positively on their work.

Leadership is the most significant element within the organization. It is responsible for setting a clear vision to direct all the employees. It is also responsible for communicating the core objectives to all the employees or subordinates for better understanding so that they can focus their attention on following the directions for bringing the required results (Cairns, 2017). The complexity of the leadership is understood through its dynamism and the number of situations faced by it within the organization. The businesses are evolving greatly, and the number of stakeholders and their expectations are also increasing exponentially (Diochon & Nizet, 2019). The leader is responsible for managing the expectations of all the stakeholders; it is much difficult for the leader to deliver desired results without holding appropriate power at the workplace (Martinez, Kane, Ferris, & Brooks, 2012).

Leaders carry the power to influence the culture of the organization, either positively or negatively. The leadership is responsible for setting the tone of work perceived by the employees. They are responsible for developing a positive relationship with the employees. It means that there is a direct relationship between the culture of the organization and leadership (Harris, 2019). They also minimize the conflicts between the employees by allocating them particular tasks to perform effectively. The successful execution of the leadership within the workplace supports the organization in developing and upholding congenial culture.

Executive Summary

Politics and Power influence the internal systems working within the organization. Power and politics carry the strength of impacting individual and organizational behaviors. If any employee or manager attempts to use politics and power for some bad purpose, it will adversely affect the organization, including a decrease in employee motivation, higher conflict rate, the passing of wrong information, employee turnover rate, and organizational inefficiency (Tanikawa & Jung, 2018). The organization needs to identify various sources of power prevailing at the workplace, such as legitimate power, expert power, referent power, coercive power, and reward power. The identification of all the power sources within the organization will support the organization in allocating a proper role to all the employees and leaders (Scott, 2019). The leaders will be able to use the power and politics efficiently to bring all the employees at the common platform. They will be able to utilize all the available resources within the organization appropriately to earn higher profits (Harris, 2019). The workforce of the organization will gain awareness regarding the expectations of the management. It will focus its attention on the single direction passed by the leadership for bringing improvement in its working and, ultimately, profitability to the organization (Diochon & Nizet, 2019). Finally, the leadership will be able to develop a positive culture at the workplace by fostering a healthy relationship between the employees.

References

Alapo, R. (2017). Organizational Power Politics and Leadership Experiences on the View and Use of Power in Organizations. Management Studies, 6(1). doi: 10.17265/2328-2185/2018.01.003

Cairns, T. (2017). Power, Politics, and Leadership in the Workplace. Employment Relations Today, 43(4), 5-11. doi: 10.1002/ert.21598

Diochon, P., & Nizet, J. (2019). Re-embedding leadership development: Exploring power dynamics to understand the insensitivity of coaching programs to organizational contexts. Leadership, 15(5), 603-620. doi: 10.1177/1742715018824442

Harris, C. (2019). Reading Machiavelli in preparation for educational leadership: towards a secure and realistic perspective on organizational politics. International Journal Of Leadership In Education, 1-18. doi: 10.1080/13603124.2018.1562104

Martinez, A., Kane, R., Ferris, G., & Brooks, C. (2012). Power in Leader-Follower Work Relationships. Journal Of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 19(2), 142-151. doi: 10.1177/1548051811433358

Scott, A. (2019). Power Through Politics: The Means of Organizational Leadership. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3480858

Tanikawa, T., & Jung, Y. (2018). CEO Power and Top Management Team Tenure Diversity: Implications for Firm Performance. Journal Of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 26(2), 256-272. doi: 10.1177/1548051818789371

Valle, M. (2006). The power of politics: Why leaders need to learn the art of influence. Leadership In Action, 26(2), 8-12. doi: 10.1002/lia.1155