Power and organizational politics
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Power and organizational politics
The power base that I believe is the most effective in a formal organization such as a workplace is expert power. From my textbook, a study by Kotter (1977) suggested that some leaders could create and maintain a power base using expert power. Such leaders build a reputation as an expert in particular areas. According to Kotter (1977), people’s power in workplaces does not necessarily come from the job titles they hold. Instead, a power base can exist without a formal title on someone and can come from outside the formalized chains of command in a workplace. What I believe makes expert power the most effective in organizations is the perception that others have on someone, whether a senior or a subordinate from expert-knowledge. Mostly, someone who has expert knowledge will make another in the workplace follow an instruction. Subordinate employees may also believe that their manager possesses expert skills that they lack and that alone gives extra power to the manager.
Leaders with expert power have teams that are more open under their guidance as they have trust with their leadership. Therefore, expert-power reduces the friction between the leader and their team and moves the team towards high performance. Expert power leads a team in an organization naturally to look at their leader in areas related to their expertise.
An organization leader might go about utilizing the third face of power and manipulate the team they lead. A leader can subtly and insidiously use power over others and ideologically control their mind without objection of others in an organization. Often the governed are not aware that their leader is using the third face of power. For example, a leader might use power-base to make employees do what they would not want to do. Thus, the leader determines and shapes the employees’ wants without the employees discerning the manipulation. One strategy where the third face of power finds application is with an organizational leader who wears the third face of power views it effective in handling group conflicts and melds them to the leader’s way of thinking.