Organisational Politics and Ethics

Organizational politics and ethics

Let us start with defining what is ethics.

Ethics: introductionAt its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives.

Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy.

The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition.

Ethics covers the following dilemmas: how to live a good life our rights and responsibilities the language of right and wrong moral decisions - what is good and bad?Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures. They infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct.

Approaches to ethicsPhilosophers nowadays tend to divide ethical theories into three areas: metaethics, normative ethics and applied ethics.

Meta-ethics deals with the nature of moral judgement. It looks at the origins and meaning of ethical principles.

Normative ethics is concerned with the content of moral judgements and the criteria for what is right or wrong.

Applied ethics looks at controversial topics like war, animal rights and capital punishment

We need following soft equipments to employ and practice ethical practices:

Ethical understanding Knowledge of the organisational culture Knowledge of any impacting legal, policy or

procedural requirements Ability to write well and translate complex

data into understandable information Human Resource design models and

functions to support such systems

Able to embed the framework into the ‘way we do business’

Key roles in ethical practices:

Leadership A project team A change manager An identified business ethics owner area

that came through the design process (often located in legal services, human resources or a separate ethics unit)

Business ethics subject matter experts Identified representatives/champions across

the business

Ethical Base for Project-driven Organisations

The two key themes that provide the basis of ethical project leadership are:self-interest and good ethics generally coincide;

the stakeholder model of business.

Cliff between organizational priorities and ethical indications:

owners as financiers and stockholders;

management as agents;

the company’s employees;

suppliers;

customers;

the local community.

Infusing Ethics into Professional Project ManagementExtended enterprises turn to project management as an effective approach to deliver successfully programmes that would otherwise overextend the capabilities and capacities of their functional organisation. In turn, a new set of conflicts, intergroup relations and ethical considerations specific to temporary project teams arise that differ from the stable organization.

The professionals who populate the project organisation will influence the organisational behaviour of the particular business unit and the supporting project management office. To

gain value from the discipline of project management, the business enterprise must organise itself for projects executed by ethical beliefs.

Four ethical 'isms'When a person says "murder is bad" what are they doing?

That's the sort of question that only a philosopher would ask, but it's actually a very useful way of getting a clear idea of what's going on when people talk about moral issues.

The different 'isms' regard the person uttering the statement as doing different things.

We can show some of the different things I might be doing when I say 'murder is bad' by rewriting that statement to show what I really mean:

I might be making a statement about an ethical fact

"It is wrong to murder"

This is moral realism

I might be making a statement about my own feelings

"I disapprove of murder"

This is subjectivism

I might be expressing my feelings

"Down with murder"

This is emotivism

I might be giving an instruction or a prohibition

"Don't murder people"

This is prescriptivism

Moral realismMoral realism is based on the idea that there are real objective moral facts or truths in the universe. Moral statements provide factual information about those truths.

SubjectivismSubjectivism teaches that moral judgments are nothing more than statements of a

person's feelings or attitudes, and that ethical statements do not contain factual truths about goodness or badness.

In more detail: subjectivists say that moral statements arestatements about the feelings, attitudes and emotions that that particular person or group has about a particular issue.

If a person says something is good or bad they are telling us about the positive or negative feelings that they have about that something.

So if someone says 'murder is wrong' they are telling us that they disapprove of murder.

These statements are true if the person does hold the appropriate attitude or have the appropriate feelings. They are false if the person doesn't.

EmotivismEmotivism is the view that moral claims are no more than expressions of approval or disapproval.

Power and politics:

Define: Power’ is defined by Max Weber as “the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in position to carry out his own will despite resistance.”

Power is the ability to influence flows of the available energy and resources towards certain goals as opposed to other goals.

and politics must be recognised as an important dynamic in organizational behaviour

Power implies A ‘potential’ that need not be

actualised to be effective

A dependence relationship, and

Some ‘discretion’ over his behaviour

Power is also defined as ‘Informal Authority’

Authority has been defined as ‘Legitimate Power’

Role and relationship of organisatinal politics Politics refers to structure and process

of use of authority and power to effect definitions of goals, directions and other parameters of organization.

“Management of influence to obtain ends not sanctioned by organization or to obtain sanctioned ends through non-sanctioned influence means.”

“Organizational politics is any behaviour by an organizational member that is self-serving.”

organizational politics is important dynamic of organizational behaviour in relation to acquisition of power.

Politics does not mean shirking work, apple polishing or joining the right club; nor is it legitimate excuse for not getting ahead.

John French and Bertram Raven have identified five categories of sources of power:

Reward power-Depends upon person’s ability and resources to reward others.

Coercive power-People with coercive power have ability to inflict punishment or aversive sequences on other person or make threats about punishment.

It has negative connotation and most commonly thought in terms of physical force.

Legitimate power-This power source stems from internalized values of other persons giving legitimate right to agent to influence them.

It does not depend on relationship with others; rather on position or role the person holds.

legitimate power can come from three major sources-

The prevailing cultural values of a society, organization or group

Accepted social structure

Being designated as agent or representative of powerful person or group.

Referent power-This power comes from desire on part of other person to identify with agent wielding power.

In organizational context, managers with referent power must be attractive to subordinates.

Expert power-Credibility comes from having right credentials and display of tangible evidence of knowledge.

Comparison of powers:

Coercive power induces greater resistance than reward power”

“Users of reward power are liked better than those depending on coercive power”

“Changes in one power source can affect the other sources”

“Of more direct relevance to organizational behaviour are bases of a manager’s power or control to satisfaction and performance.”

Expert power is most strongly and consistently correlated with satisfaction and performance

Legitimate power, along with expert power, is most important basis for complying with a supervisor’s wishes but is an inconsistent factor in organizational effectiveness

Referent power is given intermediate importance but it is positively correlated with organizational effectiveness

Reward power is also of intermediate importance for complying but has inconsistent correlations with performance.

Coercive power is the least prominent for complying and is actually negatively related to organizational effectiveness

Legitimate power can be dependent on initially but continued reliance may create problems as follows:-

It can aggravate feelings of powerlessness and create dissatisfaction, resistance and frustration among employees.

If not conjoined with knowledge power, there may be ineffective utilization of human resources with negative effect of productivity.

May be inconsistent with work-life values of meaningful involvement and participation in organizational affairs.

Dependence on it leads to only minimum compliance and simultaneously increases resistance.

Reward power influences the performance behaviour of employees and reinforcement. Limitations of this power are:-

Tangible rewards such as pay and promotions are in short supply.

They have short run impact.

Rewards may not be valued by employees

Use of rewards can lead to dependent relationship and subordinates feel manipulated and become dissatisfied.

The non-formal bases of power (Expert and Referent) impact most favourably on organizational effectiveness.”

“Power is a two-way street. The influence target is an important variable in power relationship.”

“The characteristics of influence targets (influentiality) have important moderating impact on types of power that can be successfully used.”

Power involves a reciprocal relationship between agent and target.

The characteristics identified as being important to influenceability or targets are:

Dependency

Uncertainty

Personality

Intelligence

Age

Culture

Political implications of power- Classical organization theory portrays

organization as highly rational structure in which authority meticulously follows chain of command in which managers have legitimatized power.

Whereas informal managerial roles and organization portrays more realistic view of organizations.

Under this realistic view of organizations, the importance of political aspects of power comes to forefront.

Political power game is very real in today’s organizations.

Like other aspects of organizational dynamics, politics is not a simple process; it can vary from organization to organization and also from one sub unit to another.

Classical organization theory portrays organization as highly rational structure in which authority meticulously follows chain of command in which managers have legitimatized power.

Whereas informal managerial roles and organization portrays more realistic view of organizations.

Under this realistic view of organizations, the importance of political aspects of power comes to forefront.

Political power game is very real in today’s organizations.

Like other aspects of organizational dynamics, politics is not a simple process; it can vary from organization to

organization and also from one sub unit to another.

Hierarchy of degree of political orientation of power regarding specific entities in business in a declining trend.

1. Resources- there is direct relationship between amount of politics and how critical and scarce resources are. Also, politics gets activated when there is infusion of new or ‘unclaimed’ resources.

2. Decisions- ambiguous decisions, decisions on which there is lack of agreement and uncertain, long-range strategic decisions lead to more politics than routine decisions.

3. Goals- the more ambiguous and complex the goals become, the more politics there will be.

4. Technology and External environment- more complex the internal technology of the organization, the more politics there will be. Same is also true of organizations

operating in turbulent external environment.

5. Change- planned organizational development effort or a reorganization or even an unplanned change brought about by external forces will encourage political manoeuvring.

6. Some organizations and sub units within organization will be more political than others.

7. Most organizations today are more political. They have very limited resources; make ambiguous, uncertain decisions; have very unclear yet complex goals; have increasingly complex technology; and are undergoing drastic change.

8. Such organizations face more politics and power game becomes increasingly important.

9. Conditions that threaten the status of the powerful or encourage efforts of

those wishing to increase their power base will stimulate intensity of organizational politics and increase proportion of decision making behaviours that are as political as opposed to rational.

Strategies for attaining power in an organization parsed below-Taking counsel

Maintaining manoeuvrability

Promoting limited communication

Exhibiting confidence

Controlling access to information and persons

Making activities central and non-substituble

Neutralizing potential opposition

Making strategic replacements

Committing the uncommitted

Forming a winning coalition

Developing expertise

Building personal stature

Employing trade-offs

Using research data to support one’s own point of view

Restricting communication about real intentions

Withdrawing from petty disputes

Maintain alliances with powerful people: the formation of coalitions is critical to acquisition of power in an orgn. An obvious coalition would be with members of upper level management. Not so obvious but equally important would be formation of alliance with boss’ secretary or staff assistant, that is, someone close to the powerful person.

Embrace or Demolish: Machiavellian principles can be applied as strategies in power game in organization.

Divide and Rule: this political and military strategy can also apply to acquisition of power in organizations.

Manipulate classified information: the importance of obtaining and disseminating information is immense. The politically astute organization member carefully controls this information in order to gain power.

Make a quick showing: this strategy involves looking good on some project or task right away in order to get the right peoples’ attention. Once this positive attention is gained, power is acquired to do other usually more difficult and long-range projects.

Collect and use IOUs: power seeker should do other people favours but should make it clear that they owe something in return and will be expected to pay up when asked.

Avoid decisive engagement (Fabianism): this is a strategy of going slow and easy- by not ‘ruffling feathers’ power seekers can slowly but surely become entrenched and gain cooperation and trust of others.

Progress one step at a time: this strategy involves taking one step at a time instead of trying to push a whole major project or reorganization attempt. One small change can be a foothold that power seeker can use as a basis to get other, more major things accomplished.

Wait for a crisis: this strategy uses reverse of ‘no news is good news’; that is, bad news gets attention.

Take counsel with caution: this is concerned with how to keep power than with how to acquire it. The manager should avoid opening the gates for shared decision making with subordinates which may erode the power of manager.

Conclusion: The ethical concern for power and

politics in organizations goes beyond the notions of success or effectiveness.

Though respect for justice and human rights should prevail when it concerns ethics in organizational politics, modern complex organizations tend to create a climate which promotes power seeking and political manoeuvring and that’s the organizational reality today.