power politics and ethics

Jayashree Sadri and Sorab Sadri

POWER, POLITICS AND EHICS

Professor Jayashree Sadri and

Dr Sorab Sadri


WHY STUDY POWER AND AUTHORITY?

To achieve excellence decisions have to be strategically taken and implemented so that organizational goals are met optimally.

This process involves the interplay of power and authority hat must be understood.


DEFINITIONS: POWER

(A) Ability to enforce a decision.

(B) Capacity to influence attitude and behavior of others.

(C) Willingness and ability to use brute force to carry forth a design.

(D) Create general public opinion that is favorable to self or desired objective.


Each of these four definitions has a positive and negative aspect:(a) + When the values of both parties are identical –

acceptance

- When the values of both parties differ – rejection

(b) + When you act by example and practice what you preach-trust

- When you say something and act differently – mistrust

© + When you have an end and achieve it anyway – Clarity

- Doing something for hidden agenda – confusion

(d) + Building on strength and underplaying weakness – Creative

- Finding faults in everything - destructive


Managers should use their power to create:

1. Proper reward system (which should be fair and transparent)

2. Proper opportunities for public recognition(which is a better motivator)

3. Effective counseling systems(to prevent deviant behavior).

4. Create conducive work environment(where honesty, hard work, openness and integrity is rewarded).


Ethics and Power

For all four of them ethics is related to Power in so far as it affects people’s behavior and their response to the environmental stimuli.

If you want an ethical environment then use power fairly and selflessly.


The Link

As a rule certain causal relationship is accepted:

Power - Authority - Ethics


The Link

Authority legitimizes power. Alternatively, power when legitimized becomes Authority

What sustains authority is Ethics.


Kinds of Authority

Traditional (Culture specific)

Charismatic ( Person specific)

Rational-Legal (Structure specific)


Ethics thus enters the calculus of power:

1. How is power used? (Negatively or Positively)

2. Who uses it? (Who is supposed to or who is not supposed to)

3. Why is it used? (For selfish interest or self-less goals)

3. Why is it withheld? (To spite others or to protect self-interest)


Subjective Perception

Whether or not an action is ethical is determined by how one examines the issues raised by these four questions.

E.g. According to the traditionalist reading the Mahabharata, Yujishthir was a stayavadi (pursuer of truth) who on dying went straight to heaven (along with his dog). According to an objective social scientist he was a person who gambled away his riches, his kingdom and his wife.


Bases of Power Legitimate Power: is power that is granted by

virtue of one’s position in the organization. Illegitimate power: is power usurped or derived

through falsehood and deceit. (illusion)

This is basically structural in context because the organizational structure and design denotes where the person is located.


Reward Power

Reward Power is the extent to which a person control rewards that are valued by another.

In any organization where there is clarity and transparency the disbursement of reward power is positive and acts as a motivator.

In an organization where the degree of discretion and arbitrariness is high reward power is negative and promotes organizational politics.


Expert Power

Expert Power is the extent to which a person controls information that is valuable to someone else.

Control over information is a source of power in itself.

Organizations where HRIS is developed and trust relations are evident, power of information is positive.


Coercive Power

Coercive power is the extent to which the person has the ability to punish, physically or psychologically harm someone else.

If used only as a deterrent to be seen but never felt then it is positive.


Referent Power

Referent Power is basically power through identification. This type of power comes from the desire on the part of the other persons to identify with the agent wielding power. Referent power does not always correlate with formal organizational authority.


Ethicality of PowerKind of power Positive Trait Negative Trait

Legitimate Helpful & Humble Pompous & Rude Reward Open & Trusting Closed& SuspiciousExpert Promotes creativity Promotes PoliticsCoercive Discipline VindictiveReferent Promotes Growth Prevents Growth


Link

In understanding the relation between basis of power and ethicality of power one thing must be clear. The manager is more often than not the victim of his/her upbringing and takes his/her experience on the domestic front into the office or shop floor. Such managers need psychiatric help and counseling from expert HR facilitators. [Beware of self-styled NLP experts].


Contd..

Their ethics are contingent upon the influence brought to bear on their personal lives and the fact that they are unable to separate personal life from official life.


A Clarification

Many management thinkers speak of delegating authority. That is wrong since authority is never delegated. What is delegated is the power to make decisions.


F U D Factor in Decision Making

People who use the concept of power negatively create dependency situations so that they thrive at the expense of others. Then they feed on the FUD Factor:

FEAR – UNCERTAINITY - DOUBT


Manipulative Control

We are used to parents threatening us with ghosts and priests, pundits, dastoors and mullahs speaking of hell.

Manipulative managers similarly feed on the fear they create intentionally in the minds of others and that is highly unethical.

They then create dependency situations and thrive on it.


What creates dependency?

The manipulative manager acts such that: Importance of the individual. Scarcity of ability to solve problem. Non Substitutability of the individual.


Personal Power and Positional Power

Personal Power resides in the person, regardless of the position being filled.

Positional Power resides in the position, regardless of who is filling that position.


Positional Power Vs Personal Power.

High Positional Power/Personal Power and Low Personal Power/Positional Power can give the Manager only Moderate Overall Power.

High Positional Power and High Personal Power can give the Manager Strongest Overall Power.


Definition of Politics

When a person or a group works outside its job responsibilities to influence a decision that is likely to bring benefits desired by the person or the group for personal interests then that person or group is said to be indulging in organizational politics.


Organizational politics are activities carried out by people to acquire, enhance and use power and other resources to obtain desired outcomes.

These outcomes could be financial (kickbacks), situational (nepotism) or dominational (oppression).


Politics is power in action.

There is no place where politics does not exist.

Lord Acton said “ all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”


We say

All power corrupts and the threat of losing power corrupts absolutely.

Power is a great aphrodisiac


Factors influencing political behavior.

Individual factors:

High self-monitors

Internal Locus of Control

High match between man and job

Organizational investment

Perceived job alternatives

Expectations of success


Organizational Factors

Reallocation of resources Promotional opportunities Low trust relations Role ambiguity Unclear performance evaluation system Zero-sum reward practices Democratic decision making High performance pressures Self-serving senior managers


Something to chew on

It is generally believed that political behaviour is unethical. This is not so.

It is generally believed that politicians are corrupt. That is also not so.

Ninety percent of politicians are corrupt and that gives the rest ten percent a bad name.

Henry Kissinger


Think this through

In management too we must never generalize. But treat each case objectively and on its merits.

Political behavior is not per se unethical.


Perhaps

If you are willing to tell a white lie for a good cause it is acceptable.

If you are bending the truth for the greater good of man then it is acceptable.

If you are playing political game to improve the general lot of workmen then it is ethical (e.g. Trade Unions).


Then Again

If you are circumventing (not breaking) legal provisions so that a majority of employees benefit and society as a whole does not suffer then it is ethical.


Impression Management

Every manager likes to put his best face forward for public viewing and hide the side of his character that is ugly.

He tries to always create a favorable impression of his self in the eyes of others. That is called impression management.


I M

Organizations are nowadays known to appoint Liaison Officers, Officers on Special Duty and Public Relations Agencies to improve their organization's public image. This is ethical.


I M

But in improving that public image certain vital facts are massaged or important lacunae are hidden then it is unethical.

When the principal task of the liaison officer or Public Relations Officer is to convert black money into white then it is clearly unethical.


Bribery and Relationship Building

When does bribery begin and relationship building end?


Bribery and Relationship Building.

When you give someone a divali gift it is bribery? Is it unethical?

When do you give a bribe and when do you build social relationships?

Are you conscious of the difference?


Three conditions hold if an action is ethical.

There is no clear quid pro quo. The value of the gift is not so high that eyebrows

are raised . (Giving a car as a divali gift.) All gifts that are received are declared by the

executive receiving the gift to top management so that transparency is ensured.(This is done in IBM, General Motors, Tata Steel, Sundaram Fasteners.etc.)


Techniques of Political Behavior.

Controlling information Controlling lines of communication Using outside experts Controlling Agenda Game Playing Building Coalitions Controlling Decision Parameters


Limiting the effects of Political Behavior.

Opening Communication.

Reducing Uncertainty.

Being Aware.

These three enable us to raise the level of social consciousness.


THANK YOU.

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