The ability of a person to persuade and manipulate another party into taking a particular action that results in a particular outcome is known as power. Power can have a beneficial or negative impact on organizational culture depending on whether the behaviors it inspires have a positive or negative effect on how those activities typically take place in the organization (Kelly, 2014).
An influential person or group need not even be conscious of their prominent capacity to influence others or even employ it. When others regard a person or organization as having some manipulative beliefs, that person or group s/he has power (Kelly, 2014).
Types of Influences and Impacts to Organization Culture
Organizational culture is the regular day in day out manner in which normal work functions are carried out. Influence can have a positive impact on the corporate culture if it upholds the drafted policies of the enterprise and is aimed to spearhead achievement of the set goals in an organization (Kelly, 2014).
Modes of Influences
- Silent Authority. Influences can be in the form of silent authority where a person high up in the organizational hierarchy can influence people with a mere presence due to the position.
- Assertiveness. A form of sway spearheaded through vocal confrontation. The mode of influence incorporates the use of reminders and threats to change behaviours and beliefs among people.
- Coalitions. Forms of influence achieved through collaborating in activities such as strikes to influence action, i.e. change.
- Exchange. Exchange is usually done by those in managerial positions at most where they might motivate their employees to achieve a set goal and receive gifts or promotions.
- Persuasion. Persuasion is the use of logic and real situations to get someone into agreeing upon a wanted achievement.
- Upward Appeal. The mode of influence is adopted by employees when communicating up the organizational hierarchy scale to get their bosses to change their mind.
Positive Influences
As stated, positive influences help organizational growth. When a team leader motivates junior employees to work in unity and unison, the productivity levels of the employees are boosted, and this increases profits and chances for business expansion (Kelly, 2014).
Negative influences
Negative influences are those that tarnish and rampage the organization's culture, i.e. strikes which make normal organizational functioning hard and increase goal blindness (Kelly, 2014).
Work Politics and Influence on organizational Culture
Work politics occur when people are striving to get to the top of the organization to achieve power. Workplace politics have an undesirable connotation on organizational culture due to the strategies one might implement to achieve desired power, i.e. unethical pursuits hence there is more of manipulation than persuasion which can negatively affect unity at work, and the results are catastrophic.
Sources of Power
Legitimate Power
Position or legitimate power is the kind of power achieved in an organization due to the position one holds. The type of control is also referred to as moral authority for the reason that one holding a high hierarchical position in an organization can influence others by giving tasks either persuasively or assertively (Holmes, Janet & Maria, 2015). Subordinates play a significant role in the exercise of legitimate power by abiding by directions given by those in high official positions. Legitimate authority is only limited to official duties.
Reward Power
Reward power is where one builds the ability to influence others founded on offering rewards to those who abide by their call (Holmes, Janet & Maria, 2015). The rewards can take forms of financial bonuses, promotions or even favourable work assignments. Asking one to achieve a goal and receive a vacation treat is a form of reward power.
Coercive Power
Coercive power is achieved when one uses threats such as punishments to gain influence. People in top job positions might need to use threats to get lazy workers to work as expected. Coercive power should be exercised with caution has it may destroy unity in an organization hence reduces productivity (Holmes, Janet & Maria, 2015).
Expert Power
Expert power is the type of influence achieved due to a person being very familiar with the given scope of operation that fellow peers admire and respect him or her. When a doctor or accountant offers quality advice, some influence is created on his or her client that s/he will adhere to whatever advice given. Expert power is only limited to a scope of professionalism practised by an individual (Holmes, Janet & Maria, 2015).
Referent Power
Referent power just like expertise power is the ability of a person to influence others based on respect and admiration. Unlike expert power, referent power is not limited to the scope of professionalism, i.e. due to a right relationship and connection with a friend, he or she may offer to take you on a site visit and even though you are not interested and would likely say no to other people, you find it hard to tell that to the friend and one ends up saying yes (Holmes, Janet & Maria, 2015).
Leadership Behavior and Culture
The study of leadership is critical to people who held leadership positions as they can widen their knowledge on the impact of politics practised garnering power and how the said politics and power may either build or rampage the organization culture (Andrew, 2014). With expertise, individuals may get to know on the positive and negative politics and power at work.
Positive Politics
Employees and leaders who abide by the set policies and laid out processes always come out successful as compared to those who are left out the norm. By studying more on power and politics, one understands on better ways to achieve control by adhering to set policies as per the organization's culture (Andrew, 2014).
The knowledge on office politics has an impact on organizational culture in that cautious leaders who are enlightened on proper ways to practice office politics and manage power in the right manner will always uphold the culture set in the organization and strive to nurture it (Andrew, 2014).
Negative Politics
Those who do not have vast knowledge on office politics and power management may end up misusing their ability to influence others, and this may destroy the organizational culture by discouraging unity and encouraging informal means of communication such as rumours. Education on politics, power, and leadership helps prepare leaders and guide them on ensuring their practices are ethical and in line with organizational culture (Andrew, 2014).
Importance and Complexity of Leadership Behavior
Essence of Leadership Behavior
Leadership is an essential function of management practice as it helps to achieve set organizational goals and maximizes efficiency, i.e. regarding corporate resources. Leadership behaviour is the manner in which an activity is repeated by a leader over time; leadership behaviour is supposed to resonate with the organization's culture, interests and aimed at achieving set goals (Holt, 2015).
When leadership is useful in an organization, benefits accrued include improved productivity from employees, confidence growth among team members, better charisma and seriousness in the body and improved communication and listening skills (Holt, 2015).
Complexity of Leadership Behavior
Attention. The fact that organizational managers are always under continuous planning to act even without time to think and plan over a move is a complicated situation as one can mess up due to the pressure over the way strategies are to be executed even with less time to make considerations. The attention required to have high probabilities of success under such pressure is immense (Fernando, 2016).
Success. Every manager aspires to be successful to earn respect, i.e. expert influence. The struggle to be successful does not come quickly especially when some decisions made are quick, and without consideration yet success should precede is a complex process. Leadership success is a function bred with the ability to balance expected roles and reputational effectiveness (Fernando, 2016).
Demand Competencies. Managers have a lot of activities within their scope which compete for limited resources, i.e. time; the ability to balance all of them and ensure the work efficiently is a complicated process (Fernando, 2016).
Organizational culture can be upheld when the managers understand how to balance all demands and to make quality decisions within a limited range of time. When managers are poor at making decisions, the organization culture will be adversely affected.
Recommendations
Leaders should undergo adequate training and study to understand how power should be used for the benefit of the organization and also to know the type of politics that build teamwork and cooperation and not that which destroys unison.
The study also ensures that people in managerial roles do understand how to make quality decisions overpressure and to learn how to ensure all demands competing for limited resources are managed efficiently to ensure that all departments stay attended to.
Conclusion
After my study, I conclude that managerial roles are complex than they seem to e without research. Knowledge of administrative roles and reputation which creates influence are essential aspects that breed managerial success.
References
Fernando, M. (2016). The Complexity of Leadership. In Leading Responsibly in the Asian Century (pp. 53-69). Springer International Publishing.
Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2015). Power and politeness in the workplace: A sociolinguistic analysis of talk at work. Routledge.
Holt, A. (2015). The importance of leadership.
Kelly, K. (2014). Power, politics, and influence. Leading and Managing in Nursing-E-Book, 167.
Pettigrew, A. M. (2014). The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge.
