Page 59 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Organization Change and Development

Notes 4.1.1 Power

‘Power is the intentional influence over the beliefs, emotions, and behaviors of people. Potential
power is the capacity to do so, but the kinetic power is the act of doing so... one person exerts
power over another to the degree that he is able to exact compliance as desired’, (Siu, 1979).
Power is ‘the ability of those who possess power to bring about the outcomes they desire,’
(Salancik and Pfeffer, 1971).
“Most definitions of power include an element indicating that power is the capability of one
social actor to overcome resistance in achieving a desired objective or result,” (Pfeffer).

From these definitions it is seen that interpersonal power in a social situation is the ability to get
one’s way (McClelland 1970).

Example: Social power are seen everywhere: influence, leadership, persuasion, selling,
forcing and coercing - all these acts are power is action. To have power or to exercise power is
not, in itself, either good or bad. The phenomenon of power is ubiquitous.
Problems with power stem form some of the aims (goals) of powerful persons. Without influence
(power) there could be no cooperation and no society. Without leadership (power) directed
towards medical, political, technological, financial, spiritual and organisational activities,
humankind would not have the standard of living it does today. Without leadership (power)
directed towards warfare, confiscation, repression, and the like, humankind would not have
much of the misery it has today.

Two Faces of Power

McClelland research indicated that while most people give a negative connotation to power, it
is through the use of power that things get done in the world. The exercise of power is behind
most human achievements, both good and bad. According to him the negative face of power is
characterised by a primitive, unsocialised need to have dominance over submissive others. The
positive face of power is characterised by a socialised need to initiate, influence and lead. This
positive face of power is intended to enable others to reach their goals as well as let the persons
exercising power to reach his or her goals. The negative face of power seeks domination; the
positive face of power seeks “more power to everybody”.

The positive face of power is much more prevalent than the negative face of power in
organisations. Positive changes in organisations take place through the positive face of power
and politics. Any OD program is by definition a power/political event in the organization’s life,
and OD by virtue of its problem solving emphasis, is a program that increases the positive face
of power and politics in organisations.
Conditions for the Use of Power

As shown in Figure 4.1 the first condition of the use of power is interdependence; a situation in
which what happens to one organisation actor affects what happens to others. Interdependence
can arise because of competition or from some joint activity on some work product, so that what
one unit does to the product affects and may be affected by what another unit does.
Interdependence is an important condition because it ties the organisational participants together,
in the sense that each is now concerned with what the other does and what the other obtains. In
the absence of such interdependence, there would be no basis for conflict or for interaction
among the participants.

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