Page 60 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Unit 4: Power, Politics and Ethics in OD

Notes
Figure 4.1: A Model of the Conditions Producing the Use of
Power and Politics in Organisations

Differentiation Environment

Interdependence Heterogeneous

Goals Heterogeneous
Beliefs about
Technology

Scarcity Conflict
Importance

Distribution of
Politics Power
The second condition of the use of power is heterogeneous goals, or goals which are inconsistent
with each other. A related condition would be heterogeneous beliefs about technology, or the
relationship between decisions and outcomes.
The third condition producing the use of power is scarcity. To the extent that resources are
insufficient to meet the various demands of organisational participants, choices have to be made
concerning the allocation of those resources. The greater the scarcity as compared to the demand,
the greater the power and the effort that will be expended in resolving the decision.
As indicated in the Figure 4.1 together the conditions of scarcity, interdependence, and
heterogeneous goals and beliefs about technology produce conflict. Whether that conflict
eventuates in politics, the use of power in organisational settings depends upon other two
conditions. The first condition is the importance of the decision issue or the resource. In situations
in which the decision may be perceived as less critical, power and politics may not be employed
to resolve the decision because the issue is too trivial to merit the investment of political
resources and effort. The second condition is the distribution of power. Political activity,
bargaining, and coalition formation occur primarily when power is dispersed. When power is
highly centralised, the centralised authority makes decision using its own rules and values. The
political contests that sometimes occur in organisations take place only because there is some
dispersion of power and authority in the social system.
Sources of Power

The power can be seen to be emanating from different sources. The sources of power determine
the process of generation and acquisition of power. There are different approaches to understand
as to who gets power and how (French & Bell, 1995). Some of these are:

Emerson’s “Power-dependence Theory”

Power dependence theory states that power is inherent in any social relationship in which one
person is dependent over the other. The sociologist Richard Emerson (1962) states that “the
dependence of actor A upon actor B is (1) directly proportional to A’s motivational investment
in the goals mediated by B, and (2) inversely proportional to the availability of these goals to A
outside of A-B relation. In other words, if a person has something we want badly and we cannot
get it at any place else, that person has power over us. The components of this theory are a social
relation between two parties, resources (commodities, goals, and rewards) that are controlled
by one party, and desired by the other party.

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