1 / 12

Power Dynamics in Organizations: Navigating Conflict and Coalitions

Explore the intricacies of power, conflict, and coalitions in organizations through the political frame. Learn about sources of power, decision-making dynamics, and strategies for managing conflicts. This chapter delves into the complexities of organizational politics and the importance of understanding power dynamics for effective leadership.

yolandaf
Télécharger la présentation

Power Dynamics in Organizations: Navigating Conflict and Coalitions

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Reframing Organizations, 3rd ed.

  2. Chapter 9 Power, Conflict, and Coalitions

  3. Power, Conflict and Coalitions • Assumptions of the Political Frame • Organizations as Coalitions • Power and Decision-Making • Authorities and Partisans • Sources of Power • Distribution of Power: Overbounded and Underbounded Systems

  4. Power, Conflict and Coalitions (II) • Conflict in Organizations • Moral Mazes: The Politics of Getting Ahead

  5. Assumptions of the Political Frame • Organizations are coalitions • Enduring differences among coalition members • Allocation of scarce resources • Conflict is central process and power most important resource • Goals and decisions arise from bargaining, negotiation and jockeying for position

  6. Organizations as Coalitions • Coalitions rather than pyramids • Organizational goals are multiple and sometimes conflicting because they reflect bargaining involving multiple players with divergent interests

  7. Power and Decision-Making • Gamson: Authorities and partisans • Authorities make binding decisions • Partisans are subject to authorities’ decisions; they will support or question authority depending on decisions affect their interests

  8. Sources of Power • Position power • Information and expertise • Control and rewards • Coercive power • Alliances and networks • Framing: control of meaning and symbols • Personal power

  9. Distribution of Power: Overbounded and Underbounded Systems • Overbounded: strong, top-down control, conflict is tightly-regulated (e.g., Iraq under Saddam Hussein) • Underbounded: weak authority, chaotic decision-making, open conflict and power struggles (Iraq after collapse of old regime)

  10. Conflict in Organizations • Conflict is natural and inevitable: organizations can have too much or too little • Political frame focuses on strategy and tactics for dealing with conflict • Forms of organizational conflict • Hierarchical conflict • Horizontal • Cultural

  11. Moral Mazes: The Politics of Getting Ahead • Getting ahead is a political process involving conflict for scarce resources • Assessment of individual performance often depends on subjective judgments • Does advancement depend on doing good work or doing what is politically correct? • Organizations can’t eliminate politics, but they can influence the kind of politics they have

  12. Conclusion • The political frame sees a very different world from the traditional view of organizations • Traditional: organizations are hierarchies, run by legitimate authorities who set goals and manage performance • Political view: organizations are coalitions whose goals are determined by bargaining among multiple contenders • Politics can be nasty and brutish, but constructive politics is possible and necessary for organizations to be effective

More Related