BUS 4402-01 Organizational Behavior

Introduction

Power and Influence

Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get what you want. Employees see power and recognize it, whether it be positive or negative. Many employees conform to power even if it is inaccurate or unethical. When one person sees power as negative, a disruption of power can take place. When employees are dependent on certain leaders, the more power a leader has over them dictating influence. Individuals have six potential sources of power, including legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, information, and referent power. Leaders use each tactic to ensure the best outcome in decision-making that is best for the employees and leaders. Not one is better than another, and all can be used equally or under the best circumstance. Leaders attempt these strategies upward, downward, or lateral in nature within the organization.

Organizational Politics

Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or achieve other targeted objectives. No matter where we are in the world, high-context or low-context, ethical or unethical, politics are amongst the organization. Leaders must possess skills in handling conflicting agendas and shifting power bases. Organizational politics is not about winning or losing, it focuses on maintaining relationships that provide employee satisfaction and performance results. Not all organizational politics are bad. It is critical for leaders to emphasize the negative aspects of organizational politics in order to reduce their negative impacts on the organization.

Structure and Change

Many organizations are built on a centralized and formalized structure; and follow a hierarchy that uses different types of departmentalization within the company. These elements come simultaneously to generate organic and mechanistic structures in an organization. This process helps organizations change. Organizational change is the movement of an organization from one state of affairs to another. Change does get in its own way within an organization. Many leaders and employees resist change because “things are working” or “it’s always been this way”. Change is a hard aspect to follow when things are going right, a lot easier than change that happens because things are going wrong. Change can make things easier, save time and money, and even improve workplace and employee satisfaction.

Reading Assignment

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As you read through the resources and watch the video, consider the following:

• What do you perceive as power in the work center?
• Can you and the organization succeed with positive and negative influences?
• What happens to an organization when it gets too political?
• How can communication departmentalize organizational structure?
• Is it easy for an organization to move from one state to another?

Read

The 4 types of organizational politics. This article explains the process and benefits of mapping the political terrain based on 4 metaphoric domains: the weeds, the rocks, the high ground, and the woods

Read the following sections from the textbook Organizational Behavior:

Chapter 13

• Chapter 13.1: Focus on Power: The Case of Steve Jobs
• Chapter 13.2: The Basics of Power
• Chapter 13.3: The Power of Influence
• Chapter 13.4: Organizational Politics
• Chapter 13.5: Understanding Social Networks
• Chapter 13.6: The Role of Ethics and National Culture
• Chapter 13.7: Getting Connected: The Case of Social Networking
• Chapter 13.8: Conclusion

Chapter 14

• Chapter 14.1: Organizational Structure: The Case of Toyota
• Chapter 14.2 Organizational Structure
• Chapter 14.3: Organizational Change
• Chapter 14.4: The Role of Ethics and National Culture
• Chapter 14.5: Changing for Good: The Case of Hanna Andersson Corporation
• Chapter 14.6: Conclusion

References

• Jarrett, M. (2017, April 24). The 4 types of organizational politics. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/04/the-4-types-of-organizational-politics
• Organizational behavior. (2017). University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/organizational-behavior licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

Discussion Assignment

In the discussion forum, you are expected to participate often and engage in deep levels of discourse. You are required to post an initial response to the question/issue presented in the Forum by Sunday evening and then respond to at least 3 of your classmates’ initial posts. You should also respond to anyone who has responded to you.

Imagine that you are the leader of an organization within a hospital. You have been having issues with complex cases that cause the appointments to be lengthy. The patients are scheduled for 5 minutes each but take as much as 15 minutes. This has a secondary effect that makes patients in the lobby wait on their appointments almost 1-hour later for their scheduled appointment time. The lobby is a decent size but lacks entertainment besides outdated magazines and old lighting.

Utilizing Kotter’s Eight-stage Process for Change, develop ideas on improving the wait time and boredom in the lobby as patients wait. Use each step in the process and describe what you will do to improve patient satisfaction.

Your Discussion should be a minimum of 200 words in length and not more than 500 words. Please include a word count. Following the APA standard, use references and in-text citations for the textbook and any other sources.

Learning Journal

The Learning Journal should be updated regularly (on a weekly basis), as the learning journals will be assessed by your instructor as part of your Final Grade.

This Learning Journal consists of two parts. Be sure to complete and submit both parts as one document.

Part 1: Group Activity Evaluation Form

Take a moment to complete the Group Activity Evaluation Form. This form is an opportunity to provide feedback to your instructor regarding the team dynamics and the level of engagement of your team members. Once the form has been completed, uploaded to the Learning Journal Unit 8 submission area located on the main course page for this unit. This form will count as part of your Unit 8 Learning Journal grade.

Part 2: Apply organizational politics and map the political terrain

Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or achieve other targeted objectives. Harvard Business Review (2017) refers to organizational politics as a variety of activities associated with the use of influence tactics to improve personal or organizational interests and introduces you to four metaphoric domains: the weeds, the rocks, the high ground, and the woods. Each has different rules for skillful navigation.

Navigating the domains involves awareness of two crucial dimensions. First is the level of political action that takes place. Political dynamics begin with the individual person and their own political skills. These evolve into group-level behaviors. At the opposite end of the dimension is the broader context. This is where politics operates at the organizational level.

The second dimension of the political landscape is the degree to which the source of power is soft (informal) or hard (formal). Soft power is implied, making use of norms, relationships, and influence. Political interest based on “hard,” formal, or explicit power pulls upon role authority, expertise, directives, and reward/control mechanisms. These two dimensions of power can offer people items to pass through the four metaphoric domains.

Assignment Instructions

Utilize what you have learned from this week’s reading resources to map the political terrain utilizing the four metaphoric domains: the weeds, the rocks, the high ground, and the woods. Use the Mapping the Political Terrain template.

Develop a fictional/or use a real organization and provide the following information:

• Name the organization and identify the services or products it provides or manufactures.
• The number of workers employed.
• The location of the company and whether it is global or not.

Map the political terrain utilizing the four metaphoric domains: the weeds, the rocks, the high ground, and the woods. Then create and describe four fictional employees who fit each metaphoric domain (one employee per domain). Add each character’s name to the appropriate domain.

• Cite references to material that you use in preparing the essay using the American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• For assistance with APA format, refer to the LRC: Academic Writing.
• To access LIRN refer to the LRC: Online Library.