Introduction 

It is seen that power is surely the ability that can influence other individuals of a business organisation. In this context it is worth mentioning that the most influential theories regarding power in the organisation hails from the work of French and Raven who tried to settle on the sources of power that the leaders use in order to influence other individuals. As disclosed by Blowers (2017) French and raven differentiated five main sources of power and those are mentioned in this report. It is seen that at times the business leaders use the basic sources of power in varying combination that depends on the specific situation. Apart from that in this report the basics of the politics of the organisation and how to understand the organisational politics is mentioned. The report further stresses on the political behavior within the workplace. The report is somewhat based on the organisational power and politics of an established brand IBM that is one of the leading business organisation in today’s global market.

Sources of Power in the organisation 

Power is the natural process in the fabric of organisational life. In order to maximise the production the business leaders or the managers will be needing power and thus in everyday life, the managers of business organisations obtain and use power to satisfy the goals of the business organisation. As opined by Bacchi and Eveline (2015) the basic idea of power and leadership are closely related and the business leaders use power as a tool to meet the targets set by the management of the organisation. Thus, in short it can surely be said that power is something that is used to influence the general workforce by the managers or business leaders. Different sources of power are mentioned below.

Legitimate power

Legitimate power is the leader’s ability to influence the behavior of the general workforce of IBM or any other business organisation as it has been derived from a position of authority within the workplace and it is often named a formal authority. Formal authority depicts the fact that the business organisation has provided an individual to encroach a specific position in the workforce that allows him or her to direct, influence and certain other employees of the organisation. As stated by Gruber et al. (2015) the individuals who have the legitimacy power have the right to do things which are considered within the scope of their authority. When a business leader asks an individual to work late in order to finish a task instead of another project, the leader is surely using the legitimacy power. The business leaders can enhance their power or position by amending the policies and procedures of the business organisation. For an example, it can be said that a manager should establish a requirement all the newly recruited officials shall be approved by the said manager; this is surely an example of authority over the process of hiring. In this case the subordinate staffs play a significant role in exercising the power of legitimacy. As explained by Jaffe (2017), when the subordinate employees see that the use of power is legitimate, they usually comply. Thus, legitimacy power covers a small range of influence and thus it might seem inappropriate to cross the bounds. For an instance it can be said that a manager or a business leader can ask his or her secretary to type a document and it can be an abuse of power to order a secretary to type a doctoral dissertation for the manager or a leader. In this case, the secretary may complete the task and may not be, but if he or she does, it would not be under the scope of the manager’s formal authority over the secretary. Thus it can be said that the legitimacy authority is an individual’s authority to take discretionary decisions as long as the subordinate employees accept the discretion.

Reward power

Reward power can be described as an individual’s ability to influence the other employee’s behavior by allowing them to receive things that they want to. As stated by Blaschke, Frost and Hattke (2014) these are the rewards which can be either financial or nonfinancial and this definitely includes promotions in the workplace, getting new equipments, praise, favorable tasks and most importantly recognition. A business leader can tactically use reward power to control and influence subordinate staff’s behavior as long as the staffs value the rewards they receive. For an instance it can be said that, if a business leader of IBM offer the subordinate staffs what they think are rewards, but the staffs do not value them, then the managers or the business leaders does not have a reward power. The reward power can definitely lead to enhance the level of performance within the workplace as long as the general workforce is able to see a link between the acquired rewards with the level of performance. As explained by Jaffe (2017) to effectively use the power of reward, the managers must be explicit regarding the behavior of the staffs after getting rewarded, and make a connection between the reward and the behavior of the staffs. 

The coercive power is the individual’s ability to influence the behavior of the other employees by either punishing then or by creating a threat to do so. For an instance, it can be said that the employees of IBM might not comply with the business leader’s directive due to fear of punishment or threat. As stated by Gruber et al. (2015) the traditional organisational punishments of organisations like IBM include undesirable work assignments, reprimands, demotion, suspension and many more. The coercive power has various negative sides and thus must be used with proper caution, as it might back fire the decision.

The expert power is the business leader’s ability to influence the general workforce’s behavior because of the identified skills, knowledge and abilities. As explained by Armstrong and Taylor (2014) as the business organisations are becoming increasingly technologically complex, an expert power of organisation members at all the levels of the organisation in the hierarchy automatically becomes more significant. Some business organisations like IBM include lower level employees with expert power in top level decision making.

Referent power is a manager’s ability to influence the other employees of the organisation because they admire, like and respect that individual. For an example, it can be said that an individual is a friend of the manager and if the manager asks the individual to complete a task that he does not like, had it been anyone else, the person would have been discarded the request, but due to the special relationship between the manager and the employee, he decides to work on the project. This is the ideal example of a referent power. As stated by Bakvis, Rhodes and Weller (2016) the referent power develops out of the admiration of another individual and the desire to be like that individual. This somehow helps to explain why the celebrities get paid millions of dollars for endorsing a brand.

Organisational Politics

The politics that take place within the organisation are informal and unofficial in nature that takes place so that it can help in influencing the organisation regarding the increase or decrease in its power and to achieve the objectives that has been set. As opined by Goetsch and Davis (2014) the decision that is made in a rational manner, as incongruency within the organisation may result in the rise of influential tactics and behaviors within the organisation. As stated by Bakvis, Rhodes and Weller (2016) the work in the modern organisations includes the method of handling the skills so that it can constantly result in shifting the power in the hands of the influential people. The politics that take place in an effective manner is not about winning but to maintain the relationship with the employees so that the desired outcome can be achieved. However, the factor of politics is considered to have a negative impact on the fate of the organisations, which is not considered to be true. Moreover, it is necessary to understand the aspects that are destructive in nature, which may result due to the effect of organisational politics.

Politics play an important part within the organisation, as it consists of various people who have different level of interests, which has to be aligned in a better manner to achieve the goals and objectives in a better way. In a survey that was conducted in IBM, it was seen that around 93 percent of the managers plays an important role in the politics that happens within the organisation and around 70 percent of the managers felt that it helped them to be successful within the organisation. As explained by Armstrong and Taylor (2014) in a negative manner, it can be seen that the rise in politics may result in manipulation and hiding the agendas that may lead to the personal gains for the managers. It can be stated that the managers who get involved in the political behaviors do it for their personal gains, which are not sanctioned by the organisations in an official manner.

With respect to the company, it can be seen that the political behaviors is inclusive of the chain of command that may get the approval by passing it through the improper information channels, which will help in gaining special favors. As stated by Esping-Andersen (2017) the concept of lobbying among the employees and the managers may result in the promotional decision within the organisation. These actions may result in the degradation of the fairness among the employees within the organisation, as most of the employees may engage in the factor of politics to achieve their required targets. The employees who guide themselves in a fair manner may often feel jealous due to the unfair distribution of the resources that are present within the organisation, which is also inclusive of the rewards and recognition.    

On the negative side, it can be seen that organisational politics may lead to the increase in the change within the organisation in a difficult situation where the resources are scarce among the employees. Therefore, to minimize the political behavior, the managers have to provide the access of information equally to the employees so that the objectives of the organisation can be achieved in a better manner. As opined by Goetsch and Davis (2014) by using better level of feedbacks, the managers can help in boosting the morale of the employees so that the performance of work can be increased to a great extent.

Antecedents of political behavior

The skills in politics refer to the interpersonal style that is present within the employees, which includes the ability to relate themselves within the group so that it can help in boosting the trust and confidence among the employees. According to the research that was conducted in IBM, it was seen that a high level of political skills among the employees helped them to be effective with their jobs and was able to influence the supervisors regarding their capability in carrying out the work in an efficient manner. As explained by Armstrong and Taylor (2014) these individuals had a higher control within the structure of the organisation, which helped them in carrying out the work in an efficient manner. Thus, it can be stated that the increase in the rate of control among the employees resulted in engaging more political behaviors over their subordinates. The individuals who perceive politics in a higher degree are more comfortable in convincing the upper management so that they can get promoted within the work place at a faster rate.

The employees who invest themselves within the organisation are more likely to exercise political behaviors, as they are emotionally and financially attached to the company, which results in the rise of intense care regarding the organisation in the minds of these individuals. Lastly, as explained by DuBrin (2015), it can also be stated that the expectations regarding success also matters to the individuals, as the change within the organisation in a successful manner would result in exercising better political behavior by the individuals.

Organisational Antecedents

The lower amount of resources that is present within the organisation may result in the rise of politics, as the incentives that are based on monetary terms along with promotions may result the employees in exercising more political power. As stated by Esping-Andersen (2017), the increase in ambiguity may result in the rise of organisational politics within the employees. Ambiguity of roles by the employees provides more flexibility to the individuals in negotiating so that their roles within the organisation can be defined in a new manner. In IBM, it can be seen that employees are not clear regarding the responsibilities that they have towards the job, which results in the rise of politics within the company. As opined by Goetsch and Davis (2014) ambiguity also paves the way within the employees with respect to the evaluation of the performance and the promotions that are needed within the organisation. The practices related to human resources also lead to the exercise of greater political behavior such a impression management within the company. Since, the company allows the employees in participating actively within the process of decision making, it can be seen that the rate of influence among the employees also increases.

Conclusion

Thus it can be recommended that for the betterment of the business organisation like IBM, the managers of the organisation should not enhance the power only to influence the others in the workplace, as at times they should be considerate towards the employees to some extent for better results. There are certain positions within the workplace that have discretionary pwers which are used in the case of emergence. Powers like these rests in the hands of the business leaders and this is why the individuals indulge themselves in politics to get the positions. The leaders should refrain from such activities if they want to maximise the productivity. The changes within the workplace can keep taking place, like whenever there is a rearrangement of the organisational policies, the individuals in powerful position intends to take advantage of it and this should not be practiced.  Thus to conclude, it can surely be said that the management of the organisation should use the power and politics with proper caution in the workplace to maximise the productivity along with the profitability of the organisation.

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