PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

There are 3 popular process theories of motivation.

1. Expectancy theory
2. Equity theory &
3. Goal-setting theory
1. Expectancy theory-vroom: Vroom has propagated Expectancy Theory
based on employee expectancy. He believes that employee is motivated to
exert high level of efforts when he believes that efforts will lead to good
performance and therefore organizational rewards that will satisfy
achievement of personal goals. The focus of the theory has three elements.
 …CON’T
1. Efforts - Performance relationship. It is related to the probability
perceived by individual that exerting a given amount of efforts will lead to
performance (Expectancy).
2. Performance - Reward Relationship. The degree to which the individual
believes that performing a particular level will lead to attainment of desired
outcome (Instrumentality).
3. Reward-personal goal relationship. The degree to which an
organizational reword will satisfy individual needs and its attractiveness for
the individual (Valence).
 …CON’T
2. Equity Theory
Equity Theory explains how people develop perception of fairness in the
distribution and exchanging of resources. And also explains what employees
are motivated to do when they feel inequitably treated, i.e. perceived
inequity motivate employees to complain and try to change the source of the
previous inequity. Equity theory has four main elements:-
A. input ratio
B. Comparison with other
C.Equity evaluation and
D.Consequence of inequity
 …CON’T
A. Outcome /Input Ratio
Inputs include skills, efforts, experiences, amount of time worked,
performance result and other employee contributions to the organization. And
Outcomes are the things employees receive from the organization in
exchanging for the inputs, such as pay, promotions, recognition, or an office
with a window.
Both inputs and outcomes are weighed by their importance to the individual.
These weights vary from one person to the next. People value outcomes
differently b/se they have different needs.
B. Comparison with Others :- The comparison other in a particular situation
may be another person, group of people, or even yourself in the past and also it
may be someone in the same job, another job, or another organization.
 …CON’T
Most of the time we compare ourselves with others who are nearby in similar
positions, and with similar backgrounds. It is easier to get information about
co-workers than people working elsewhere.
C. Equity evaluation
 We form equity evaluation after identifying our outcome/input ratio and
comparing this with the comparison others ratio, e.g. in you are assigned to a
project with another student in your class, and both of you get the same
project grade whether one of you contributes more than the other this means
that your outcomes are the same as the other students outcome’s.
 But in the equity condition, both of you contribute the same effort and value
to the project i.e. you and the comparison other have the same outcome / input
ratio.
 …CON’T
D. Consequences of inequity
Employees are motivated to reduce or eliminate their feelings of inequity by
correcting the inequitable situation. There are 6 possible ways (strategies) to
reduce feelings of inequity such as Changing inputs; Changing perceptions;
leaving the field; Acting on the comparison of other, and changing the
comparison other.
3. Goal setting theory
Goal setting is one of the most effective and widely practiced theories of
motivation in organizations. Goal setting is the process of motivating employees
and clarifying their role perception by establishing performances. Some
companies apply goal setting through a formal process known as management by-
objectives (MBO).
 …CON’T
MBO is simply defined as a participative goal setting in which organizational
objectives are cascaded down to work until and individual employees. It
includes periodic review and feedback.
MBO programs generally identify organizational objectives, and then
cascade them down to work unit and individual employees.
 CHAPTER 5
MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT

Definition of conflict:-
Conflict is defined as a disagreement between two or more individuals or
groups, with each individual or group trying to gain acceptance of its views or
objective over others.
It is also the process that begins when one party perceives that another party
has negatively affected something that the first party cares about.
 Types of conflict
1. Functional Conflict and
2. Dysfunctional Conflict
 …CON’T
1. Functional Conflict
Conflict that supports the individual and group goals, which leads to higher
performance is called functional conflict.
Positive points of functional conflict are as follow:
1. Conflict develops cohesiveness within the group members. A group goal
therefore becomes a priority. Individual goals are then relegated to
secondary position.
2. Conflict leads to innovation and creativity, as there is competing sprit
among various groups.
3. Conflict provides challenging work environment and enhances
opportunities for self-development of group that leads to formation of
group norms.
4. Enhance work culture leads to up gradation of various systems within the
organization and therefore growth is achieved.
 …CON’T
2. Dysfunctional Conflict
 Conflict may turn out to be detrimental and disastrous and having
deleterious effects that hinders individual or group performance is called
dysfunctional conflict.
Dysfunctional nature of conflict can be identified in the following
circumstances:
1. Then conflict does not lead to solution.
2. When basic goals of the organization are neglected.
3. People should be treated with due respect.
4. Conflict may lead to absenteeism and subsequently to increased turn
over if not controlled in time.
5. Dual management style may create hatred and lead to dysfunctional
conflict.
 …CON’T
6. Disagreement with management may be considered as disloyalty, if this
environment prevails, an opportunity for creativity would be lost and employees
would lose interest in their job.
This would lead to increased conflicting situations.
Further Conflict can be broadly classified in three types:-
I. Task oriented conflict:-Task conflict relates to the group goals or objectives
to be achieved by the group.
II.Behavioral conflict:- Conflict relates to individual’s value system, approach,
attitude, ego state, skill and norms being followed by him. Studies reveal that
most of the dysfunctional conflict fall under this category.
III.Structural conflict or process conflict:- Process conflict is related to how a
task is being accomplished in the organization. It is related with various
processes, procedures, drills and instructions that are being followed on a
particular job.
 …CON’T
Conflict may be intra-personal, inter-personal, intra-group, inter-group
or intra-organizational in nature.
1. Intrapersonal Conflict: Intra personal conflict is also called the conflict
within the individual. This type of conflict can be of two types:
(a) Value conflict: Every individual has to play certain roles, which conforms to
his value system. However, there are certain situations when an individual may
have to compromise on value system and beliefs. For example, finance manager
of an organization, while submitting tax returns to the government may conceal
some facts, which may go against his belief and value system. This situation
may cause tension and conflict within the individual.
 …CON’T
(b) Decision-making: Problem solving is one of the important jobs every
individual has to undertake in work environment. Every problem has
various courses open. At times it is difficult for a person to select an
appropriate course of action. This situation causes conflict within the
individual.
Inter-personal Conflict
Inter-personal conflict relates to conflict between two or more individuals
and is probably the most common and recognized form of conflict.
Interpersonal conflict is caused due to disagreement over goals and
objectives of the organization. Conflict can also take place between one
person of a group with another person of the same group or another group
on issues relating to decision-making.
 …CON’T
Intra-Group Conflict
Intra-group conflict relates to values, status and roles played by an
individual in the group and the group norms. Individual may want to remain
in the group for social needs but may disagree with the methods and
procedures followed by the group. The conflict may arise when social
changes are incorporated in the group. When group faces new problems and
when values are changed due to change in social environment. Intra-group
conflict is like Inter-personal conflict except that the people involved in the
conflict episode belong to a common group.
Inter-Group Conflict
Conflicts between different groups, sections and departments are called
inter-group conflict. For example, conflict between production and sales
departments over the quality being produced and the customer requirements.
 …CON’T
Inter-Organizational Conflict
Inter-organizational conflict takes place between two dependent
organizations. Conflict can take place between government organization,
unions and the operating industry. Government organizations function to
ensure that minimum standards are followed by the organizations.
Managers must try and reduce inter-organizational conflicts by adopting.
Nature and scope of conflict
Every organization has its objective. It is further broken down as
departmental objectives, group goals and lastly individual goals. When
individual interacts with another individual there is perceptual and
communication problems that causes misunderstanding and leads to
individual conflict situation. It is also true of groups.
Group conflicts indicate the way of inter-group behavior in an
organization.
 …CON’T
Inter-group conflict occurs due to group competition and group
cohesiveness.
Conflict can arise between employer and employees, management and
workers, one department and another, stakeholders, shareholders,
producer and customers and between various trade unions that are often
politically motivated.
Conflict can be considered as expression of hostility, negative attitude,
aggression and gross misunderstanding. It is caused due to varying
interest of individual or groups.
Causes of Conflict
Communicational Aspect: Poor communication, passing of incomplete
information to a department may cause conflict because this may have
far reaching consequences in attainment of organizational goals.
 …CON’T
Some of the reasons for poor communication includes:
(a) Inadequate communication
(b) Filtration effect
(c) When information is not received on time
(d) Barriers of culture, language
(e) Inadequate training of sender and receiver
(f) Noise problems etc
 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Avoiding :-One or both parties could avoid facing the conflict. The situation
pertains to un-cooperative and unassertive behavior on the part of parties
involved. A Party may avoid facing B Party. When situation reaches a point
of negligence by A Party, B Party may take advantage of the situation. By
avoiding, the individual might side step, postpone or even withdraw from the
conflicting situation. This strategy is useful when issues involved in conflict
are of a very minor nature or when more important issues deserve attention.
Competing:- This strategy may be adopted when other strategies of conflict
resolution are not workable. Competing is also useful in emergencies where
quick decisions are required. In this strategy power must be used unilaterally
as a weapon when unpopular decisions like termination, pay cuts, layoffs,
cost cutting and enforcing discipline are required to be taken. This strategy is
based on win-lose principle of managing conflicts.
 …CON’T
Collaborating
Strategy of collaboration involves attempt of one party to work with
the other party in co-operative manner and find solutions to the
problem for mutual benefits. The strategy involves identification of
areas of disagreement, examining the issue in greater detail and a
workable solution arrived at, which is for mutual benefit. This
strategy signifies when two sets of solutions are important for both
parties to be compromised.
Accommodating
In accommodating mode a person scarifies his own interest for
accommodating other person’s interest. It is form of selfless
generosity, obeying other person’s point of view. This mode is usually
adopted when other person’s view is stronger, you want to achieve
goodwill and indicate that you are reasonable.
 …CON’T
Compromising
In conflict situation, compromising is a mode when both parties try to
find out some expedient, mutually acceptable solution that sacrifices
both the parties partially. Uncompromising, there is no clear winner or
loser. None of the party is fully satisfied as they ration the object of
conflict and accept the solution which is not complete to either of the
parties. In compromising, there is a possibility of an atmosphere of
‘gamesmanship’ in the work environment.

End of chapter five thank you!

 CHAPTER SIX-STRESS MANAGEMENT
What is Stress?
Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an
opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for
which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.
Stress is typically discussed in a negative context, it also has positive value.
Consider, for example, the superior performance that an athlete or stage
performer gives in "clutch" situations. Such individuals often use stress
positively to rise to the occasion and perform at or near their maximum.
Stress - An adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or
threatening to the person’s well- being.
 Stressors- an environmental condition or stimuli that places physical or emotional
demand on a person More typically, stress is associated with constraints and
demands. Constraint- is forces that prevent individuals from doing what they
desire.
 …CON’T
Types of stress
Episodic Stress- pattern of high stress followed by intervals of relief.
Chronic Stress- constant confrontation of stressors without relief with effects constant and
Additive
Distress- stress that has a negative consequence on a person’s well-being.
Potential Sources of Stress
Environmental factors- Just as environmental uncertainty influences the design of an
organization's structure, it also influences stress levels among employees in that organization.
Changes in the business cycle create economic uncertainties. When the economy is
contracting, people become increasingly anxious about their security.
 …CON’T
Organizational factors - Numerous factors within the organization can cause stress.
Pressures to avoid errors or complete tasks in a limited time period, work overload, a
demanding and insensitive boss; and unpleasant coworkers are a few examples task, role, and
interpersonal demands, organization structure, organizational leadership, and the
organization's life stage.
Task demands are factors related to a person's job. They include the design of the
individual's job (autonomy, task variety, degree of automation), working conditions, and
the physical work layout.
Role demands relate to pressures placed on if person as a function of the particular role he
or she plays in the organization. Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard to
reconcile or satisfy.
 …CON’T
Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees. Lack of social
support from colleagues and poor interpersonal relationships can cause considerable
stress, especially among employees with a high social need.
Organization structure defines the level of differentiation in the organization, the
degree of rules and regulations, and where decisions are made. Excessive rules and
lack of participation in decisions that affect an employee are examples of structural
variables that might be potential sources of stress.
Organizational leadership represents the managerial style of the organization's senior
executives. Some chief executive officers create a culture characterized by tension,
fear, and anxiety.
 …CON’T
Organizations cycle. They're established; they grow, become mature, and eventually
decline. An 'organization's life stage-that is, where it is in this four-stage cycle-s-
creates different problems and pressures for employees.
Individual Factors - The typical individual only works about 40 to 50 hours a week.
The experiences and problems that people encounter in those other l20-plus non-work
hours each week can spillover to the job. Our final category, then, encompasses factors
in the employee's personal life. Primarily, these factors are family issues, personal
economic problems, and inherent personality characteristics.
Factors such as Marital difficulties, the breaking off a relationship, and discipline
troubles with children are examples of relationship problems that create stress for
employees and aren't left at the front door when they arrive at work. Economic
problems created by individuals overextending their financial resources is another
set of personal troubles that can create stress for employees and distract their
attention from their work.
 …CON’T
Individual Differences and Stress
Some people thrive on stressful situations; others are overwhelmed by them.
What is it that differentiates people in terms of their ability to handle stress?
What individual difference variables moderate the relationship between potential
stressors and experienced stress? At least five variables-perception, job
experience, social support, belief in locus of control, and hostility-have been
found to be relevant moderators. Perception - employees react in response to
their perception of reality rather than to reality itself. Perception, therefore, will
moderate the relationship between a potential stress condition and an employee's
reaction to it.
Job experience - Experience is said to be a great teacher. It can also be a great
stress reducer.
 …CON’T
The logic underlying this moderating variable is that social support acts as a
palliative, mitigating the negative effects of even high-strain jobs. Belief in locus
of control- Those with an internal locus of control believe they control their own
destiny.
Hostility (Aggressiveness)- it is related with personality type. Type A personality
is characterized by feeling a chronic sense of time urgency and by an excessive
competitive drive. A Type A individual is aggressively involved in a chronic,
incessant struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time, and if required
to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons.
Consequences of Stress
Stress shows itself in a number of ways. For instance, an individual who is experiencing a high
level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty in making routine
decisions, loss of appetite, accident proneness, and the like. These can be subsumed under
three general categories: physiological, psychological, and behavioral symptoms.
 …CON’T
Physiological Symptoms- Most of the early concern with stress was directed at
physiological symptoms. This was primarily because the topic was researched
by specialists in the health and medical sciences. This research led to the
conclusion that stress could create changes in metabolism, increase heart and
breathing rates, increase blood pressure, bring on headaches, and induce heart
attacks.
Psychological Symptoms - Stress can cause dissatisfaction. Job-related stress
can cause job-related dissatisfaction. Job dissatisfaction, in fact, is lithe simplest
and most obvious psychological effect of stress. But stress shows itself in other
psychological states-for instance, tension, anxiety, irritability, boredom, and
procrastination.
 …CON’T
Behavioral Symptoms - Behaviorally related stress symptoms include changes
in productivity, absence, and turnover, as well as changes in eating habits,
increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid speech, fidgeting (move
around, rest less), and sleep disorders.
Managing Stress or Stress management strategies
Individual approaches- An employee can take personal responsibility for
reducing his or her stress level. Individual strategies that have proven effective
include implementing time-management techniques, increasing physical
exercise, relaxation, training, and expanding the social support network.
Organizational approaches- Several of the factors that cause stress particularly task and
role demands, and organization structure-are controlled by management.
 …CON’T
As such, they can be modified or changed, Strategies that management might
want to consider include improved personnel selection and job placement, use
of realistic goal setting, redesigning of jobs, increased employee involvement,
improved organizational communication, and establishment of corporate
wellness programs.
The following are some the Organizational Level Strategies to manage stress:
Organizational polices should be clear
Authority and responsibility must be clear
Organizational structure, redesigning of jobs and improved Communication
reduces stress.
Corporate policies, physical work environment should be suitable for higher
productivity.
An updated systems and processes increase efficiency.
 …CON’T

Management must create a healthy working environment.

Career plan for mangers must be developed and implemented in letter and
spirit.
Employees must be empowered
 CHAPTER SEVEN- CULTURE AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Organizational Culture: -Set of key characteristics that distinguish one

organization from other.
 It is the collections of traditions, values, policies, beliefs and attitudes that
constitute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an
organization. As individuals come into contact with organizations, they come
into contact with dress rooms, stories tell about what goes on, the
organization’s formal rules and procedures, its formal codes of behavior,
rituals, tasks, pay systems jargon, and jokes only understood by insiders, and
so on.
 …CON’T
 There appear to be ten characteristics that mixed and matched, the essence
of an organization’s culture.
 Individual initiative- degree of responsibility, freedom, independence,
 Risk tolerance- degree to which employees aggressive, innovative, risk-
seeking.
 Direction- clear objectives and performance expectations.
 Integration- units in the organization.
 Management support- clear support, communications.
 Control – rules and regulations.
 Identity – members identify with the organization as a whole rather than
individual.
 …CON’T
 Reward system – reward allocations
 Conflict tolerance – the way of treating conflicts and criticisms openly
 Communication patterns – organizational communications restricted
Characteristics of Organizational culture: Among;-
 Culture is descriptive
 Organizations’ do not have uniform cultures
 Strong vs. weak cultures
Strong vs weak culture
 Strong culture, the organization’s core values are both intensely held and widely shared.
Strong cultures will have great influence on the behavior of its members and results in
lower employee turnover.
 Innovation and risk taking
 Attention to detail
 …CON’T
 Outcome orientation
 People orientation
 Team orientation
 Task orientation
 Stability, etc.
Organizational Culture’s Overall function or the role of organizational culture.
• Culture is the social glue that helps hold an organization together.
• It gives members an organizational identity.
• It facilitates collective commitment.
• It promotes systems stability.
• It shapes behavior by helping members make sense of their surroundings.

• It provides a boundary.
 …CON’T
- It has a boundary- defining roles
- It conveys a sense of identity for organizational members
- It facilitates the generation of commitment
- It enhances social system stability
- It serves as a sense-making and control mechanisms, etc.
How Organizational Culture manifests itself?
Organizational Culture manifests itself in two ways:
1. High profile symbols - deliberately designed to create the image of the
company, the mission statement, company logo, uniform, etc.
2. Low profile symbols - practices, communications ,physical forms ,
common language, etc.
 …CON’T
Do Organizations Have Uniform Cultures?
A dominant culture - expresses the core values that are shared by a
majority of the organization’s members (personality of the organization).
Core values are those values which form the foundation on which members
of an organization perform work and conduct themselves.
Subcultures - tend to develop in large organizations to reflect common
problems, situations or experiences that members face.
 …CON’T
Types of organizational culture
 There are four types of organizational culture.
1. Tough guy, macho culture –a world of individuals who regularly take high
risks and get quick feedback on whether their actions were right or wrong.
2. Work hard/pay hard culture – fun and action are the rule here, employees
take few risks, all with quick feedback; to succeed, the culture, and the
culture encourages them to maintain a high level of relatively low-risk
activity.
3. Bet your company culture- cultures with big stakes decisions, where years
pass before employees know where decisions have paid off. A high risk,
slow-feedback environment.
 …CON’T
4. The process culture- a world of little or no feedback where employees find it
hard to measure what they do; instead they concentrate on how it’s done. It’s
another name is bureaucracy.
How employees learn culture?
Culture is transmitted to employees in a various of forms : Among;-
 Rituals – it is repetitive sequences of activities that expresses and reinforce the key values
of the organization.
 Material symbols
 Language - many organizations and units within organizations uses language to identify
members of culture or sub-culture.
 National culture – there is a growing body of evidence to indicate that national culture
differ widely and the result is marked differences in behavior patterns worldwide.
 …CON’T
Stories – many stories circulate through organizations. They serve as powerful
social perceptions of the way things should (should not) be done.
Organizational Culture vs. National Culture
National culture has a greater impact on employees than does their
organization’s culture.
Expect that organizations hire employees who are a better fit with the
organization’s dominant culture even though they may not fit the national
culture.
Managing Cultural Change and Implications for Managers
Cultural change is most likely to take when the following conditions exist:
 Dramatic crisis exists or is created.
 Turnover in leadership.
 Young and small organization, Weak culture.
The following are implications for Managers:
 Create the culture you want when the organization is small. …CON’T
 If established culture needs to be changed, expect it to take years.
Globalization, People at work and Diversity.
 The preceding discussion also leads us to predict that the increasing cultural diversity of the
work force should provide benefits to organizations.
 Research demonstrates that heterogeneity among group and organization members can
increase creativity, improve the quality of decisions, and facilitate change by enhancing
member flexibility. For example, researchers compared decision-making groups composed
of members or individuals from the same ethnic groups/country/continent with groups that
also contained members from Asian, African and so forth groups. The ethnically diverse
groups produced more effective and more feasible ideas and the unique ideas they
generated tended to be of higher quality than the unique ideas produced by the all member
group from the same ethnic group.
N.B: - Globalization and people at work is your reading assignment.
 CHAPTER 8 - POWER AND POLITICS IN AN ORGANIZATION

 ORGANISATIONAL POWER
Power is easy to feel but difficult to define. It is the potential ability of a person
or group to influence another person or group. It is the ability to get things done
the way one wants them to be done. Both formal and informal groups and
individuals may have power; it does not need an official position or the backing
of an institution to have power.
Power and Authority
Sometimes power and authority are used synonymously because of their
objective of influencing the behaviour of others. However, there is difference
between the two. Power does not have any legal sanity while authority has such
a sacredness. Authority is institutional and legitimate. Power, on the other
hand, is personal and does not have any legitimacy. But still, power is a crucial
factor in influencing the behaviour in organisational situation.
 …CON’T
Sources of Power
John R.P. French and Bertram Raven identified five bases or sources of power:
legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent power.
Legitimate Power: A person’s position within organisation provides him with
legitimate power. Legitimate power is similar to formal authority and hence it
can be created, granted, changed or withdrawn by the formal organisation.
Reward Power: This type of power is the extent to which one person has
control over rewards that are valued by another. The greater the perceived
values of such rewards, the greater the power. Organisational rewards include
pay, promotions and valued office assignments.
Coercive Power: People have coercive power if they have control over some
form of punishment such as threat of dismissal, suspension, demotion or other
method of embarrassment for the people.
 …CON’T
Expert Power: It is more of personal power than organisational power. Expert
power is that influence which one wields as a result of one’s experience, special
skill or knowledge. This power occurs when the expert threatens to withhold
his knowledge or skill.
Referent Power: A person who is respected by certain others for whatever
reason has referent power over those people. A person with referent power may
have charisma and people who respect that person are likely to get emotionally
involved with the respected person and identify with, accept and be willing to
follow him or her.
Organisational Politics : -Power and politics are inextricably interwoven
with the fabric of an organisation’s life. In any organisation, at any given
moment, a number of people are seeking to gain and use power to achieve
their own ends.
 …CON’T
Organisational politics refers to the activities carried out by people to acquire,
enhance and use power and other resources to obtain their preferred outcomes
in a situation where there is uncertainity or disagreement.
Politics is defined ‘as the structure and process of the use of authority and
power to affect definition of goals, directions and the other major parameters of
the organisation.
Miles has identified five major reasons that have strong influence on political
orientation of organizations.
Scarscity of Resources : -any person or unit who has control over allocation of
scarce resources yields power. Political influence plays an important part in
how these resources are distributed to various departments as against the
rational need.
 …CON’T
Non programmed Decisions :- Resolution of non-programmed decision is a
complicated matter as there are no set solutions. These unique problem involves
consideration of various factors and variables. They remain ambiguous in nature
and subject to political maneuvering by those who have knowledge and
techniques to solve them.
Ambiguous Goals :- When setting up of organizational goals, departmental
objectives and individual task are well defined. There is no room for ambiguity.
However there are organizations where these are not clearly spelt out and ample
room for discretion exists. In such situations people manipulate decisions and
situations in their favour by playing political games intelligently
 …CON’T
Organizational Change :- Organizational change is continuous process.
People who are in position to take decision can very effectively influence the
decisions. These change may include vital areas like restructuring, creating
new departments, launching a new product line, appointment of key
personnel at top levels and thus creating a lobby within the organization. This
may prove to be counter productive and harmful for maintaining peaceful
atmosphere.
External Environment :- External environment is highly mobile and
generally unpredictable. It is the ability of the organization to meet the
challanges effectively by appropriately maneuvering internal environmental
factors, technology and processes. Thus political behaviour is heightened
when these are managed by interested people.
 …CON’T
Techniques of Political Plays
Mintzberg (1983) has suggested the following strategies to wield political power
in the organizations.
1. Cultivate right allies: One must have alliance with right people who are rising
in the corporate ladder. It is necessary to develop friendship with upper level
management. It may also be advisable to form alliance with boss’s secretary or
someone who is close to powerful person.
2. Be positive towards others: Human being wants to be appreciated and
complemented for any work done. When you appreciate other people they will
develop a positive outlook towards you and may be helped when situation
demands.
3. Reciprocity: It is good to help others. Accordingly, recognize those members
of the organization who will be more powerful in future. Help them so that they
reciprocate the same when you need their support.
 …CON’T
4. Be persuasive: It is necessary to develop a persuasive technique to get the
job done. Forceful agreements when stated eloquently are often highly
influencing. It improves your image and substantial pay offs in a future time.
5. Image building: One must build a positive image and create good
impression in the organization. One must therefore be honest, sincere, attentive,
sociable and display an organizational citizenship behaviour.
6. Control information: More the critical information and fewer the people
who have access to it stronger the power base. It is therefore necessary to
control and disseminate critical information when it is likely to have impact and
serve self interest.
Machiavellianism (1469 - 1527) …CON’T
Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian philosopher has formulated a set of behaviour for
maintaining political power. Christie and Geis have formulated an attitude scale in
conformity with some basic tenets of Machiavelli. The aim of the scale is to
measure the extent to which an individual follows Machiaveli views. This scale is
known as “Mach Scale”. The characteristics of people who measure high on Mach
Scale are as follows:
They have high esteem and self confidence and behave in their own self interest
even at the expense of others.
They are considered by others as cool and calculating and that they would not
hesitate to take advantage of others.
They tend to form alliances with people in power for the sole purpose of
benefiting themselves.
They believe that “end justify means” even if it involves lies, deceit and moral
compromise.
 …CON’T
They manipulate others by false flatter and exaggerated praise and that they
will make friends only for the purpose of using them.
They have a very un favourable views of human nature. They believe that
“anyone who completely trusts anyone else is asking for trouble.
They will not set others stand in the way of their personal gain.
They are on the look out and select situations where their tactics would work
most effectively such as face – to – face emotional, unstructured and
ambiguous condition.
They are able to exert control over such unclear situations.

End of chapter 8