Organisation Change and Transition

1
Organisation Change and Transition

• Week 8 (Reading Week)
• Understanding Power, Politics, Conflict and
  Resistance to Change

2
Lecture Structure

• Power
• Definition of Organisational Power
• Sources of Power
• Politics
• Definition of Politics
• Occurrence of Politics
• Is Political Behaviour always negative?
• Conflict in Organisations
• Definition of Conflict
• Sources and Forms of Conflict
• Managing Conflict through Negotiation
• Overcoming Resistance to Change

3
Power in OrganisationsDefinition

• ability of one person or department in an
  organisation to influence other people to bring
  about desired outcomes. It is the potential to
  influence others within the organisation but with
  a goal of attaining desired outcomes for power
  holders. (Daft, 2004 493)

4
Power in OrganisationsIndividual vs.
Organisational Power

• Organisational Sources of Power
• Structure and power invested in a position
• Hierarchy levels and access to resources,
  authority and responsibility

• Individual Sources of Power
• Legitimate power
• Reward power
• Coercive power
• Expert power
• Referent power

5
Power in OrganisationsVertical Sources of Power

• Formal Position
• Rights, responsibilities, and management
  prerogative
• Resources
• Rewards and punishments Labour market issues
• Control of Decision Premises and Information
• Top managers set guidelines or constraints for
  decision making at lower levels control
  information collection, interpretation and
  sharing (Mgt have more)
• Network Centrality
• Alliances and dependencies

6
Power in Organisations Horizontal Sources of
Power

• relationships laterally and the ability of
  respective departments to impose their interests
  on other departments
• Dependent on strategic contingencies
• Dependency
• Financial contribution
• Substitutability
• Centrality
• Uncertainty
• Others Discretion, Visibility

7
Organisational Politics

• Behaviours that others perceive as self-serving
  tactics for personal gain at the expense of other
  people and possibly the organisation (McShane,
  2004)
• Distinctions Between Power and Politics
• Power capacity to influence individuals or
  departments
• Politics actual exercise of influence applied
  upon individuals or departments to influence
  decisions and obtain preferred outcomes

8
Organisational Politics

• In evidence when
• Uncertainty is high and there is disagreement
  over goals and resource allocation
• Managers confront non-programmed decisions
• Structural change Management succession
  Resource allocation
• Traditionally seen as negative and efforts
  exerted to banish political behaviour
• Question Is there constructive potential in
  Politics?
• Reading Holbeche (2004), Buchanan and Badham
  1999 (Course Website) Bancroft Turner and Morley
  (2002) (Handout).

9
ConflictConditions for Inter-group Conflict

• Conflict is a process which begins when one
  party perceives that another party has negatively
  affected, or is about to negatively affect,
  something the other party cares about (Huczynski
  and Buchanan, 2004 791)
• Identify with one group and perceive that other
  groups may block their goal achievement
• Horizontal Conflict
• Lateral conflict among sub-units or departments
  at similar hierarchical levels. 
• Vertical Conflict
• Control Power Goals Compensation

10
Sources of ConflictWhy does it exist?

• Operative goal incompatibility
• incompatibility between groups 
• Differentiation
• differences in orientations among managers of
  different factional departments
• Task interdependence
• dependence of one unit on another for materials,
  resources, or information
• Limited resources
• competition for scarce resources
• Others Personal Factors, Culture, Communication

11
ConflictHow can we see it?

• Individual
• Sabotage
• Whistle blowing and ethical dilemmas
• Work manipulation
• Misusing and stealing resources (cyber loafing
  Lim, 2002)
• Political behaviour
• Absenteeism and LTO
• Group
• Strikes and lockouts
• Working to rule
• Factionalism

12
Conflict Conflict Handling Strategies (Thomas
1976)
High
Competitive or authoritarian
Collaborative and problem solving
Self Assertion
Compromise
Avoidance
Smoothing or accommodating
Low
High
Co-operation
13
Resistance to ChangeThe relevance of Conflict,
Power and Politics

• Conflict, Power and Politics indisputable aspects
  of social and organisational life
• Challenge is to ensure that each is used in
  positive ways to enhance change an reduce
  resistance
• Resistance to change found at three levels
• Individual (Uncertainty and insecurity, selective
  perception and retention, Habit)
• Group (Group norms, Group Cohesiveness,
  Groupthink)
• Organisational (Power, Politics and Conflict,
  Functional differentiation, Structure and
  Culture)

14
Resistance to ChangeOvercoming Resistance to
Change

• Huse (1975)
• Perceived personal benefit
• Involvement of Leader/supervisor
• Provision of information
• Shared perception of need to change
• Participation and involvement (we not them and
  us)
• Group cohesiveness
• Targeting on-going work groups rather than
  temporary groups
• Open communications

• Kotter and Schlesinger (1979)
• Education and Communication
• Participation and involvement
• Facilitation and support
• Negotiation and agreement
• Manipulation and cooption
• Explicit and Implicit coercion

15
References

• Bancroft-Turner, D. and Morley, D. (2002) Psst!
  Dont tell anyone but organisational politics
  is about to go positive, Training Journal,
  August1215. (Class Handout).
• Buchanan, D. and Badham, R. (1999) Politics and
  Organisational Change The Lived Experience,
  Human Relations, 52(3)609 (Available on Course
  Website)
• Daft, R. L.  (2004) Organization Theory and
  Design (Eight Edition), South-Western College
  Publishing, Ohio.
• Holbeche, L. (2004), The power of constructive
  Politics, Roffey Park Institute Publications
  (Available on Course Website)
• Lim, V.K.G. (2002) The IT way of loafing on the
  job cyberloafing, neutralising and
  organisational justice, Journal of
  Organisational Behaviour, 23 675-694
• McShane, S.L. (2004) Canadian Organizational
  Behaviour (Fifth Canadian Edition), Toronto,
  McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited.
• Thomas, K.W. (1976) Conflict and conflict
  management, in Dunnette, M.D. (ed) Handbook of
  Industrial and Organisational Psychology,
  Chicago Rand McNally