GRA 6820

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GRA 6820Political Aspects of Decision
Making(Harrison, Ch.9)
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Overview of chapter 9

• A profile of power
• The managerial decision-making class
• Conceptual foundations of political power
• Profiles of political power in decision-making
• Dimensions of managerial decision-making power
• Constraints on managerial decision-making power

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Metaphor analysis

• Management theories provide only a partial view
  of what organizations are like.
• Definition metaphor
• A figure of speech by which a thing is spoken of
  as being that which it only resembles.
• The idea of likeness, as used in metaphor
  analysis, helps to gain insights into difficult
  to understand phenomena or issues in terms of
  things we are familiar with.
• Types of metaphors used in strategy and
  organization
• Machine
• Organism
• Brain
• Culture
• Politics

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Political metaphor

• When applied to problem situations, the
  relationships between individuals and groups are
  considered as competitive and involving the
  pursuit of power.
• Focuses on issues of...
• Interests
• Conflict
• Power

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Political metaphor assessment
When is it useful?
When is it not useful?

• Highlights all organizational activity as
  interest-based, emphasizes the important role of
  power in determining political outcomes - power
  is at the center of all organizational analysis.
• Emphasizes that goals may be rational for some,
  but not all actors.
• Proposes disintegrative strains and tensions.
• Encourages recognition of the organizational
  actor as political for motivational and
  structural reasons.

• When explicit recognition of the politics of the
  situation leads to further heightening of tension
  and mistrust.
• May over-emphasize the need to deal with
  political issues at the expense of other factors
  essential for organizational health.

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Power

• Some definitions
• Power is the probability that one actor within a
  social relationship will be in a position to
  carry out his own will, despite resistance, and
  regardless of the basis on which this probability
  rests. (Weber, 1947).
• Power is the ability of persons as groups to
  impose their will on others despite resistance
  through deterrence either in the form of
  withholding regularly supplied rewards or in the
  form of punishment inasmuch as the former, as
  well as the latter, constitutes in effect
  negative sanction. (Blau, 1964).
• Power is defined as a force that results in
  behavior that would not have occurred if the
  forces had not been present. (Mechanic, 1962).
• A has power over B to the extent that he can get
  B to do something that he otherwise would not do.
  (Dahl, 1957).
• Power is the ability of one person or group of
  persons to influence the behavior of others, that
  is, to change the probabilities that others will
  respond in certain ways to certain inputs.
  (Kaplan, 1964).
• Power is latent forcePower itself is the prior
  capacity which makes the application of force
  possible. (Bierstedt, 1950).
• Power we may define as the realistic capacity of
  a system-unit to actualize its interests within
  the context of system-interaction and in this
  sense exert influence on processes in the system.
  (Parsons, 1955).

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Social control and social order

• Not simply a function of people conforming to the
  demands of others, to divine precepts, to natural
  law or to fixed norms of an equilibrial or
  homeostatic system.
• Whatever control or disorder that exists at any
  time in a society is a function of the
  interrelations and interactions of the components
  of an on-going system process.

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Terminology

• Power
• Inherently coercive (tvingende).
• Implies involuntary submission.
• Influence
• Persuasive (overtalende).
• Implies voluntary submission.

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Content dimensions of power Authority and
influence

• Authority is the static, structural aspect of
  power in organizations influence is the dynamic,
  tactical element.
• Authority is the formal aspect of power
  influence is the informal.
• Authority refers to the formally sanctioned right
  to make final decisions influence is not
  sanctioned by the organization and is, therefore,
  not a matter of organizational rights.
• Authority implies submission by subordinates
  influence implies voluntary submission and does
  not necessarily entail a superior-subordinate
  relationship.
• Authority flows downward and is unidirectional
  influence is multidirectional and can flow in any
  direction.
• The source of authority is solely structural the
  source of influence may be personal
  characteristics, expertise, or opportunity.
• Authority is circumscribed, that is, the domain,
  scope and legitimacy of the power are
  specifically and clearly delimited influence is
  uncircumscribed, that is, its domain, scope and
  legitimacy are typically ambiguous.

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Theoretical basis of power

• Social exchange theory
• Efficient way to examine social relationships.
• Power is a central aspect of an exchange approach
  to social relationships.
• Dependence is what makes exchange an integral
  part of any social relationship.
• Economic - Supply and Demand
• Political

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Organizational typologyRelationships

• Pluralist
• Basic interest compatibility.
• Some divergence of values and beliefs.
• Not necessarily in agreement on ends and means.
• Participative decision making.
• Act in accordance with agreed objectives.

• Coercive
• Do not share common interests.
• Values and beliefs likely to conflict.
• No agreement on ends and means.
• Use of coercion and power.
• No agreement on objectives.

• Unitary
• Share common interests.
• Compatible values and beliefs.
• Agreement on ends and means.
• Participative decision making.
• Act in accordance with agreed objectives.

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Unitary and pluralist views of interests,
conflict and power
Unitary view Pluralist view
Interests Places emphasis on achievement of common objectives. Organization is united under the umbrella of common goals, working towards their achievement as a well-integrated team. Places emphasis on diversity of individual and group interests. The organization is a loose coalition which has only a remote interest in the formal goals of the organization.
Conflict Regards conflict as a rare and transient phenomenon which can be removed through appropriate managerial action. When it arises, it is usually attributed to the activities of deviants and trouble makers. Regards conflict as an inherent and permanent charactistic of organizational affairs and stresses its potentially positive or functional aspects.
Power Largely ignores the role of power in organizational life. Concepts such as authority, leadership and control tend to be the preferred means of describing managerial prerogative of guiding the organization towards the common goal. Regards power as a variable that is crucial to understanding organizational activities. Power is the medium through which conflicts of interest are eased and resolved. The organization is a plurality of power holders drawing their power from a plurality of sources.
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Theoretical perspectives

• Rationalists
• Satisficers
• Organizationalists
• Politicians
• Individualists

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School of ThoughtThe Rationalists

• Main elements...
• The individual is confronted with a number of
  different specified alternatives.
• Each alternative is associated with a set of
  consequences that will result if that alternative
  is chosen.
• The individual has a system of preferences of
  utilities.
• No descriptive support for this conception of
  decision making.
• The rational choice concept defines the logic of
  optimal choice.

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School of ThoughtThe Satisficers

• Main elements...
• We generally do not have a choice between
  satisfactory and optimal solutions.
• We are limited in our ability to generate and
  compare all possible alternatives.
• The best alternative cannot be recognized.
• We satisfice by looking for alternatives in
  such a way that we generally find an acceptable
  one after a moderate search effort.
• Most problem solving strategies are based on
  heuristics.
• Heuristics reflect bounded rationality.

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School of Thought The Organizationalists

• Main elements...
• Considers the effect of organizational structure
  and conventional practice.
• The organization is made up of coalitions with
  separate priorities, goals and focus of
  attention.
• Decision making necessarily involves bargaining
  among these coalitions.
• Large scale problems are factored into
  sub-problems.
• System designers must identify the sub-units and
  their standard behavior patterns.
• Specialization is generally more efficient for a
  given problem, but may impede integrating,
  changing or evolving the organization.

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School of ThoughtThe Politicians

• Main elements...
• The entire decision process is pluralistic.
• Decision makers are multiple actors with no
  consistent set of strategic objectives.
• Power, advocacy and consensus are legitimate and
  important aspects of decision making.
• This view stresses the importance of the
  implementation process - the issue is not so much
  design as how to introduce, position and use the
  system.

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School of Thought The Individualists

• Main elements...
• People have specialized styles of decision
  making.
• Outcomes of the decision process are affected by
  these individual characteristics.
• Any analytic aid proposed for a decision maker
  must be consistent with the individuals decision
  making style.
• The decision making process must mesh with the
  cognitive structures of the individual.
• This perspective suggests that decision makers be
  looked at as they are, not as they should be.

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Strategic decision making theories

• Model I Rational choice and cognitive
  processes
• Model II Organizational processes
• Model III Political processes

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Categories of normative prescription
Model
Goal
Sources of normative prescriptions

• Improve problem comprehension by providing
  frameworks
• Improve problem comprehension by clarifying
  decision makers own frameworks

• BCG Matrix
• Market Life Cycles
• Industry analysis
• Multiple scenarios
• Decision analysis
• Influence diagrams
• Cognitive mapping

Model I Rational choice and cognitive processes
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Categories of normative prescriptions
Sources of normative prescriptions
Model
Goal

• Formal planning systems
• Regular, Irregular, and Continuous Scanning
• Structural perceptions

• Increase the quality of scanning and
  formulation processes

Model II Organizational processes
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Categories of normative prescriptions
Sources of normative prescriptions
Model
Goal
Model III Political processes

• Dependence Reduction/ Autonomy Strategies
• Stakeholder Management
• Strategic Assumptions Analysis
• Integrating social responsibility into planning
• Logical Incrementalism
• Social Response Matrix
• Intensity Diffusion/ Convergence Analysis
• Cultural Risk Management

• Improve stakeholder representation and
  management

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Combining multiple perspectives via structured
conflict and the Devils Advocate
Facilitators intervention
Assigns to groups
Assists in development
Preliminary development, debate and consensus
Discussion and debate of different views
Model I views
Model II views
Development, debate and consensus
Final synthesis
Development, debate and consensus
Model III views
Consensus and commitment building
P Individual perspective on a particular
strategic problem.
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Integrating the three perspectives
Cognitive perspective
Organizational perspective
Political perspective