Transcript THE POWER-CONTROL MODEL

THE POWER-CONTROL
MODEL
POWER OF CONTINGENT
VARIABLES
“At best, the four contingent variables (size,
technology, environment and strategy) explain
only 50 to 60 percent of the variability in
structure.
It is proposed that power and control can explain
a good portion of the residual variances.”
MAJOR POWER-CONTROL
VARIABLES
Power
Politics
Conflict
Network Centrality
Dominant Coalitions
Satisficing
Bounded Rationality
POWER
Power is usually defined as a personal characteristic
based upon one’s ability to influence or dominate
another person.
The typical types of power ascribed to individuals
are:
1. Legitimate position power (authority)
2. Coercive power
3. Reward power
4. Expert power
5. Referent (normative) power
ORGANIZATIONAL POWER
Power in organizations is usually the result of structural
characteristics. There is a formal hierarchy of positions
that differ in the importance of the tasks to be performed.
Some positions also have access to more resources or are
more mission-critical to the organization. Power based
upon organizational relationships is vested in the position,
not the individual, and comes from both vertical and
horizontal relationships.
VERTICAL SOURCES OF
POWER
1. Formal Position: Occupants of a position accrue
certain rights, prerogatives, and responsibilities
legitimately based upon the priority of the position
in the hierarchy. Rights include goal-setting,
decision making and directing activities of
prescribed others.
VERTICAL POWER II
2. Resources: Organizational resources are allocated
downward by top management. Resource allocations
can be used for rewards or punishments (also sources
of power), or to create dependency
3. Control of Decision Premises and Information: Top
managers place constraints on decisions made at
lower levels, by defining the decision frame of
reference and guidelines for making the decision. They
also routinely have access to more information for
decision making, and control it.
VERTICAL POWER III
4. Network Centrality: the degree to which a person/
position is located centrally in the organization so
as to have greatest access to information and
people that are critical to success of the company.
Many top executives surround themselves with a
network of loyal subordinates with access to a
high degree of company information and form
alliances with other significant people to wield
considerable power in the organization.
HORIZONTAL SOURCES OF
POWER
1. Strategic Contingencies: Events and activities that
are critical for achieving organizational goals. Units
involved with strategic contingencies tend to have
more power because they provide strategic value to
the organization. For example, if the organization
is threatened by significant lawsuits, the legal staff
would have significant power and influence over
organizational decision making.
HORIZONTAL POWER II
2. Dependency: A unit gains power based upon its
relative dependency to other units. The more
another unit needs it to complete it mission
successfully, the more power the latter has relative
to the former unit.
HORIZONTAL POWER III
3. Financial Resources: “The person with the gold
makes the rules.” Modern Axiom. Money is a
scarce resource that can be converted to many
other resources. Control over money is a big
source of power to units. It also creates
dependencies. Usually departments that generate
income for the organization have more power.
HORIZONTAL POWER IV
4. Centrality: degree to which a department’s role is in
a primary activity of the organization, especially one
that affects the final output.
5. Non-Substitutability: the degree to which a unit’s
work cannot be duplicated by another contributes
significantly to it’s power in the organization and
enhances it’s role in the organization.
HORIZONTAL POWER V
6. Coping with Uncertainty: Many environmental
variables can be volatile and change rapidly, creating
high levels of uncertainty for the organization. The
degree to which the work of a unit contributes to
reducing that uncertainty for other units, the more
power accrues to the unit. This is usually accomplished
by: (1) obtaining important information for others, (2)
preventing problems before they occur, and (3)
absorption of uncertainty.
ORGANIZATIONAL
POLITICS
Organizational politics involves those activities
taken within organizations to acquire, develop,
and use power and other resources to obtain
one’s preferred outcomes in a situation in which
there is uncertainty or (a lack of consensus)
about choices.
ORGANIZATIONAL
CONFLICT
Organizational conflict develops between individuals
and groups for the following reasons:
1. Goal incompatibility
2. Differentiation
3. Task interdependence
4. Limited resources
USES OF POLITICAL
MODELS
When intergroup conflict is low – a rational decision
making process will be followed. That model is
characterized by:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Monitoring the decision environment
Defining the decision situation
Specifying decision objectives
Diagnosing the problem
Developing alternative solutions
Evaluating alternatives
Choosing the best alternative
Implementing the chosen alternative
USES OF POLITICAL
MODELS II
When intergroup conflict is high, the Carnegie model
of decision making prevails. The model suggests
explicitly recognizes that the preferences and values
of managers differ and that conflict between managers
and different stakeholder group is inevitable.
Decision making occurs in an uncertain environment
where information is often incomplete and ambiguous.
Decisions are made by people who are limited by bounded
rationality, who satisfice, and who form coalitions to
pursue their own interests.
CARNEGIE MODEL
Bounded Rationality: Managers try to be as rational
as possible but are faced with very complex problems,
many of which are ambiguous or require shared support
by other organizational members. Managers are limited
by time constraints, incomplete information, and
insufficient resources.
Satisficing: managers accept “satisfactory” solutions to
organizational problems rather than pursue “optimal”
solutions. They talk to other managers to reduce
uncertainty, conduct simple, local searches for alternatives,
and use established procedures if appropriate.
COALITIONS
The Carnegie model sees the organization as a coalition
of different interests, in which decision making occurs
through compromise, bargaining and negotiation
between managers from different functions and areas of
the organization. Any solution chosen must meet the
approval of the Dominant Coalition.
DOMINANT COALITIONS
Many managers form coalitions to secure their power
bases, and to protect their occupancy of powerful, central
positions in the organization. The most powerful of these
coalitions are called Dominant Coalitions, and wield the
highest amounts of power in the organization.
Over time, as interests change, the makeup of the dominant
coalition changes and so does the decision making.
DECISION MAKING
Constraints
The decision
will be made
by the dominant
coalition
Strategy, Size
Technology,
Environment
The criteria &
preferences in
the decision will
reflect the selfinterest of the
dominant coalition
+
Satisficing
level of
organizational
effectiveness
Structural
alternatives
Emergent
structure
DECISION DISCRETION IN
THE POWER-CONTROL
MODEL
Organic
Mechanistic
Decision
Discretion
A