Political Strategies for Gaining and Maintaining Power

Graphics courtesy of PM Study CircleOpens in new window Managers who use political strategiesOpens in new window to increase and maintain their power are better able to influence others to work toward the achievement of group and organizational goals. By controlling uncertainty, making themselves irreplaceable, being in a central position, generating resources, and building alliances, managers can increase their power. We next look at each of these strategies.

1.     Controlling uncertainty

Uncertainty is a threat for individuals, groups, and whole organizations, and can interfere with effective performance and goal attainment. For example, uncertainty about job security is threatening for many workers and may cause top performers (who have the best chance of finding another job) to quit and take a more secure position with another organization.

When an R&D department faces uncertainty about customer preferences, its members may waste valuable resources on developing a product, such as smokeless cigarettes, that customers do not want.

When top managers face uncertainty about global demand, they may fail to export products to countries that want them, and thus may lose a source of competitive advantage.

Managers who can control and reduce uncertainty for other managers, teams, departments, and the organization as a whole are likely to see their power increase.

• Managers of labor unions gain power when they can eliminate uncertainty over job security for workers.
• Top managers gain power when they are knowledgeable about global demand for an organization’s products.

• Marketing and sales managers gain power when they can eliminate uncertainty for other departments such as R&D by accurately forecasting customers’ changing preferences.

Managers who can control uncertainty are likely to be in demand and be sought after by other organizations.

2.     Making oneself irreplaceable

Managers gain power when they have valuable knowledge and expertise that allow them to perform activities no one else can handle. This is the essence of being irreplaceable. The more central these activities are to organizational effectiveness, the more managers gain from being irreplaceable.

3.     Being in a central position

Managers in central positions are responsible for activities that are directly connected to an organization’s goals and sources of competitive advantage, and often are located in central positions in important communication networks in an organization.

Managers in key positions have control over crucial organizational activities and initiatives, and access to important information. Other organizational members depend on them for their knowledge, expertise, advice, and support, and the success of the organization as a whole is seen as riding on these managers.

These consequences of being in a central position are likely to increase managers’ power. Managers who are outstanding performers, have a wide knowledge base, and have made important and visible contributions to their organizations are likely to be offered positions that will increase their power.

4.     Generating resources

Organizations need three kinds of resources to be effective:

To the extent that a manager can generate one or more of these kinds of resources for an organization, that manager’s power is likely to increase.

In universities, for example, professors who win large grants to fund their research, from associations such as the National Science FoundationOpens in new window and the Army Research InstituteOpens in new window, gain power because of the financial resources they generate for their departments and the university as a whole.

5.     Building alliances

From the beginning, a leader must make sure people would like and support them. For example, the leader could bring coffee, donuts, and other treats to the work area, and could regularly help their co-workers and ask their boss if there was anything they needed help with or other work that needed to be done.

When managers build alliances, they develop mutually beneficial relationships with people both inside and outside the organization. The parties to an alliance support one another because doing so is in their best interests, and all parties benefit from the alliance.

Alliances give managers power because they provide the managers with support for their initiatives. Partners to alliances provide support because they know the managers will reciprocate when their partners need support.

Alliances can help managers achieve their goals and implement needed changes in organizations because they increase managers’ levels of power.

Leaders should build alliances not only inside their organizations, but also with individuals, groups, teams, and organizations in the task and general environments on which their organizations depend for resources.

These individuals, groups, teams, and organizations enter alliances with leaders because, again, doing so is in their best interests and they know they can count on the leaders’ support when they need it. When leaders build alliances, they need to be on their guard to ensure that everything is above-board, ethical, and legal.

Political Strategies for Exercising Power

Politically skilled leaders not only understand, and can use, the five strategies to increase their power, they also appreciate strategies for exercising their power. These strategies generally focus on how leaders can use power unobtrusively.

When leaders exercise power unobtrusively, other members of an organization may not be aware that the leaders are using their power to influence them.

They may think they support these leaders for a variety for reasons; because they believe it is the rational logical thing to do, because they believe doing so is in their own best interests, or because they believe the position or decision the leaders are advocating is legitimate or appropriate.

The unobtrusive use of power may sound devious, but leaders typically use this strategy to bring about change and achieve organizational goals. Political strategies for exercising power to gain the support and concurrence of others include relying on objective information, bringing in an outside expert, controlling the agenda, and making everyone a winner.

1.     Relying on objective information

Leaders require the support of others to achieve their goals, implement changes, and overcome opposition. One way for a leader to gain this support and overcome opposition is to rely on objective information that supports the leader’s initiatives.

Reliance on objective information leads others to support the leader because of the facts; objective information causes others to believe that what the leader is proposing is the proper course of action. By relying on objective information, politically skilled leaders unobtrusively exercise their power to influence others.

2.     Bringing in an outside expert

Bringing in an outside expert to support a proposal or decision can, at times, provide leaders with some of the same benefits that the use of objective information does. It lends credibility to a leader’s initiatives and causes others to believe that what the leader is proposing is appropriate or the rational thing to do.

Although a leader might think consultants and other outside experts are neutral or objective, they sometimes are hired by leaders and other organizational members who want them to support a certain position or decision in an organization.

For instance, when leaders face strong opposition from others who fear that a decision will harm their interests, the leaders may bring in an outside expert. They hope this expert will be perceived as a neutral observer to lend credibility and “objectivity” to their point of view.

The support of the outside expert may cause others to believe that a decision is indeed the right one. Of course, sometimes consultants and other outside experts actually are brought into organizations to be objective and guide leaders on the appropriate course of action.

3.     Controlling the agenda

Leaders also can exercise power unobtrusively by controlling the agenda, thereby influencing which alternatives are considered and whether a decision is made.

When leaders influence the alternatives that are considered, they can make sure that each considered alternative is acceptable to them and that undesirable alternatives are not in the feasible set.

In a hiring context, for example, leaders can exert their power unobtrusively by ensuring that job candidates whom they do not find acceptable do not make their way onto the list of finalists for an open position. They do this by making sure that these candidates’ drawbacks or deficiencies are communicated to everyone involved in making the hiring decision.

When several finalists for an open position are discussed and evaluated in a hiring meeting, a leader may seem to exert little power or influence and just go along with what the rest of the group wants.

However, the leader may have exerted power in the hiring process unobtrusively by controlling which candidates have made it to the final stage. Sometimes leaders can prevent a decision that they find unacceptable from being made by not including in it on the agenda.

4.     Making Everyone a Winner

Often, politically skilled leaders are able to exercise their power unobtrusively because they make sure that everyone whose support they need benefits personally from providing that support.

By making everyone a winner, a leader can influence other organizational members to see supporting the manager as being in their best interest.

Making everyone a winner not only is an effective way of exercising power but, when used consistently and forthrightly, also can increase leaders’ power and influence over time. That is, when a leader actually does make everyone a winner, all stakeholders will see it as in their best interests to support the leader and their initiatives.