pmi conclave - vijaya devi

Understanding Power

Dynamics in Stakeholder

Management

PMI Conclave 2015

Speaker : Vijaya Devi

Contents

• Introduction

• Concept of Power

• Power and Politics

• Theories of Power

• Perspectives on Power Dynamics

Power/Interest Grid

Stakeholder Analysis

• To identify stakeholders

• their interests, expectations and influence

• To build coalitions and potential

partnerships to enhance project’s

success

Concept of Power

Power is relational

Power is always exercised in context

of relationship between two actors

It does not reside in actors themselves

Power, control and conflict are related

“conflict is a manifestation of continuous struggle

over control that power relations imply”

Power and Politics• What do we see in organizations ?

– Rationality, openness, trust, collaboration

OR

– Self-interests, ‘backstaging’, deceit, competition

• Major decisions and significant changes are

particularly liable to high political activity

• Decision makers often face scarcity of

resources, competing goals, interdependence

and other sources of conflict

• May lead to sub-optimal decisions

• Organizations cannot be understood without a

knowledge of political motives, agenda and

behaviour

Power and Politics

“Organizational politics involves those activities taken within organizations to acquire, develop and use power and other resources to obtains one’s preferred outcomes in a situation in which there is uncertainty or dissensusabout choices” – Jeffrey Pfeffer

Different interests are built into organizational structures

Therefore, each decision means negotiation and renegotiation in a never-ending stream of political manoeuvring that constitutes everyday organizational life

Questions on Power

What determines the power of various social

actors ?

What are the conditions under which power is

used ?

What strategies can one use to develop power ?

How can managers enhance their chances of

having their power legitimized ?

Developing and Using PowerDevelop power by

– Creating dependence in others

– Coping with uncertainty on behalf of others

– Developing personal network

– constantly augmenting one’s expertise

Use Power to

Control information flow to others

Control agenda (issue definition, issue exclusion)

Control decision-making criteria

Cooptation and coalition building

Bring in outside experts to bolster one’s position

Outlooks on Organization

Power• Modern (60s, 70s)

• Rational Models of Authority and Hierarchy

• Power and authority is legitimate to control

production and improve organizational efficiency

• Max Weber and Frederick Taylor were the early

proponents of the rational mode

• Later included power and politics into organizations

theories as researchers found undeniable evidence

of the same

• ‘Rational model assumes that decision-makers

agree about the decision-making rules, organization

goals, and have no disagreement’


Power

• Critical (80s)• Questioning the institutionalization of power and

the legitimacy of managerial control

• ‘Control happens thru hegemony, ideologies and

subtle and incessant influence’

• Focus is on humanistic, ethical, and

inclusive decision making processes as

alternative for the rational ideal

• Analyses ‘why the dominated groups give

active consent to their own exploitation’

• Postmodern (90s)• Development and use of knowledge are always

power plays

• Organizations are products and producers of

disciplinary power

• Control is through disciplinary technologies and

self-surveillance


Power

SOME MODERNIST THEORIES

OF POWER

Strategic Contingency Theory

• “Ability of an actor to protect others from

uncertainty determines his/her power”

• The case of unexpected amount of power of

maintenance workers in a cigarette company

• Coping with uncertainty generates power only when

its task is central to the operations of the

organization

• Identifying strategic contingencies (locating sources

of uncertainty) and converting that into power

(managing the negative consequences)

Resource Dependence Theory

• Power derived from managing uncertainty determines the

distribution of authority within the organizational hierarchy

• Politics of resource dependency : a unit’s use of resources to

legitimate and institutionalize its position rather than

perform its core task

• Environments give rise to uncertainty, uncertainty gives

opportunity for power differentials among organizational

units , power differentiations are used to distribute formal

authority, those granted authority make key decisions that

affect organizational actions that change the environment

and so on

Critical Theories of PowerThree faces of power (Steven Lukes,British political and social theorist

)

– Decision making

– Non decision making

– Ability to shape the preferences and perceptions of

others without their awareness

Labor Process Theory (Harry Braverman, American Sociologist)

• Managers control work systematically by deskilling labor

through job fragmentation and routinization

• Deskilling continues until the work is so simple that it is

easy for the manager to replace workers who put up any

resistance

Postmodern Theories

• Disciplinary Power and Surveillance

– Resides in the routine practices of surveillance used in

organizations

– Is considered as normal and useful by employees

– ‘anticipation of control causes people to engage in self-

surveillance’

– Hospitals, schools, prisons, factories are sites of disciplinary power

– Exercised constantly in a network of relationships and shifts from

one person to another as it is produced and reproduced from one

moment to another

Postmodern Theories

• Just as power is everywhere, so is resistance

• Resistance in the form of less work effort,

absenteeism, silence, etc

• Self-surveillance : gaze of inspection and

anticipation of gaze and self-monitoring

• Many HR practices enact the gaze, such as

performance appraisals, psychological tests, etc

PERSPECTIVES ON POWER

DYNAMICS

Perspectives on Power Dynamics

• Position power

– Position power comes from a formal position or authority

– Implies legitimate power for positive or negative sanctions

– This use of power is observable and direct

– Resistance to power is seen as illegitimate

– Eg., project manager vs project team members, any

hierarchical organization structure

– Has fewer costs and is non-expendable

– Works top-down

Perspectives on Power Dynamics

• Stakeholder Engagement using position power

– Achieving project outcomes through application of legitimate power

– Decision making is based on exclusion of stakeholders and employees

– Accepted strategy when there is a situation of crisis and rapid action is required

– Generally considered as ineffective in achieving outcomes

– Will ensure compliance when groups are interdependent, and share a sense of urgency

Perspectives on Power

Dynamics

• Personal Power

– Derived from expertise, skills, knowledge,

experience, charisma

– Capacity to influence another person to accept

one’s own ideas and plans

– Visible and observable source of power

– Expert power as a legitimate source of power

– Works in all directions


Dynamics• Achieving project outcomes using knowledge as a

legitimate source of power

• Decision making and decision makers supported by the expert power bases

• A power base is more likely to influence decision-making processes when it is scarce

• Resistance can be dealt with by propagating a vision, and by elaborate communication

• Possession of a power base alone is not sufficient in influencing, thereby creating coalitions, multiple relationships, sponsorship, etc


Dynamics• Structural Power

– Power of interdependent groups

– Power relations characterized by co-operation and competition

– Power balance between individual interests and interdependent group interests

– Loss in balance leads to conflicts, power games and controversies in decision-making

– Loss of balance is also inevitable

– Power processes are mostly visible and the exercise of power is a conscious activity


Dynamics• Achieving project outcomes through conflict

management and negotiation

• All stakeholders play their role, based on their own interests, their position in the organization and their departmental power

• Coalitions will form and strive to secure their interests and power positions

• Resistance to change is either to acquire power or to escape from it

• Parties with considerable position power and personal power are in a position to strengthen their power


DynamicsCulture Power

– The given structure, culture and division of power is taken

as natural and legitimate

– Power has the capacity to shape reality and make people

conform without the explicit need to use power

– Power processes are unconscious

– Management has the opportunity to use culture power to

give meaning to events and contributes to the development

of norms and events


Dynamics

Management by seduction• Stakeholders agree voluntarily on the existing structure,

systems and culture

• Stakeholders identify with the demands of the system

and the culture

• Change of perspective that conceals negative

consequences and highlights positive consequences

• Information is used such that alternatives are never

revealed, omit risks that are taken

• Can lead to mistrust, conflict prevents multiple parties to

come together


Dynamics

• Power Dynamics and Dialogue

– How power dynamics can be used to facilitate processes that cater to the interests of all stakeholders

– Redistributing power so that change strategies are overt and open to all

– All stakeholders have the opportunity to initiate and maintain dialogue on pertinent issues

– Dialogue enables exchanging ideas, and cross influencing attitudes and opinions of others

– Neither personal nor position power, nor structural power nor manipulation


Dynamics

• Management through organization learning

• Participative design and development

• Democratic dialogue

• Decision making is based on consultation and

exchange of experiences, ideas and arguments

of all stakeholders

THANK YOU

Reference:

1. Organization Theory : Modern, Symbolic, and Postmodern

Perspectives, Mary Jo Hatch, Ann L. Cunliffe

2. Power Dynamics and Organizational Change:

A Comparison of Perspectives, Jaap J. Boonstra and Kilian M.

Bennebroek Gravenhorst

pmi conclave - vijaya devi

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