ABSTRACT
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DEFINING AND DIFFERENTIATING INFLUENCE, POWER, AND POLITICS
This chapter presents and discusses three topics: influence, power, and organizational politics. Although each is a distinct concept, they are also three facets of the same general process, for all involve one party trying to affect the behavior of another. However, it is important to be able to distinguish among the three. The differences are subtle.
Influence, power, and politics are extremely significant and pervasive processes in all work groups and organizations. Power and influence in particular are important aspects of leadership (see Chapter 13) because leaders use their power and influence to help work groups attain their goals. Influence, power, and politics are also important factors in group processes, which we discussed in Chapter 12. For example, conformity to group norms will occur only if the group can influence members to follow the rules. Also, managers can use their power and authority to help resolve conflicts among group members. Furthermore, group decision making, by its very nature, is a political process. Finally, because certain forms of power are linked to the very structure of the organizational hierarchy, our discussion in this chapter will provide some groundwork for examining organizational structure in Chapter 15.
