Power and Politics in Organizations

INSEAD Period 2/5

MBA PROGRAMME October-November 1998

Page 1

POWER AND POLITICS IN ORGANIZATIONS

Prof. Martin Gargiulo

(EW-022, -x4323)

Secretary: Christine Merle (x4174)

Overview

Organizations exist to facilitate cooperation among interdependent people. Yet,

the realities of the complex social machines in which most of our life takes place are

far from the consensual environment suggested by this image. While interdependence

canЎЄand shouldЎЄbring people to cooperate, it is also one of the main sources of

political conflict and power struggles in organizations. In this course, we examine the

sources of power and the strategic responses to interdependence in organizations, as

well as how these factors on the performance of individual managers and the

organization. You will learn how to analyze an organization from a political

standpoint, how to identify your key dependencies, and how to gain leverage on those

dependencies in order to make and to implement decisions.

Methodology

Power and Politics in Organizations is based on cases, videos, a textbook

(Jeffrey Pfeffer: Managing with Power, Harvard Business School Press, 1992), and

in-class discussion of your own ÐŽocases.ÐŽ± For this purpose, you will have to write a

report describing and analyzing a case where organizational politics had a

consequential impact on the outcome of the situation. Ideally, your report would be on

a situation in which you were personally involved. If this is not possible, you should

write about a situation you know well, either directly or through the key player(s).

You may change people and company names if you prefer to do so. I will select the

best reports to discuss in class and to illustrate various points of the course. This

format, which I have used in the past, provides a unique opportunity to discuss in

detail a situation you are familiar with, working through the information and the

analysis required to understand and to act in the political landscape of an organization.

Specific Course Goals

By the end of this course, you should be able to do the following:

1. Analyze the political context of a specific work environment.

2. Understand the sources and the dynamics of power in organizations.

3. Understand the different influence tactics and their application.

Requirements and evaluation

1. Analytical report (60% of final grade)

Your report on a case involving organizational politics should include a

descriptive and an analytical part. The descriptive part should include a brief

INSEAD Period 2/5

MBA PROGRAMME October-November 1998

Page 2

description of the organization, the setting in which the events evolved, the main

players, and, last but not least, what happened -- i.e., what these players did, and what

were the consequences of their actions. This descriptive part should take you no more

than 3 pages, excluding figures and charts, if you have any. Do not include any

statement revealing your own analysis in this part, since it will serve as the the basis

for our class discussions. Your analysis of the case must be relegated to the second

part (3-5 pages, starting on a different sheet). In this analytical part, you should

address questions such as ÐŽoWhat were the sources of power of the different players?ÐŽ±

ÐŽoWhich events do you think were key to explain the outcome?ÐŽ± ÐŽoWhat were the

strengths and weaknesses of the main player's strategy?ÐŽ± ÐŽoHow was his/her

assessment of the situation?ÐŽ± ÐŽoWhatЎЄif anythingЎЄshould he or she have done

differently?ÐŽ± Be as explicit and provocative as you can. The richer your reports, the

better our class discussion. Since the reports are the basis for the discussions of the

sessions 11 to 15, they are due on the 10th session of the course.

2. Class participation (40% of final grade)

The class participation grade recognizes your contribution to the learning of

your classmates. In line with this aim, class participation has aspects of both quantity

and quality. Regarding ÐŽoquantityÐŽ±, I put a premium on sustained (as opposed to

occasional) participation; regular class attendance is thus a necessary condition.

Regarding ÐŽoquality,ÐŽ± the following guidelines should help you to understand what I

consider to be good class participation:

ÐŽ¤ The points made are relevant to the discussion;

ÐŽ¤ The contribution goes beyond simple recitation of the case facts;

ÐŽ¤ There is evidence of analysis rather than just the expression of opinion;

...