Power, Authority, Influence and Politics in organization:
In this rapidly evolving world, we use power, authority influence and politics to foster the requisite change. It is pivotal that a manager develops expertise of these resources in order to gain competitive advantage. The power imbalance between Whitney and Dreanan that developed after the merger of Excel and Gemini has led to mutual undercutting, and conflicting messages from the top of the organization as each fights to steer the company in the future direction they best see fit. In doing so at the expense of their employees, they have alienated divisions, and jeopardized their organizational culture.
Background:
Excel Systems was found by Ron Whitney in 2010 with a vision to create
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It enjoyed expert power because it catered to a niche market and its prime focus was on marketing and promotion.
Challenges:
The case clearly exhibits various challenges following an imprudent acquisition. Excel Systems and Gemini had huge differences in their corporate value system and management approach. Excel exercised an organic culture, was a creative and engineering driven company which had more of an entrepreneurial start up approach. On the other hand, Gemini was process-oriented and much more professional under the watchful eyes of Dreanan. The factional group thus created friction and strife among upper level and lower level employees.
The subsequent resignations and layoffs of employees emphasizes on the diminishing motivation among employees. This relates to Herzberg’s Dual Factor theory of motivation (introduction of job dissatisfiers) and how structural changes in organization can be a barrier to motivation.
The case clearly unveils various instances of politics too. Warner broke this fact in the case that the entire merger was a political move by the venture capitalists as they wanted to dethrone Whitney and bump up more professional Dreanan as the
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They unlocked the first step to establish credibility as their outsourcing strategy worked successfully for Gemini. Credibility stems from two factors-expertise and relationships, and Ogilvie demonstrated both. She dropped by Regis’s office to foster acquaintance between the two. Ogilvie also enjoyed referent and expert power which adds to her skills of persuasion. The two framed common ground when Dreanan asked both Regis and Ogilvie to come up with a presentation defending their respective strategy. She wanted to convey that she is working in the best interest of Excel Systems and thus provided evidence during the June meeting. She connected emotionally to the advice from her colleagues after the meeting that she should stop defending her strategy and give
This case study examines the proposed merger of Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta both providers of construction aggregates. A stock-for-stock merger had the potential of making the company a global leader in construction materials, but was marred by disagreements over executive succession, location of new headquarters and the stock exchange proposed by Martin Marietta. Furthermore, as negotiations deteriorated Martin Marietta attempted a hostile takeover of Vulcan and also tried to get its directors appointed to
Political power back then was very unevenly distributed and arguments happened quite frequently. But thanks to political parties, political disputes are easier to settle, because power is evenly distributed. Opinions led to wars but Jefferson and Madison actually hated each other. both had different opinions on things, such as the federal banking system. One said it did not matter and the other thought it was completely relevant.
Our case study deals with Mass Merger. Since the 90s, together with the globalization of business, Mergers and Acquisitions have developed at an incredible pace. Thus, companies from all over the world can be lead to work together as one single corporation. Moreover, the world has become interdependent not only economically, but also culturally, that is to say one culture may influence another one or different cultures can be mixed. It is then obvious that intercultural issues have to be solved.
The first part of this essay will introduce the theoretical synthesis of why employees resign from their jobs based on the Eight Motivational Forces (Jr & Griffeth 2004). The second part of this essay will discuss the consequences to the organisation left behind by the employee. The third part will then focus on strategies for organisations to retain their highly talented and motivated employees.
When looking at French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power in this situation, you can understand where the power comes from in this workplace (French, Raven, 1960). I see only four of the five forms being actively used in the RetailMax scenario. The CEO, who helped put the company back into a positive growth, has legitimate power since he believes that he has the right to make demands and get compliance from others in the organization. This can be seen as he authorizes another department to make an offer to Cam. Vince Mangini, Vice President of Professional Services (PS), has reward power and is able to compensate Cam for joining his department with a higher salary and a larger bonus. Cam Archer has the expert power and he wields is well. He has become a more-rounded team player and is continuing to gain credibility and experience in the company. And Regan Kessel has the referent power since he has gained the respect of other workers. With over twenty years of experience in the industry, he is a trusted leader. This has been shown by the relocation of the marketing team under his purview.
All over the globe retaining employees is a most critical factor for the organisations. High employee turnover is more common in private sector as compared to public. In construction industry, to reduce employee turnover and to improve the productivity of an organisation, organisations have to be aware of the reasons why an employees quit the organisation?. Employee turnover can be explained as the expenses, in term of money, time, and quality of work, that an organisation bear while replacing an employee. If an organisation fails to satisfy the needs of its employees then it is obvious that the employees will look forward to fulfill their necessities. This chapter discuss the reasons why employees quit their jobs.
Wall Street was in a new financial frenzy; the old standards of business seems archaic and monotonous compared to what could now be possible. The stock market was the most important figure in the eyes of Americans; to many, a new renaissance of business had occurred. Whether a company had been a direct competitor or longtime ally, mergers seemed like the best choice for either party. Merging meant an almost instantaneous reaction to the market, with increasing market shares, and a larger take of revenue. Cooperation became the mantra of the business world and because of that, American businesses found themselves a more profitable expansion. However, just because cooperation was needed; didn’t mean it applied to everyone involved, the middleman
The authors of this article give the misconceptions of employee turnover by systematically breaking down myths that organizations tend to believe cause employees to leave the workplace. The misconceptions are replaced with evidence based strategies that show the underlying factors beyond pay compensation that drive turnover in addition the employee morale. One of the meta-analytical relationships that
Have you ever felt overworked or unappreciated for your job? Throughout the film, Modern Times, there are strong illustrations of overwork and abuse of power. Tensions between the upper management and the employees are exponential.
The idea that renewal strategies, like redundancy and restructuring, are necessary to achieve organisational goals comes from a supply and demand analysis of the job market. Today’s working environment is seen to be excessively using these strategies in order to accomplish short term goals, resulting in businesses not looking towards their long term futures. This essay will address this issue by looking at the significance and implications redundancy and restructuring raise, that of reduced morale, satisfaction, motivation, and retention of the future workforce. It will also outline the many perspectives on the issue, that of a resource, industry and company based view, as well as display the veracity of these views. It will demonstrate
Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology is devoted to the study of employee behavior in the workplace and understanding the issues facing organizations and employees in today’s complex and ever changing environment. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. An organization depends on the ability of management to provide a positive, fostering and motivating environment for its employees in order to increase profits, productivity and lower turnover rates of its employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare six academic journal articles and explore the behavior, job, and need based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating and understanding their employees. Finding that delicate balance to can sometimes be elusive so effectively learning how to motivate by understanding, controlling and influencing factors to manipulate behavior and choices that are available to employees can produce the desired outcome.
In the recent past there has been increased concern regarding the role of employees’ motivation in organizational performance. The business sector has for the last three to four decades received tremendous changes based on the increased competition. This has widely been influenced by the aspects of globalization. With the increasing interaction among the global communities, business new business opportunities have been opened for existing business. This has in turn led to significant competition
Power and politics have always been around but seldom openly discussed. Power is learned at an early age through family and schools. Ordinary people such as scholars hesitate to talk about power. It is often equated with force brutality, unethical behavior, manipulation, connivance, and subjugation.
According to Herzberg, the factors leading to job satisfaction are distinctly different from those that lead to job-dissatisfaction. Therefore, the managers who seek to eliminate factors that create job-dissatisfaction can bring about peace at the workplace but cannot motivate the employees. These factors are termed as hygiene factors comprising administration, supervision, working conditions, salary and wages etc. While absence of hygiene factors will lead to dissatisfaction, mere presence of these factors will not satisfy (i.e. motivate) the employees. In order to motivate the employees, managers must resort to ‘motivators’ (those factors that motivate the employees towards better performance) such as recognition, challenging assignment, responsibility, opportunities for growth and self-fulfillment etc.
Many companies look to salaries and benefits as the first places to cut back when looking to make changes that involve cost-saving. When this happens, it is inevitable that some employees will leave the company to seek employment elsewhere. The employees that remain, whether they stay voluntarily or because they could not find employment elsewhere, are often resentful. Motivation decreases, taking job performance along with it. Employees lose their company loyalty and may even become angry enough to purposefully sabotage the company.