Daily Times

Leaders and managers need power to influence others. Power helps managers fulfil their leadership responsibilities. It also affects relationships among people at all levels, inside and outside the organisation. Managerial power has changed considerably over time. Managers delegate and empower others. Organisational Structures have flattened, causing more people at each level to share power. Relationships among groups or team members and with customers, contractors, and suppliers are more important in some organisations than status and hierarchy. These changes have altered the way organisations define and use power. Fluid coalitions and relationships are the core of the political process inside organisations. From the research point of view, it is important to analyse traditional and current views of power; its individual, team and organisational sources and its consequences. It is also important to explore the use of politics in organisations.

Power is the ability of one person to influence another, whereas authority is vested in a position. Sources of power are legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent. Legitimate, reward, coercive power derives from the person’s formal position in the organization. The source of expert and referent power is the individual. Three reactions to power are commitment, compliance and resistance. Commitment is most likely to occur when people use expert or referent power. Resistance is likely to occur if a person relies too heavily on coercive power.

What are the organisational sources of power? Well, it depends on strategic contingencies; namely, 1) Coping with uncertainty; 2) Centrality in the resource network, and 3) dependence and substitutability. Individuals who engage in activities that further the organisation’s mission gain power.

Culture and gender affect power. The cultural value of power distance affects views of power and its use. The cultural value of achievement-ascription determines who holds power. Although organisational behaviour researchers have studied the relationship between gender and power, the effects of gender differences are still uncertain. Power is a factor in sexual harassment.

Power has a darker side that deserves attention. It is of vital significance to understand the causes and consequences of power. The adage of “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” applies to people in organizations. The corruption of power refers to a person who abuses power for personal gain. The tragedy is that the power holder believes he or she is not obliged to play by the same rules that apply to others in the organization.

Let us try to understand the causes and consequences of the corruption of power. The cycle of power corruption starts when a person has a significant amount of power and access to resources with limited or no accountability to a higher authority. It is an issue of in-effective supervision and control of personnel at all levels of the organization. Perhaps there is a need for a fresh look at the triangular relationship of responsibility, authority and accountability. Although internal and external audit procedures should be able to point out deviations from the norm and suggest correctional measures, still there is a need for effective institutional measures for separation of powers and checks and balances for effective controls by the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary.

No substitutes can adequately and meaningfully replace an effective and efficient system of administration with a focus on human resource management and development. Workers at all levels of an organisation need reorientation and incorporation of essential values and work ethics. They should also have an understanding of “using power and organization politics”

In addition to “power with access to resources and no accountability” the power corruption cycle includes distance from employees; inflated view of problems and issues; employee reactions -compliance and flattery submissive behaviors and dependence; and consequences: poor decisions, coercion low opinion of employee ethical violations, and more and more power distance.

Once the power corruption cycle starts, it feeds on itself -Employees become compliant and dependent because of their managers’ power. However, managers attribute the compliance and submission to incompetence and an inability to make decisions.

Excessive power leads to the increased distance between the power holder and others for example, between a manager and employees. Managers have separate offices and parking areas, eat in special dining rooms, have limited contact with employees, and are generally protected from contact with those who have limited power. The separation is often explained by a legitimate need to protect the manger’s valuable time. However, the distance that such a separation create reduces the interaction between managers and employees, the interaction between managers and employees, impedes the flow of information between them and removes managers from the inner workings of their organizations.

Potential remedies for the corruption of power include increase contact between managers and employees. Reduce employee’s dependence on managers first by setting objective performance measure, secondly providing access to information and direct feedback. This gives more autonomy and saves workers from flattery and submission to win over managers.

A major cause of corruption is excessive power without accountability. Contributing and interrelated factors are a manager’s distance from employees; inflated view of the self; and employee flattery, submissiveness, and dependency.

Consequences are poor decision making, use of coercion, a low opinion of employees, unethical or illegal actions, and distancing oneself from employees. An open and performance-centred organization culture and structure can help bring positive and meaningful change to end corruption the dark side of power.

The writer is a former director of the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), Government of Pakistan, a political analyst