Power and Politics in Companies - Research Paper Example

Power and Politics in Companies According to an article written by Tan Chee Teik power and politics go hand in hand. He has suggested that in order to get work done, companies act like realms where the senior management dictates procedures that are based entirely on their “power and political influence”. However the important thing to note is that most companies are so dependent on politics or become entirely political that personal interests are then given superiority rather than considering the organisational interests. He further explains in his article “Power and politics go hand in hand: power is the ability to get things done.”, that power is the capability to use influence in any corporation beyond the authority that might have been given to a person. Any supervisor's individual power can be based on his knowledge regarding the job, own authority, their interpersonal or communication skills, the capability to attain results, sympathetic and convincing capability and even physical strength to some extent. Most managers can get power both from the “organizational and individual sources”. The tendency to derive the power in the organization may solely rest on the virtue of the position they hold in the organization. It is a very useful thins and allows them to intimidate their subordinates or reward them as and when necessary. Talking about the individual level, the manager may have used personal power solely based on his/her knowledge and upon the power to control someone else’s behaviour. Politics on the other hand can be portrayed as the “art of using authority, the power to achieve your goals and mostly influence.” However, for a manager to get into politics means that he/she should be well aware of the barriers like the departments, individual, company, divisional, and group self-interest. It is interesting to note that people; even though they work in the same company; would patrol their territory and guard the perimeters like dogs mark their boundary. Politics is also used in companies when one wants to “win over staff from other departments”. This will happen if the manager is able to demonstrate their views or results to the “self-interest group” in a way that is not threatening at all. One should be able to highlight the fact that “what you request for is good for both departments and for the company.” For a comparison and contrast to see if power and politics are at play in a company we have chosen Coca Cola and Southwest airlines. The following paras will briefly compare the practices of leadership and management in both the companies plus their brief introduction. Coca Cola and Southwest are companies from two very different industries. The reason they were selected was to give two different views or perspectives on how companies use their management and leadership practices and convert them into success factors. Both these companies are successful and a tough competition in the market. An introduction to the companies will be discussed first with a view of how long these companies have been in the market. South west airlines as compared to Coca Cola are still in the growth stage. Coca cola was established in 1892, over a century of serving the world with their beverage. The 37 year old South west is no match but still in these few years it has become quite successful in the market. What do these companies practice or do that makes them so successful? Profile of Coca Cola Company Coca Cola changed their perspective a few years ago when their new CEO took over. Currently the company believes in “working as a team”. They have built around two basic assets i.e. their brand and their people. They want the workplace to be a place where people can explore, be creative, find professional growth opportunities and built on interpersonal relationships. They say that” It's about being inspired and motivated to achieve extraordinary things. We want our people to take pride in their work and in building brands others love.” Very focused on the fact that it is a combination of “talents, skills, knowledge, experience and passion” of their employees and it is what makes them so successful.. The best thing is that although Coca Cola operates in different countries across different cultures it has not forgotten to adapt to the factors that surround them. They believe that due to this geographical diversity of the environment, they “learn from each market and share those learnings quickly”. It is because of this that their Company culture works both ways and in favour of the people that they have employed. Thus starting from the basic beverage concept and development to producing, their connections are sharing ideas not only across departments but also across markets in different ways. This has a very positive effect on the way their merchandisers and employees work to bring innovation in the company. Southwest Airlines Southwest Airline is not that old a company but in its 37 years of market share it has become quite successful. Once again we look at what makes it work so efficiently and gain success. The airlines’ main concern is to guarantee the personal “Safety of each Southwest Customer and Employee”. They however also believe in following “The Golden Rule”. The golden rule means that one should treat the other as they would want to be treated. This is the reason why to do the right thing; even for their employees and customers is so innate to who they are. They have defined their own style of working at Southwest. That is to have “a Warrior Spirit, a Servant’s Heart, and a Fun-LUVing Attitude”. Surprising each of these criteria’s are detailed behaviors in order to help them become a “Safe, profitable, and Fun place to work.” “The Southwest Airlines Way” (Gittell) indicates that although Southwest´s outstanding “leadership, "funky" culture, quick-turnaround strategy and stellar coordination” practices to offer vital information they do not capture completely the real source for the competitive advantage of the company. It is believed by the author that the company’s most distinguishing managerial capability is the skill to ability to maintain and build relationships regarded with not only the shared goals and shared knowledge but most importantly by earning mutual respect. She found out that in these past years the company had developed certain practices to ensure the development of a high performance relationship. As stated by her in the article they were ten steps or guidelines given under: “(1) leading with credibility and caring, (2) investing in frontline leadership, (3) hiring and training for relational competence, (4) using conflicts to build relationships, (5) bridging the work/family divide, (6) creating boundary spanners, (7) measuring performance broadly, (8) keeping jobs flexible at the boundaries, (9) establishing partnerships with the unions, and (10) building relationships with suppliers.” According to the writer each of the above practices are created or built in order to generate a relationship that ensures sharing of goals, knowledge and the mutual respect. Together they have allowed the company to attain its industry leading role and level; both in quality and competence. Power and Politics at Play With regards to the practices that are currently followed in both the companies we similarities in their HR approach. Both companies are focussing on providing a learning and productive environment for their employees and believe that the welfare of their employees is very important. They strongly support a constructive yet relaxed environment in place or a strict and foreboding work environment. The only difference amongst them is that Coca Cola is working on a larger scale and covers diverse workforce and environments and needs to adapt the practices according to the market they prevail in. This is not an issue with Southwest as they are not yet international. We have already established at the beginning of the paper that power an d politics go hand in hand. It has also been understood that manager given a certain designation will automatically be entitled to some power and influence. It was asserted that even though politics come with the power of the manager it should not be used to an extent where it reaches personal level. Both power an politics should be used in the benefit of the company and its growth. Considering the companies understudy we don’t find a very authoritative environment as gathered from the data. Although it is a fact that their CEO’s or directors are using their power to influence the procedures that should be run in the companies. Another thing is that politics is at play and we can see it in the way the top level managers are influencing their employees with motivational dialogues and also by generating in them the confidence that the company is their well-wisher. They motivate their staff to work in the benefit of the company because they assure them that they are the top priority for the company. It is no doubt a display of politics and power but we cannot ignore that this is being used as a positive tool in the progress of the company and is showing its result. References The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance. (n.d.). Retrieved 7th November, 2009: http://www.hr.com/SITEFORUM?t=/contentManager/onStory&e=UTF-8&i=1116423256281&l=0&active=no&ParentID=1119278182413&sort=Price&StoryID=1133218999211 Power and politics go hand in hand: power is the ability to get things done. (n.d.). Retrieved 6th November, 200: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/194333355.html Read More