HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (YEAR 3) - Essay Example

Power is a force or a store of political influence through which events can be affected. Politics involves activities or behaviors through which power is developed and used in organizational settings. Political behavior is initiated to overcome opposition. If there is no opposition, political activity is not necessary. Bases of power may be divided logically: personal power is derived from personal attributes and expertise while position power is derived from official position. There are many ways to describe the uses of power.

Organizations are made up of individuals who are grouped into coalitions of interests. Coalitions form to protect and improve their vested interests. Often they are formed along departmental lines, but not always. This refers to the political interests in the organization. The different subunits in an organization are not neutral. Each group has a distinct set of interests which is frequently at odds with other groups. The groups compete for favourable allocation of resources. The structure of an organization is a crucial determinant of the flow of the distribution of resources, therefore built into the organization is a structure of advantage and disadvantage.

It is in the interests of a group to have resources distributed in its favour. So interests refer to the relationship between an individual or group and the distribution of organizational resources. Interests are concerned with securing a fair share of organizational resources, and are expressed through a motivation to enhance or defend a particular distribution of organizational resources. Organizations differ in the distribution of power. In some power is focused and concentrated within a narrowly drawn coalition, in others power is relatively dispersed between multiplicities of groups.

There is a difference between power and authority which has to be made