Transcript WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD UNIVERSITIES…..

Power & Influence
Power Your Potential
Women’s Conference
June 10, 2010
Defining Power within Organizations
Popular Topic
 Positive or Negative?
 How is it defined?
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Power can be defined as the
ability to get things done, to
mobilize resources, to get and
use whatever it is that a
person needs for the goals he
or she is attempting to meet.
French and Raven suggest:
Reward power (controlling resources
that could reward)
 Coercive power (controlling
resources that could be used to
punish)
 Expert Power (controlling necessary
knowledge or information)
 Reference Power (being personally
attractive to other people)
 Legitimate Power (authority vested in
a position or role)

Promotable supervisors defined as
those who share information,
delegate authority, train subordinates
for more responsibility and allow for
latitude and autonomy.
Unpromotable supervisors may
try to retain control and restrict
the opportunities for
subordinates learning
and autonomy.
Increasing power of individuals:
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Extraordinary activities
Visibility
Relevance (are they identified with
the solution to pressing
organizational problems?)
Another approach to understanding Power
is suggested by (Bolman and Deal, 2009)
Power is the capacity of a person, team, or
organization to influence others.
 The potential to influence other
 People have power they don’t use and may
not know they possess
 Power requires one person’s perception of
dependence on another person
 Power can ultimately be seen as perception
solely.
Influence is any behavior that
attempts to alter someone’s attitudes
or behavior.
 Applies one or more power bases
 Process through which people
achieve organizational objectives
 Operates up, down, and across the
organizational hierarchy
Power is only the capacity to
influence others whereas
influence is power in motion.
Ethical Ideologies and
Decision Making
Among Student Athletes:
Impact of Influence
Ethical Ideologies and Decision Making Among
Student Athletes
Data Collection
 A Northeast athletic conference: 8 participating institutions (9 IRBs!)
 Two tiered approach paper/pencil and web based
 Participation rate of 41% - 1,329 surveys
 1st wave Spring 2008, paper and pencil – 920 surveys.
To increase participation a web survey was developed - 409 surveys
(distribution to those of the population at the time of the initial survey)
 Demographics of respondents:
Quantitative Conceptual Model
Moderators: Locus of Control, Gender
Controls: Status, Team/Individual Sport
Structural Equation Model
Model Fit Statistics:
2=488.49 (df=231),
NFI=0.87
CFI=0.92
RMSEA=0.04
Lo90=0.03
Hi90=0.04
Pclose=1.00
Findings
First, as noted in the literature, social norms can have a powerful
influence on the choices that individuals make in various
situations. In this study it was found that social norms have an
influence on individual choices, but this pattern across the three
groups is erratic.
 Second, Past Behavior does have influence on importance and
behavioral intention. This effect is negative and needs to be better
understood with future research.
 Third, within Individual Norms, idealism, more than relativism,
influences individual norms. Additionally, idealism has a significant
direct and indirect effect across gender and across internal and
external locus of control.
 Fourth, Importance is a critical mediating mechanism in
understanding the relationship between social norms, past
behavior, individual norms, and behavioral intention. Given the
data, the role of importance in the decision making process and its
influence on behavioral intention proved significant.

Framingham Heart Study 2000
Rules of Life in the Network
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
We shape our network
Our network shapes us
Our friends affect us
Our friends’ friends’ friends affect
us
The network has a life of its own
Credibility is seen as the most
important trait of
leadership/power in an
Indsco survey.
Credibility = competence + power.
Power rests in part on the
ability to solve dependency
problems and to control
relevant sources of
uncertainty.
Alliances :
Power through Others
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Sponsors
Peers
Subordinates
…it’s really all about relationships
References:
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Bolman, Terrence and Deal, Lee (2009).
Reframing Organizations, Jossey-Bass.
Christakis, Nicholas and Fowler, James
(2009). Connected, Little Brown and
Company.
Cialdini, Robert B. (2001). Harnessing the
Science of Persuasion, Harvard Business
Review.
Kanter, R. (1977) Men and Women of the
Corporation, Harper.
Kramer, R. and Neale, M. (1998) Power and
Influence in Organizations, Sage.