Organizations that produce similar products perform differently. This is due to other factors such as politics, power and organizational culture. The success of a business is determined by the type of leadership and the employees' behavior. However,
failureto pay attention to these internal factors may result in low productivity, thus less profits. A leader is the director and role model to the employees has a great impact on the organization's performance. Therefore, a successful organization must have a visionary leader who understands the complexities of leadership and uses abilities to control the organization while maintaining good interpersonal relationships. This paper discusses the influence of politics, power and leadership on the organizational culture and performance.
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Politics and Power-Play Influence on Organization’s Culture
Work politics affect business culture and performance. Politics and power in any organization determine the decisions made by the management and have a direct impact on employee motivation and performance in turn. The work politics, for example, may or may not allow employee involvement in making decisions. In organizations where the power is not used well, the employees are disrespected and discriminated. This leads to low performance as employees do not identify with the organization. Successful organizations have their employees live the organizational values. This is only achieved when each employee feels respected and recognized as part of the organization. Due to unfair treatment by the organizational power, the employees may end up forming unprofessional groups aimed at bringing the organization's performance down. A very authoritative leader who does not listen to employees' needs has a hard time convincing the employees to buy their ideas. Lack of support from the employees leads to lack of common goal, thus affecting the organization's performance. Sometimes inappropriate use of power may make the employees opt out of the organization leading to high turnover reduced productivity. Regardless of how small or big an organization is, power and politics affect its performance significantly.
Sources of Power
Power is the ability to direct others or make decisions that are to be followed. It is the ultimate goal of any performing organization to use power in the most suitable way to improve the organization’s culture and performance. The ability to control others comes from a person’s trusted power to lead. The sources of power are expertise, legitimate power, coercive and referent and reward powers. To begin with, referent power is gotten from connections with the people in the organization. The good interpersonal relationship is what makes the leader influential. A person’s likability is the source of power. People identify with the referent leader thus can influence them to follow their d ecisions to achieve the set organizational goals. The organization can use this power as the driving force to improve the culture. Good interpersonal relationship leads to unity which in turn leads to good performance. Another source of power the organization can use to improve its culture is legitimate. Legitimate power is acquired by holding a certain position in the organization. When those that are in higher ranks are qualified and possess good leadership skills, they will influence the others. The organization should ensure that promotions to hold certain positions are well-done, and the best people are entrusted with the organization's offices. This way, the employees will respect and obey the positions; thus, a good culture will be instilled.
The organization can also use expert power to improve its performance and organizational culture. Expert power comes from the knowledge gained through training. Knowledge is power. The experts in the organization should play their roles well so that the others seek advice and recommendations from them. The experts can have programs to mentor the other employees, thus influencing the organizational culture and achieving better performance.
Reward power is a tool in influencing a change in the organizational culture. Rewarding the desired behavior by giving incentives and promotions will change the culture. An effective leader gives the organization a vision and motivates the employees to work together to achieve the set goals (Jones & York, 2016). Rewards are a motivation to the wanted behavior. However, the rewards should be fair and uniform because favoritism can kill the employees' morale, thus demotivating them. This will cause divisions in the organization leading to poor interpersonal relationships which will, in turn, cause poor performance. Finally, reward power is another highly influential means to influence behavior by having the ability to leverage rewards and incentives within a given organization. The ability to grant or influence promotion, raises or evaluations can motivate and promote stronger performance. However, if a reward is corrupted by favoritism, it can zap morale.
Coercive power invokes fear in employees due to the use of punishments. This type of power, when applied in the organization, may lead to good performance, but the employees will not be self-driven. The organization needs to set rules and the outcomes upon violation of the rules. This power should not be excessively used because it can lower the employees' motivation.
Leadership behavior and organizational culture
The source of power and how it is used affects organizational performance. Using coercive power heavily, for instance, invokes fear in the employees. This power is harsh as it relies on detecting the unwanted behavior and punishing the employees. This power leads to antagonistic climate leading to a lack of cooperation in the organization (Hofmann et al., 2017). Instilling fear in employees demotivates them and takes away independence in making decisions. Creativity and innovation are hindered, leading to low performance.
With the discovery of the effects of power on the performance, the organization should use the most suitable sources of power such as reward to improve the organizational culture. The organization should come up with a committee to decide the best way to reward the desired behavior among employees. Instead of focusing on punishing wrongs, the organization should focus on encouraging people to perform through motivating them. Referent power will be of use in ensuring that there are good interpersonal relationships at work.
The employees should be involved in making organizational decisions other than forcing them to comply through punishments. This way, the employees will have a sense of belonging and will live the organizational values.
Leadership and Complexities
A leader’s behavior directly affects the organization’s performance. Leaders give the organization a sense of direction through selling their vision to the team and making decisions together on how to achieve the organizational goals. Leaders who engage their team in making important decisions are more productive compared to those that use coercive power to get things done.
Relationship between leaders and employees is another aspect of behavior that significantly affects employee performance. Leaders who respect their employees and reward their efforts towards achieving the set goals perform better. Proper communication within the organization ensures smooth running and giving performance feedback is a sign that the leader is committed; thus, it motivates the employees. Some leaders sell their vision to the employees but do not make any effort to achieve it. Further, they do not live the vision; thus, the vision ends up being a mere slogan.
It is important to understand that leadership is complex. For example, a leader should engage the team in decision making as a way of motivating them and making them own the organization for better performance. However, when the leader engages the employees too much, they may disrespect the management feels that they are of equal level.
A conflict of interest can arise between the leaders and the employees. A leader has to deal with diverse personalities. For example, some employees may value respect more than incentives, while others highly regard rewards. For this reason, accommodating each employees' needs may pose a more significant challenge to the leader. Also, when selling a vision to the employees, there will be three groups of employees: those that accept the change, fence-sitters and those that are adamant (Knox, 2016). Therefore, convincing the whole team to buy the leader’s idea may be a challenge. A leader may resolve into heavily using coercive power leading to a poor relationship with the employees.
Selling a vision persuasively, respecting the employees, giving them feedback, leading by example, and rewarding employees are qualities that result in high productivity in the organization. The organization's effects of power users are reflected in the interpersonal relationships in an organization (Ramos et al., 2019). A leader should, therefore use the organizational power to create unity among the employees.
Conclusively, politics, power and leadership style influence the organizational culture and performance. The politics and power determine the business environment and employee motivation because they are tools for making organizational decisions. Understanding the sources of power and how to use them for better performance is useful in changing the organizational culture and improving interpersonal relationships which in turn leads to increased employee productivity. Relying heavily on coercive power has a negative effect on business performance as investigated by Hofmann et al., 2017. An organization should use other sources of power, such as expertise and reward. A leader's behavior affects organizational performance. One should communicate clearly and sell the vision to the employees. The employees should be involved in discussing the correct path to be followed to reach the set goals. A good leader is one who lives the values, communicates effectively, gives feedback, respects the employees and rewards the desired behavior. Since leadership is complex, a leader should understand and handle the complexities using leadership skills.
References
Hofmann, E., Hartl, B., Gangi, K., Hartner-Tiefenthaler, M., & Kirchler, E. (2017). Authorities’ Coercive and Legitimate Power: The Impact on Cognitions Underlying Cooperation. Frontiers Psychology , 8 (5).
Jones, A., & York, S. (2016). The Fragile Balance of Power and Leadership. The journal of values-based leadership, 9( 2), 1-14.
Knox, H. (2016). Converting Fence-Sitters to Change Champions. https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/all_articles/converting-fence-sitters-to-change-champions_itvb7jdy.html
Ramos, V., Franco-Crespo, A., Gonzalez-Perez, L., Guerra, Y., Ramos-Galarza, C., Pazmino, P., & Tejera, E. (2019). Analysis of organizational power networks through a holistic approach using consensus strategies . Heliyon 5 (e01172), 1-23.
