Power in the organization: A short note

We’d often came across news such as the following sample case:

‘Corruption has cost XX Company at least $700 million since the last 5 years. In their statement, the independent anti-corruption commission claimed that most of the XX Company’s huge debts have been caused by corruption and mismanagement in procurement and maintenance projects during that period. The investigation had revealed the improprieties in these projects and involvements of the top levels management.’

The claimed corruption as reported in the sample case above is just an example of the outcome of people in the organization using their power.

Since the beginning of human civilization, people have been fascinated by power and like to use it. Without taking into account the negative or positive side of the usage, it should be agreed that power is important for people to establish certain actions to accomplish their desired goals.

Power is the ability that a person may use to get others to do what he/she wants to be done. The nature of power is control over other people.

In the organization, power of a person can be derived from interpersonal, structural and situational bases. Basically, interpersonal power is vested in a person as prescribed by the organization (ie; legitimate, reward and coercive) and by the person’s qualities (ie; expert and referent). While structural and situational powers (ie; resource, decision making and information powers) normally go by the hierarchy of the organization’s structure, that is, the higher the position of a person as structured by the organization, the greater is his/her power in accessing to resources, making decisions and having access to important information.

One reality of power in the organization is that people are having the need for it. The differences are in the degree and intention; whether someone is having a high or low need for power, and whether the need for power is directed towards personal or organizational purposes. The issue of the reality of power in the organization is important to be closely studied because it affects the effectiveness of the organization.

Most of the problems of effectiveness faced by the organizations are created by improperly use of power by the managers. There are cases where the managers made in charge of businesses are lack in the required knowledge and skills. Without sufficient capabilities, these managers would not be able to utilize their powers professionally, thus contribute towards reducing the performance of the organization. There are also cases where the managers are intentionally sought power in the organization for their personal benefits. Similarly, these managers would not bring the benefit to the organization in the long term. They rather become ‘pretenders’ as they would not sacrifice their sweat with their wise heart and mind.

Power is important to many people as it can be meant for status and prestige, and also for promotion, leading and ruling. Anyhow, such intentions if not properly associated with the organizational purposes and directed goals, will not benefit the organization. Thus, the reality of power should be wisely accepted that it is important to enable someone to contribute effectively to his/her organization. Wrongly application of power such as corruptions and other unethical actions are simply the problems generated by the attitude of people in using their power.