Power and Politics Paper
Paul Foster
University of Phoenix
MGT 307
Patrick Bliss
April 5, 2010
Within many organizations there are many aspects that contribute to the successes and failures that they endure. The aspects of power and politics play a significant role to how an organization performs. With power and politics, organizations can accomplish many tasks and goals through proper delegation. Without it many of those tasks become undone which could further cause harm to the future of the organization. Throughout the following paper, a discussion on the effects of power and politics within organizations will be discussed while providing real world examples to further back up what was said.
According to Malott, "power is the ability to control the operant behavior of others through the manipulation of behavioral contingencies; thus, to be powerful, one must have access to effective behavioral consequences and the skills to use them in an appropriately contingent manner" (Malott, 2008)..
Official photographic portrait of US President Bar...
English: United States President Barack Obama sign...
With his family by his side, Barack Obama is sworn...When speaking of power and politics in organizations, many people think of it as negative terms. People think of it as someone in a higher position abusing their right to delegate work to those working under their authority. Power and politics usually always exist in organizations all over the world. If used in the correct manner, power and politics can be a very healthy and effective tools in successfully managing personnel.
However, power can be abused in a negative way that could be very detrimental to an organization. There are many individuals in power positions who abuse their authority to those who work under them which could negatively affect the performance of employees and bring down the morale of everyone involved. The goal for a person in power is to motivate and encourage those who work for you to create an acceptable work environment...