Chapter 7: Power and Politics Flashcards
What is power
Power is the capacity to influence other people’s actions
What are the 5 sources of power (CLRRE)
(FORMAL)
Coercive
- Have the ability to be punished for non compliance
Legitimate
-Hold the formal right to make demands
Reward
- Have the ability to compensate for compliance
Referrent
- Perceived attractiveness, right to respect
Expert: Using ethos (expert within field of knowledge)
Rank the 5 sources of power from employee resistant to commitment
Employee most Resistant to least resistant
Coercieve Reward Legitimate Expert Referrent
can see that having more informal power leads to more employee cooperation
How to power hierarchies emerge (RPS)
- Randomness
- some born into rich/poor families - Political skills/motivation
- Some people are better at being able to work up to a certain level in getting what they want - Systems create hierarchies
- system create hierarchies, allow for a continuous perpetuation
- rich get richer, poor get poorer
Why do power hierarchies continue to perpetuate? Rather why do the powerful support inequality (SSSSL)
- They benefit from status quo
- Having power associated with better opportunities (freedom, higher well being) - They behave in ways that sustain hierarchies
- the powerful always think in ways that can lead to the retention and acquisition of power
- hold a larger share of resources and can treat powerless in instrumental ways - System Justification
- the powerless justify hierarchies as legitimate
- ignore power inequality focus on other things in life - Self pufilling prophecies
- The powerless remain without power, expected to align behaviour to be consistent with these expectations - Learned helplessness
- COntinued powerlessness prevents direct action against powerful
What is the problem with the growing income inequality in the US?
Top 1% holding increasing share of national income increasing trend from 1980 to 2015 (around 20% of national income as of 2015)
Meanwhile, the bottom 50% have seen their share of national income continue to decrease all the way from over 20% in 1980 to around 13% in 2015
Rich seem to be able to create rules that benefit themselves mostly
eg. cutting of corporate tax rates mostly benefit those who are at the top, where we see that the top 1% receives 34% of the total benefits
many of the higher income people in US paying a lower tax than those in 10-20%
What about inequality in SG?
Singapore ranked 0.356 in 2017 gini coefficient (considered to be adequate)
However it is important to note that the top 1% is beginning to hold more wealth from 20% in 2011 to 30% in 2015
Problems of having too much power?
- People always seem to succumb to the corruptive forces of power
eg. stanford prison experiment
the experiment revealed that regular people, if given too much power, could transform into ruthless oppressors
Psychological consequences of power at the workplace (LPP)
- The powerful dont LISTEN
- those who have a lot of power are less likely to take other people’s advice - Power reduces perspective-taking and empathy
- those in power less likely to emphasize with others - Power increase the proclivity to take risk
- they will take more excessive risk as they tend to be more optimistic
eg. CEO who had more power engaged themselves in more risky lending practices in years leading up to 2008 financial crisis
what are the conditions that make hierarchies less acceptable (LFU)
- Legitimacy
- Hierarchies more likely challenged when powerful acquire their power illegitimately - Fairness
- If powerless not treated fairly, reject rules that powerful put into place - Upward mobility
when there is limited upward mobility, people are less likely to question authority
How to increase one’s power
1) Coalition Formation
2) Work on political skills
3) Invoke empathy appeals
What is coalition formation
A) Coalition formation
when the powerless come together they become a more powerful unit
important to recognise that the powerful depend on the powerless too
eg. industry associations, labour unions
What is the union premium
We see that with unions, the typical union worker makes 27% more than the non union worker
Singapore union membership percentage at 25%
How does working on your political skills increase power?
We see that People with a better understanding
of power dynamics, are better at
acquiring power
Building social networks are also key
- information brokers seen as more powerful
- by putting yourself as someone who can be approached for advice (makes you feel powerful)
Why does giving advice make u feel powerful
We see that people who gave advice to others felt more powerful regardless of whether advice was solicited
felt like they had some influence over other people’s actions
