Power and Politics
Power and politics is international relations where sovereigns try to protect interests of their own through use of political and military aggression to threaten each other. Power and politics help to understand helps to understand relationship between international nations as they compete for resources and each nation feel advantaged if it is capable of harming the others. Power and politics use techniques such as development of nuclear, blackmail, bloodletting and economic sanctions. (Thornton, 1999)
Comparing power and politics in organizations
Power and politics is used in organizations where working environment has set many goals and objectives to be met. In the process of meeting the goals, conflict arises and competition between the workers. The competitions affect the way power and politics is used and every individual should understand positive and negative effects of use of politics together with power because; both of them contribute to success of organization if they are applied appropriately. Politics in social relations involves use of power or authority by interlocking politics together with power in daily structure and business functions. Size of organization determines the complexity of politics because; larger companies has politics that are more complex and the manager needs to be more powerful in dealing with politics that might arise.
Comparison between power and politics arise where structure of management is both horizontal and vertical because; politics become successful in vertical structure where a successful leader becomes the manger and is able to lead the rest of staff member by influencing and motivating them. Another comparison is that every politic uses power to act as control mechanism. For example, Marcus who is an employee of BMW has a firm dealing with automobiles and has the idea of creating his own electric car capable of being modified by anyone. By doing this, everyone will have the right to contribute in improving its quality without any risk or payment of royalty fees but Markus beliefs that, technological innovation would be stifled by corporate politics. (Thornton, 1999)
Contrasting power and politics in organizations
Power involves possessing and controlling the influence and being able to tell someone that he should do something that you want him/her to do. Power acts as a force with political influence of the events which may be affected. Politics on the other hand is found everywhere and influence affairs of people and their life. Management understands response of people and how they are influenced by power and politics but difference between power and politics arise in management that is structured vertically in comparison with horizontal management. If the management is structure vertically, formal authority is involved with the manager having power and the authority in him is influenced vertically from above but not from below him.
Analysis of organizational management and leadership practices that impact organizations
Reengineering as a theory of managing change concentrates on how the organization is able to get its things done. Implementation of better processes helps organization to be efficient by ensuring use people to do things in the right manner. People should have positive attitude towards the work they do and work hard all the time to make organization more productive. When new technology arise, people should adjust to the accordingly so that the quality of products are improved to satisfy the needs of consumers. Total quality management emphasizes on people and their importance to organization and processes by focusing on planned process and process that are already in existence.
Most organizations have the problem of becoming organized for them to succeed in competition. For an organization to be efficient and productive, good organization is not enough because; social change is necessary and adapting to new and rapidly changing technology. This will enable managers get new ideas and meet the challenges involved in daily activities within the organization. Organization problems are solved by reducing discrepancy existing between desired state and actual state of organization affairs. Self identified person in the organization works hard for the benefit of organization as whole. There are practices of leadership that relates to identification of organization of members to make sure the organization is strong and productive. (Walford, 2003)
Two Real-World Examples of the Relationship between Power and Politics Given the Current Economy, and How This Relates To Management and Leadership Practices
According to (Walford, 2003) Data was provided to show that cancer was caused by tobacco. This made the public influence politicians through development of power against industry that manufactures tobacco. Act that prevented smoking of tobacco was introduced and data was made available by Laura to show that death as a result of smoking tobacco is the most preventable in America and children smoke cigarette everyday. The influence gave three congressmen power to ensure that the bill against smoking tobacco was passed into law.
In businesses, management structure is informal especially if business is owned by the family. The growth in these businesses is faster although the founder is not able to offer professional management. This is acceptable if business continue remain small but if business include people who are not part of family members, there is pressure for management structure to be reviewed so that successors of the business can be known to make sure the business has a secure future. (Walford, 2003)
References
Thornton P. (1999): Logics and the Historical Contingency of Power in Organizations: Chicago Press pp26-30
Walford G. (2003): politics and power in the management of change: Routledge Kegan & Paul pp45-40