Influence of Politics and Power
Power and politics always have a significant impact on the role of business. In addition, these two aspects also influence the process of decision-making in respect with interaction of the employees with each other. According to Lian, Ferris and Douglas (2012), the impact of power depends solely on the employee use of power – positive or negative. Although power and politics are perceived an undesirable in the business process, however, they are sometime essential for business development.
Well Fargo is a company that promotes and encourage productivity. As per Burger (2014), for helping the employee, client and customer in navigating the system of the organization, Well Fargo has implemented a consumerization of IT supports framework. Moreover, it is also ascertained that the director of Team Member Infrastructure Services (Well Fargo) Sharon Murphy executed this framework for the objective of raising the productivity of the employees. In this new framework, there will be various technology connections and 24/7 customer service call centre supports the market data services (Burger, 2014). In the operation of Well Fargo, technology plays a crucial role as if it not working, the customers cannot succeed financially as the necessary tools will not be there to help them.
Formation of clear chains of command and policies allow the leaders of an organization to exercise their power responsibly (May, Harris and Collins, 2013). In respect with daily business operations, organization structure also considered being a critical element. It is used to divide roles and tasks, activities coordination as well as centralization and decentralization of different roles. In the company Well Fargo, there is a decentralization of power, as they believe that leadership is a key to sustainable success.
In respect with power of changing a framework, Well Fargo is trying to modify the dynamics of the business. The employees’ motivation level will be boosted under the umbrella of positive power. This introduction of new framework will lead the company to perform better in the market and bring creative ideas by gaining employee respect. As per the statement of Burger (2014), if the employee laptop or desktop is not working, then the market data is not getting to the appreciate place in time which their team members cannot be productive.
Organization power is the ownership of power, which gains over others. It depends upon its use, to bring active or adverse influence to an organization. Power also exercised to an individual or entity having rule over other individuals (Prugsamatz, 2010).
In an organization, there are five sources of power respectively divided into – Legitimate, Expert, Referent, Coercive and Reward power (Raven, 2008). The source of legitimate power is from the job position bearded by an individual in the organization. With this position, the management can use their position to make the work done with the help of employees. They will also have a significance influence under the course of employment.
The notable type power in Wells Fargo and Company is legitimate power, whose source in in the title held in the corporation. The company has CEO, Timothy J. Sloan leading the team. The power is also being drawn from the legitimacy of their title in the organization. The leaders also have the power from their skill set and experience in the field.
Sources of Power
Secondly, expert power is derived from keeping information or expertise in a circumstantial area. In Well Fargo, there are various leaders like Kathy Barney, John Alexander and Jim Hays use their power to influence the productivity of the employee based on problem solving systems. In relation to expert power, employees hold these ideas and opinions with high standards. Then there is referent power, which is drawn from interpersonal relations that is developed with the other members by a country through individuals. In addition, employees who have connections with the CEO can generate power over others. Leaders can use this power to influence employees based on peer-to-peer influence. In addition, who has connection to the CEO i.e. Timothy J. Sloan, can influence more power on others individuals. Leaders can also use this power to influence employees based on peer-to-peer influence.
The next power is the coercive power, which is established by delivering threats, sanctions and punishments (Yeung, Selen, Zhang and Huo, 2009). Well Fargo had set an internal goal for selling of at least 8 financial products – credit cards, debit cards, etc. to per customer. This goal leads to high standards for employees to reach the target so that they will not be fired. This pressure from the management is highly unbearable as goals were not able to achieve. Then there is a reward power, which is derived from the knowledge of an individual to determine the allocation of influences in an organization (Jayasingam, Ansari and Jantan, 2010). Leaders at Well Fargo can increase productivity by just offering various reward programmes.
In correlation with organizational culture, Leadership behaviour and culture play an important role. For instance, behaviour is socially learned and can spread. According to Baumgartner (2009), culture is an observable pattern of behaviour in the business corporation, which shifts as per the various responses to internal and external changes. It can also be said that organization culture is the civilization of the workplace. Moreover, leaders have the ability to influence the organization culture so it always facilitates learning and growth of every employee. For instance, employees will be more satisfied, if they will be involved in the decision making process in an organization and from long-term perspectives, this will leads to superior productivity (Farndale,Van Ruiten, Kelliher and Hope?Hailey, 2011). However, some of the leaders use negative power to encourage employees with punishment and threats.
It can also be said that the future success of the company stands on their long terms innovative strategy where leaders need to engage at several areas of the operations. These leaders need to fulfil the work by holding value and vision of the organization.
Many organizations do not have a consistent political climate as different departments show different behaviour. However, the organization culture can be improved if the leader has given the power to influence individual behaviour in light with the respective roles and responsibilities.
Well Fargo wields several types of power to influence several aspects of business. Within the organization, there is a power structure – mostly formal but sometimes informal – that wields power to influence organizational performance. Social network within the business enterprise can build informal power for the leaders of those social networks. With the help of power and politics, effective leaders can be recognised which can control the informal power within their business corporation. The ideas and opinions and the decisions of individuals who possess power in the business corporation are held in high regard compared to the other workers.
A good example is when an individual who possesses skilful power can be elevated to superior management where he gets the legitimate power.
Leadership behaviour plays a crucial role in moulding the culture of the organization. It is just like the term, “Monkey see, Monkey Do.” Burger (2014) also stated that Well Fargo has good authentic leadership that enforces the role and responsibilities related to job daily to all individuals and employees. Well Fargo also has various consultative and accessible who aim to collect the feedback and opinions from all the employees across the business enterprise. This enables the leaders to be work with all individuals as it will help them to gain the trust if their subordinates, employees and followers. However, this can also prove to be harmful if one individual or employee will be having a negative experience with any other member of the company. According to Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey (2007), leadership is a complex phenomenon and there is not any one style of leadership that is suitable for all the leadership positions.
Complexity leadership theory is an approach that recognizes the complexity of interrelations and interdependence between individuals and its surroundings in comparison with the other approaches as per leadership styles (Parris and Peachey, 2013). For making things understandable to employees, leaders need to first break complex things into simple and considered talented pool on board. They are also responsible to build a bridge of trust and collaborate it with weight and faith behind them during the course of execution.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that power and politics have shaped the culture of the organization whereas leadership is essential and potential to change the company culture. Leaders in Well Fargo can directly influence the employee of the organization with the help of leadership and power. It is the responsibility of the leader to maintain the core value of the business corporation by building a culture of trust and open communication.
References:
- Rupert J. Baumgartner. 2009. Organizational culture and leadership: Preconditions for the development of a sustainable corporation. Sustainable development, 17(2), pp.102-113.
- Kathy Burger. May 12, 2014.How Wells Fargo Is Improving Employees Experience And Productivity. https://www.banktech.com/management-strategies/how-wells-fargo-is-improving-employees-experience—and-productivity/d/d-id/1317908.html
- Elaine Farndale, Joppe V. Ruiten, Clare Kelliher and Veronica Hope?Hailey. 2011. The influence of perceived employee voice on organizational commitment: An exchange perspective. Human Resource Management, 50(1), pp.113-129.
- Sharmila Jayasingam, Mahfooz A. Ansari, Muhamad Jantan. 2010. Influencing knowledge workers: the power of top management. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 110(1), pp.134-151.
- Huiwen Lian, Lance D. Ferris, J. Douglas. 2012. Does power distance exacerbate or mitigate the effects of abusive supervision? It depends on the outcome. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(1), p.107.
- Thomas May, Spencer Harris, S and Mike Collins. 2013. Implementing community sport policy: understanding the variety of voluntary club types and their attitudes to policy. International journal of sport policy and politics, 5(3), pp.397-419.
- Denise L. Parris and Jon W. Peachey. 2013. A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. Journal of business ethics, 113(3), pp.377-393.
- Raphaella Prugsamatz. 2010. Factors that influence organization learning sustainability in non-profit organizations. The learning organization, 17(3), pp.243-267.
- Bertram H. Raven. 2008. The bases of power and the power/interaction model of interpersonal influence. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 8(1), pp.1-22.
- Mary Uhl-Bien, Russ Marion and Bill McKelvey. 2007. Complexity leadership theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The leadership quarterly, 18(4), pp.298-318.
- Jeff H.Y. Yeung, Willem Selen, Min Zhang and Baofeng Huo. 2009. The effects of trust and coercive power on supplier integration. International Journal of Production Economics, 120(1), pp.66-78.
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