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Power and politics in an organization
Power and politics in organizations
Power and politics in organizations
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The political lens examines an organization through the “roots of conflict” in “different and competing interests, and disagreements” (Ancona, Kochan, Scully, Van Maanen, & Westney, 2005: M-2, 33). The political aspect of an organization requires the “exercise of power and influence” by stakeholders over others to achieve “buy-in” (Ancona et al., 2005: M-2, 33). I will analyze Dynacorp through the political lens to discuss the factors that will hinder of facilitate the success of the change to the front end/back end design (Dynacorp Revisited, 2005: M-2, 85).
POLITICAL ANALYSIS
Stakeholders
The political analysis of an organization begins with the identification of the stakeholders “groups that have a shared ‘stake’ that is affected by what the organization is and how it carries out its activities (Ancona et al., 2005: M-2, 35)” The CEO of Dynacorp is ultimately responsible for the turnaround of the company and its success versus its competition. The front end of the company is divided into three geographic areas. Carl Greystone, Executive Vice President of US Customer Operations, manages the largest of the geographic areas (Dynacorp Revisited, 2005: M-2, 86-87). The geographic areas are divided further into regions; Ben Walker is a Vice President overseeing the Northeast Region and reports to Greystone (Dynacorp Revisited, 2005: M-2, 87).
Regions are divided into branches and sales teams covering specific customer industries and sectors. Martha Pauley, a Branch Manager, manages multiple sales teams in the Northeast Region. Previously branches sold all products in a specific city/area; branches are now tasked with selling one product group over a much larger geographic area (Dynacorp Revisited, 2005: M-2, 86). The sales ...
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...omer desires. The Branch’s and BU’s have a common goal of sales and profit margins as their managers receive performance based compensation.
The only concern is the ability and attitudes of the sales teams. The company needs buy-in from sales as that is where the customer interaction is and where the profit comes in. Dynacorp redefined their jobs without their input, should they perceive their influence on company decision making there will be more buy-in as they would feel like they are involved and are important to the company.
Works Cited
Ancona, D., Kochan, T., Scully, M., Van Maanen, J. & Westney, D.E. 2005. Managing for the future: Oranizational behavior and processes (3rd ed.). Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing.
Dynacorp Revisited. 2005. In D. Ancona et al. Managing for the future: M-2, 85-90. Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing.
Ralph Nader, Mark Green and Joel Seligman, in an excerpt from Taming the Giant Corporation (1976, found in Honest Work by Ciulla, Martin and Solomon), take the current role of the company board of directors and suggest changes that should be made to make the board to be efficient. They claim the current makeup of the board does not necessarily do justice to the company because “in nearly every large American business…there exists a management autocracy” (Nader, Green and Seligman, 1976, p.570). The main resolution they present is to make the board more democratic with the betterment of the company as its first priority. Currently the board no longer oversees operations, or elects top company executives and they are no longer involved in the business operations to the extent they should be. Nadar, Green and Seligman argue that that all of these things need to be changed. For a corporation so large to be successful there must be separation of powers just as there is in any current government system ( p.571). They claim this is the only and best way to success (Nader, Green and Seligman, 1976, p.570-571).
William Evan and Edward Freeman, in their essay “A Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation,” argue that the objective of a company and its managers is not only to maximize profit for its owners and stockholders, but also to balance the benefits received or losses incurred by other stakeholders—employees, suppliers, customers, and the local community, all of whom may be influenced by company decisions. As the owner of MSO, your aim is ostensibly to maximize profits for yourself, but unlike most other indicted CEOs, you have not tried to obtain personal gains at the expense of the stakeholders of your enterprise. Rather, the charges that have been brought against you are for your dealings with another company; in this day and age where investors bemoan the lack of ethics of CEOs who use the power of their position in the boardroom to achieve selfish gains at the expense of their own company and its stakeholders, the charges of insider t...
Politics or politicking is a game that is more ostensible and reserved for the political arena; however, metaphorically, much of the political discourse can also be found within organizations. Politics in organizations, then, is design for groups to reconcile differences between interests, conflicts, and power (Morgan, 2006). The case study to be analyze (Cutting Back at City Hall) is one that illustrates all three aspects of interests, conflicts, and power as the City of Smithville, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the International Association of Firefighters (IAF), and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) deliberate the city’s proposed budget.
Managing transformational at National Computer Operations is an article discussing the dilemmas faced when a company is forced to implement changes within a two year timeframe in order to compete with other emerging computer technology companies. NCO’s Managing Director Gar Finvold, decided to review NCO’s market position and to look for improvement opportunities that change implementation enhancements would ensure that NCO would emerge and maintain their position as the leading computer support services firm.
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George, Jennifer M. "Chapter 12." Contemporary Management. By Gareth R. Jones 8e ed.N.p.: n.p., n.d. 366-400. Print.
Our four-frame analysis (Figure 3 above) reveals that TM, like any other modern large corporation, places heavy emphasis on the structural frame. Other frame elements are also present, for example, career development and training programmes are evidence of HR frame use, as well as deployment of a re-branding exercise and other symbolic rituals to provide symbolic frame elements. We may also make inferences that the political frame is also in play from agenda-setting, ambiguity and uncertainty caused by the rationalization and reorganization leading to scarcity of resources and internal conflict, and signing of a collective agreement to denote bargaining and negotiation.
Ternary, a for-profit organization, the first company to adopt and incorporate corporate governance (Robertson, 2015). Ternary Software’s organization was founded in 2001 by CEO, Brian Robertson (Daft, 2012). Ternary Software specializes in contracting and writing software for other companies. As indicated by John and Gupta, (2012) evidence showed that effective organizations are established and designed with purpose and structure in order to meet organizational goals. This paper identified Ternary Software’s organizational structural dimensions: sociocracy. The Sociocratic method is comprised of four primary practices: decision making by consent, circle organization, double-linking, and elections by consent (Robertson, B.) 2006, Porter’s
An organizational analysis is an important tool to become familiar with how medical businesses and organizations are able to meet standards of care, provide services for the community and provide employment to health care providers. There are many different aspects to evaluate in an organizational analysis. This paper will describe these many aspects and apply the categories to the University Medical Center (UMC) as the organization being analyzed.
A Review and Assessment of Its Critiques, Journal of Management, SAGE. Viewed on5th April 2011, at http://jom.sagepub.com/content/36/1/349.full.pdf+html
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Kinicki, A., & Williams, B. K. (2011). Management: A practical introduction (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Robbins, S.P., & Coulter, M. (2009). Management (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Jones, Gareth R. and George, Jennifer M. (2011). Contemporary management (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
PRIMIS MNO 6202: Managing Organizations. 2007. The 'Secondary' of the ' Reprint of the book. McGraw-Hill Education, 2013.