1.
Understanding Power
Dynamics in Stakeholder
Management
PMI Conclave 2015
Speaker : Vijaya Devi

2.
Contents
• Introduction
• Concept of Power
• Power and Politics
• Theories of Power
• Perspectives on Power
Dynamics

3.
Power/Interest Grid

4.
Stakeholder Analysis
• To identify stakeholders
• their interests, expectations and influence
• To build coalitions and potential
partnerships to enhance project’s
success

5.
Concept of Power
Power is relational
Power is always exercised in context
of relationship between two actors
It does not reside in actors themselves
Power, control and conflict are related
“conflict is a manifestation of continuous struggle
over control that power relations imply”

6.
Power and Politics
• What do we see in organizations ?
– Rationality, openness, trust, collaboration
OR
– Self-interests, ‘backstaging’, deceit, competition
• Major decisions and significant changes are
particularly liable to high political activity
• Decision makers often face scarcity of
resources, competing goals, interdependence
and other sources of conflict
• May lead to sub-optimal decisions
• Organizations cannot be understood without a
knowledge of political motives, agenda and
behaviour

7.
Power and Politics
“Organizational politics involves those activities taken
within organizations to acquire, develop and use power
and other resources to obtains one’s preferred outcomes in
a situation in which there is uncertainty or dissensus
about choices” – Jeffrey Pfeffer
Different interests are built into organizational structures
Therefore, each decision means negotiation and
renegotiation in a never-ending stream of political
manoeuvring that constitutes everyday organizational
life

8.
Questions on Power
What determines the power of various social
actors ?
What are the conditions under which power is
used ?
What strategies can one use to develop power ?
How can managers enhance their chances of
having their power legitimized ?

9.
Developing and Using Power
Develop power by
– Creating dependence in others
– Coping with uncertainty on behalf of others
– Developing personal network
– constantly augmenting one’s expertise
Use Power to
Control information flow to others
Control agenda (issue definition, issue exclusion)
Control decision-making criteria
Cooptation and coalition building
Bring in outside experts to bolster one’s position

10.
Outlooks on Organization
Power
• Modern (60s, 70s)
• Rational Models of Authority and Hierarchy
• Power and authority is legitimate to control
production and improve organizational efficiency
• Max Weber and Frederick Taylor were the early
proponents of the rational mode
• Later included power and politics into organizations
theories as researchers found undeniable evidence
of the same
• ‘Rational model assumes that decision-makers
agree about the decision-making rules, organization
goals, and have no disagreement’

11.
Outlooks on Organization
Power
• Critical (80s)
• Questioning the institutionalization of power and
the legitimacy of managerial control
• ‘Control happens thru hegemony, ideologies and
subtle and incessant influence’
• Focus is on humanistic, ethical, and
inclusive decision making processes as
alternative for the rational ideal
• Analyses ‘why the dominated groups give
active consent to their own exploitation’

12.
• Postmodern (90s)
• Development and use of knowledge are always
power plays
• Organizations are products and producers of
disciplinary power
• Control is through disciplinary technologies and
self-surveillance
Outlooks on Organization
Power

13.
SOME MODERNIST THEORIES
OF POWER

14.
Strategic Contingency Theory
• “Ability of an actor to protect others from
uncertainty determines his/her power”
• The case of unexpected amount of power of
maintenance workers in a cigarette company
• Coping with uncertainty generates power only when
its task is central to the operations of the
organization
• Identifying strategic contingencies (locating sources
of uncertainty) and converting that into power
(managing the negative consequences)

15.
Resource Dependence Theory
• Power derived from managing uncertainty determines the
distribution of authority within the organizational hierarchy
• Politics of resource dependency : a unit’s use of resources to
legitimate and institutionalize its position rather than
perform its core task
• Environments give rise to uncertainty, uncertainty gives
opportunity for power differentials among organizational
units , power differentiations are used to distribute formal
authority, those granted authority make key decisions that
affect organizational actions that change the environment
and so on

16.
Critical Theories of Power
Three faces of power (Steven Lukes,British political and social theorist
)
– Decision making
– Non decision making
– Ability to shape the preferences and perceptions of
others without their awareness
Labor Process Theory (Harry Braverman, American Sociologist)
• Managers control work systematically by deskilling labor
through job fragmentation and routinization
• Deskilling continues until the work is so simple that it is
easy for the manager to replace workers who put up any
resistance

17.
Postmodern Theories
• Disciplinary Power and Surveillance
– Resides in the routine practices of surveillance used in
organizations
– Is considered as normal and useful by employees
– ‘anticipation of control causes people to engage in self-
surveillance’
– Hospitals, schools, prisons, factories are sites of disciplinary power
– Exercised constantly in a network of relationships and shifts from
one person to another as it is produced and reproduced from one

18.
Postmodern Theories
• Just as power is everywhere, so is resistance
• Resistance in the form of less work effort,
absenteeism, silence, etc
• Self-surveillance : gaze of inspection and
anticipation of gaze and self-monitoring
• Many HR practices enact the gaze, such as
performance appraisals, psychological tests, etc

19.
PERSPECTIVES ON POWER
DYNAMICS

20.
Perspectives on Power Dynamics
• Position power
– Position power comes from a formal position or authority
– Implies legitimate power for positive or negative sanctions
– This use of power is observable and direct
– Resistance to power is seen as illegitimate
– Eg., project manager vs project team members, any
hierarchical organization structure
– Has fewer costs and is non-expendable
– Works top-down

21.
Perspectives on Power Dynamics
• Stakeholder Engagement using position power
– Achieving project outcomes through application of
legitimate power
– Decision making is based on exclusion of stakeholders
and employees
– Accepted strategy when there is a situation of crisis
and rapid action is required
– Generally considered as ineffective in achieving
outcomes
– Will ensure compliance when groups are
interdependent, and share a sense of urgency

22.
Perspectives on Power
Dynamics
• Personal Power
– Derived from expertise, skills, knowledge,
experience, charisma
– Capacity to influence another person to accept
one’s own ideas and plans
– Visible and observable source of power
– Expert power as a legitimate source of power
– Works in all directions

23.
Perspectives on Power
Dynamics
• Achieving project outcomes using knowledge as a
legitimate source of power
• Decision making and decision makers supported
by the expert power bases
• A power base is more likely to influence decision-
making processes when it is scarce
• Resistance can be dealt with by propagating a
vision, and by elaborate communication
• Possession of a power base alone is not sufficient
in influencing, thereby creating coalitions,
multiple relationships, sponsorship, etc

24.
Perspectives on Power
Dynamics
• Structural Power
– Power of interdependent groups
– Power relations characterized by co-operation and
competition
– Power balance between individual interests and
interdependent group interests
– Loss in balance leads to conflicts, power games and
controversies in decision-making
– Loss of balance is also inevitable
– Power processes are mostly visible and the exercise of
power is a conscious activity

25.
Perspectives on Power
Dynamics
• Achieving project outcomes through conflict
management and negotiation
• All stakeholders play their role, based on their
own interests, their position in the organization
and their departmental power
• Coalitions will form and strive to secure their
interests and power positions
• Resistance to change is either to acquire power or
to escape from it
• Parties with considerable position power and
personal power are in a position to strengthen
their power

26.
Perspectives on Power
Dynamics
Culture Power
– The given structure, culture and division of power is taken
as natural and legitimate
– Power has the capacity to shape reality and make people
conform without the explicit need to use power
– Power processes are unconscious
– Management has the opportunity to use culture power to
give meaning to events and contributes to the development
of norms and events

27.
Perspectives on Power
Dynamics
Management by seduction
• Stakeholders agree voluntarily on the existing structure,
systems and culture
• Stakeholders identify with the demands of the system
and the culture
• Change of perspective that conceals negative
consequences and highlights positive consequences
• Information is used such that alternatives are never
revealed, omit risks that are taken
• Can lead to mistrust, conflict prevents multiple parties to
come together

28.
Perspectives on Power
Dynamics
• Power Dynamics and Dialogue
– How power dynamics can be used to facilitate
processes that cater to the interests of all stakeholders
– Redistributing power so that change strategies are
overt and open to all
– All stakeholders have the opportunity to initiate and
maintain dialogue on pertinent issues
– Dialogue enables exchanging ideas, and cross
influencing attitudes and opinions of others
– Neither personal nor position power, nor structural
power nor manipulation

29.
Perspectives on Power
Dynamics
• Management through organization learning
• Participative design and development
• Democratic dialogue
• Decision making is based on consultation and
exchange of experiences, ideas and arguments
of all stakeholders

30.
THANK YOU
Reference:
1. Organization Theory : Modern, Symbolic, and Postmodern
Perspectives, Mary Jo Hatch, Ann L. Cunliffe
2. Power Dynamics and Organizational Change:
A Comparison of Perspectives, Jaap J. Boonstra and Kilian M.
Bennebroek Gravenhorst