Deck 12: Power and Politics

Question 1

According to Chester Barnard,directives falling within the zone of indifference are obeyed,whereas those falling outside of it are not considered legitimate under the terms of the psychological contract.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Position power is available to a manager solely as a result of her or his position in the organization.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The zone of indifference is fixed.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Power is a behavioral response to the exercise of influence.

Question 5

Stanley Milgram designed experiments to determine the extent to which people obey the commands of an authority figure,even if they believe they are endangering the life of another person.

Question 6

Influence is the ability to get someone to do something you want done or the ability to make things happen in the way you want them to.

Question 7

Few instances exist where individual and organizational interests are compatible.

Question 8

A zone of indifference is the range of authoritative requests to which a subordinate is willing to respond without subjecting the directions to critical evaluations or judgment.

Question 9

When employees believe the organization has not delivered on its implicit promises,in addition to disobedience,there is more loyalty,lower turnover intentions,and high job satisfaction.

Question 10

Having the formal authority to approve or deny employees requests for job transfers,equipment purchases,overtime,or personal time off are examples of a manager's legitimate power.

Question 11

The basic conclusion of Stanley Milgram's studies is there is a tendency for individuals to comply with and be obedient to authority.

Question 12

Coercive power is the extent to which a manager can use extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to control other people.

Question 13

Power can be based on punishment instead of reward.

Question 14

Voluntarism is the degree to which an employee contributes his or her time and energy to charitable organizations.

Question 15

When a boss would like a subordinate to do something outside the zone of indifference,the manager must attempt to enlarge the zone to accommodate additional behaviors.

Question 16

Legitimate power,or formal hierarchical authority,stems from the extent to which a manager can control subordinates' behavior because they believe the boss has the right to do so.

Question 17

The foundation for power rests in interdependence.

Question 18

There are seven important aspects of position power: legitimate,reward,coercive,process,information,representative power,and subordination.

Question 19

To accept and follow a manager's order,the subordinate does not need to understand how the proposed action will help the organization.

Question 20

According to Chester Barnard,subordinates accept a directive from a superior when one or the other of the following conditions is met: (a)the subordinate can and must understand the directive,or (b)the subordinate must feel mentally and physically capable of carrying out the directive.

Question 21

Nelson Mandela used his personal and position as president of South Africa to help transform a whole society using a rugby team.

Question 22

Expert power is absolute,not relative.

Question 23

Specialists who determine the procedures by which investment proposals will be analyzed and evaluated are utilizing process power.

Question 24

To build a coalition,individuals negotiate trade-offs to arrive at a common position.

Question 25

Personal power resides in the individual and is independent of that individual's position within an organization.

Question 26

Representative power is based upon access to and/or control of information.

Question 27

Referent power is the ability to control another's behavior because,through the individual's efforts,the person accepts the desirability of an offered goal and a reasonable way of achieving it.

Question 28

The presence of unions and organizational policies on employee treatment can weaken the ability of a manager to use coercive power.

Question 29

Referent power is the ability to control another's behavior because of the individual's desire to identify with the power source.

Question 30

Three personal characteristics - expertise,tactfulness,and experience - have special potential for enhancing personal power in an organization.

Question 31

Rational persuasion involves both explaining the desirability of expected outcomes and showing how specific actions will achieve these outcomes.

Question 32

The effective manager is one who succeeds in building and maintaining high levels of both position power and personal power over time.

Question 33

Expert power is the ability to control another's behavior through the possession of knowledge,experience,or judgment that the other person does not have but needs.

Question 34

A manager's personal power can be enhanced by demonstrating to others that his or her work unit is highly relevant to organizational goals and can respond to urgent organizational needs.

Question 35

Coalition power is the ability to control another's behavior indirectly because the individual owes an obligation to you or another as part of a larger collective interest.

Question 36

Information power may complement legitimate hierarchical power.

Question 37

A person's referent power can be enhanced when the individual taps into the morals held by another or shows a clearer long-term path to a morally desirable end.

Question 38

The personal power of rational persuasion can be developed by always honoring implied and explicit social contracts in order to build trust.

Question 39

Four bases of personal power are expert power,rational persuasion,referent power,and coalition power.

Question 40

Power-oriented behavior is action directed primarily at developing or using relationships in which other people are to some degree willing to defer to one's wishes.

Question 41

Managers may gain a better understanding of political behavior to forecast future actions by placing themselves in the position of other persons involved in critical decisions or events.

Question 42

Most managers attempt to increase the visibility of their job performance by: expanding the number of contacts they have with senior people,making oral presentations of written work,participating in problem-solving task forces,sending out notices of accomplishments,and generally seeking additional opportunities to increase personal name recognition.

Question 43

By defining a problem in a manner that fits the manager's expertise,it is natural for that manager to be in charge of solving it,which in turn subtly shifts his or her position power.

Question 44

Friendliness,assertiveness,bargaining,and higher authority are used more frequently to influence supervisors than to influence subordinates.

Question 45

A clearer definition of roles and responsibilities may help managers empower others.

Question 46

Empowerment is the process by which managers help others to acquire and use the power needed to make decisions affecting themselves and their work.

Question 47

Organizational politics can serve a number of important functions,including overcoming personnel inadequacies,coping with change,and substituting for formal authority.

Question 48

Downward influence generally includes mobilization of both position and personal power sources,whereas upward influence is more likely to draw on personal power.

Question 49

The second tradition of organizational politics involves the use of power to develop socially acceptable ends and means that balance individual and collective interests.

Question 50

Managers can enhance their personal power by building expertise through advanced training and education,participation in professional associations,and involvement in the early stages of projects.

Question 51

A manager's referent power is increased by characteristics that enhance his or her "likeability" and create personal attraction in relationships with other people.

Question 52

The traditional view of power considers it to be relational in terms of problems and opportunities,whereas the empowerment view looks at power in terms of the ability to make things happen.

Question 53

Organizational politics are inherently bad.

Question 54

Workflow linkages for lateral political action involve contacts with units that precede or follow in a sequential production chain.

Question 55

By providing opportunities for creative problem solving coupled with the discretion to act,real empowerment increases the total power available in the organization.

Question 56

When embarking on an empowerment program,management needs to recognize the current zone of indifference and systematically move to contract it.

Question 57

The key to empowering all employees is to change the concept of power within the organization from a view that stresses power over others to one that emphasizes the use of power to get things done.

Question 58

The most common strategies of turning power into relational influence include friendliness,coalition,bargaining,and higher authority but exclude reason,assertiveness,and sanctions.

Question 59

By learning better ways to negotiate,persuade people,and understand the goals and means people are willing to accept,an individual can learn political savvy in order to increase his or her personal power.

Question 60

The Machiavellian tradition of organizational politics considers managers to be political when they seek their own goals or use means that are not currently authorized by the organization or that push legal limits.

Question 61

The essence of power is __________.

A)personal desire
B)the ability to provide support
C)a distinguished reputation
D)control over the behavior of others
E)having a Machiavellian personality.

Question 62

Barnard's studies on obedience and compliance relate to all of the following concepts EXCEPT:

A)compliance in organizations stemmed from the "consent of the governed."
B)in every day organizational life,subordinates accepted or followed a managerial directive only if specific circumstances were met.
C)obedience is not the only reason for compliance in organizations.
D)subordinates must believe that a management directive is consistent with the purpose of an organization,but not necessarily the personal interests of the individual.
E)Bernard built his analysis on the notion of a psychological contract between the individual and the firm.

Question 63

Agency theory reflects the notion that managers are "agents" of the owners and suggests that public corporations can function effectively even though its managers are self-interested and do not automatically bear the full consequences of their managerial actions.

Question 64

What type of power does a manager exercise when he or she approves or denies employee requests such as job transfers,equipment purchases,personal time off,or overtime work?

A)Legitimate power
B)Expert power
C)Coercive power
D)Referent power
E)Reward power

Question 65

To place appropriate controls on agents,stockholders with a large stake in the firm take an active role on the board of directors and a strong,independent board is established.

Question 66

Which one of the following statements does NOT provide an accurate description of Stanley Milgram's experiments?

A)Milgram designed a series of experiments to determine the extent to which people obey the commands of an authority figure,even if they believe they are endangering the life of another person.
B)Experimental subjects were falsely told that the purpose of the experiment was to determine the effects of punishment on the learning of word pairs.
C)Experimental subjects were instructed to give what they believed were successively higher levels of electric shocks to people who missed the word pairs.
D)The experimental results revealed that 35 percent of the subjects subjected the "learner" to the maximum level of shock and the remaining 65 percent refused to obey the experimenter at various intermediate points.
E)The basic conclusion of Milgram's studies is there is a tendency for individuals to comply with and be obedient to authority.

Question 67

Milgram designed experiments to determine the extent to which people __________.

A)learn from personal failures
B)obey the commands of an authority figure
C)are willing to use coercive power to gain influence
D)are motivated by financial rewards
E)are willing to learn new things as a means of gaining expert power

Question 68

Organizational governance is the pattern of authority,influence,and acceptable managerial behavior established at the top of the organization.

Question 69

A __________ is the range of authoritative requests to which a subordinate is willing to respond without subjecting the directives to critical evaluation or judgment.

A)territory of unconcern
B)region of inattention
C)region of insensibility
D)section of apathy
E)zone of indifference

Question 70

In today's modern organization the base for power and politics rests on a system of authority.Which of the following statements about legitimacy regarding power is inaccurate?

A)The unstated underpinning of legitimacy in most organizations is an implicit technical and moral order.
B)In U.S.firms,"higher authority" denotes those close to the top of the corporate pyramid.
C)In other societies,"higher authority" does not have a bureaucratic or organizational reference but consists of those with moral authority such as tribal chiefs,religious leaders,etc.
D)In firms,the legitimacy of those at the top increasingly derives from their positions as representatives for various constituencies.
E)Senior managers may justify their lofty positions within organizations by separating themselves from stockholders.

Question 71

The __________ is an unwritten set of expectations about a person's exchange of inducements and contributions with an organization.

A)psychological contract
B)zone of indifference
C)political agreement
D)rational persuasion
E)interorganizational pact

Question 72

Managers derive power from both organizational and individual sources,which are called __________.

A)bureaucratic power and individual power
B)authority power and indigenous power
C)position power and personal power
D)statutory power and individual power
E)hierarchical power and personal power

Question 73

Directives falling within the zone of indifference are __________.

A)subjected to slight scrutiny
B)ignored
C)rejected
D)obeyed
E)subjected to severe scrutiny.

Question 74

When a boss wants a subordinate to do things falling outside the zone of indifference,as identified by Chester,the manager must ______________.

A)publicize the importance of the zone to employees
B)acknowledge the power and influence of the zone
C)limit the zone to highlight certain behaviors
D)enlarge the zone to accommodate additional behaviors
E)explain the zone to employees

Question 75

Individuals can employ three common strategies to protect themselves against the adverse effects of organizational politics.Individuals can take action but avoid risk,redirect accountability and responsibility,or maintain a low profile.

Question 76

People who are really devious will engage in political self-protection by using the redirecting techniques of: blaming the problem on someone or some group who has difficulty engaging in self-defense; blaming the problem on uncontrollable events; or escalating commitment to a losing course of action.

Question 77

All of the following are types of position power EXCEPT:

A)reward power.
B)coercive power.
C)legitimate power.
D)statutory power.
E)information power.

Question 78

According to Barnard,all of the following conditions must be met for a subordinate to accept or follow a directive EXCEPT:

A)the subordinate can and must understand the directive.
B)the subordinate must feel mentally and physically capable of carrying out the directive.
C)the subordinate must believe that the directive is not inconsistent with the purpose of the organization.
D)the subordinate must believe that the directive is not inconsistent with his or her personal interests.
E)the subordinate must know how the directive will help the organization.

Question 79

When Linda,a manager in a department store,tells someone to do something and refers to the fact that she is the boss and therefore the other person must do as asked,she is trying to use which type of power to influence the other person's behavior?

A)Personal power
B)Reward power
C)Legitimate power
D)Coercive power
E)Process power

Question 80

Whereas organizational governance was an internal and rather private matter in the past,it is today becoming more public and controversial.