For the Session Long Project this session you will be applying the concepts from the background materials to your own personal experiences in the workplace. You likely have experienced many if not all of the concepts at one point or another in your career, but you may not have been familiar with the precise terminology.
In preparation for the SLP, make sure you have a thorough grasp of the terminology from the background materials including the main sources of power and types of power tactics. Once you are comfortable with the terminology and concepts from the background materials, think of a manager that you worked with closely who held a fair amount of power at the organization you worked for. Then write a 2- to 3-page paper addressing each of the following questions. For each answer, make sure to cite at least one reference from the required background readings.
- What were this manager’s main sources of power? Include a discussion of reward power, legitimate power, and expert power as well as other sources of power discussed in the background readings.
- Discuss some power tactics used by this manager. Include a discussion about whether or not this manager used the power tactics discussed in Anderson (1998) and Luthans et al. (2015) from the background materials.
- Did this manager make good use of his or her sources of power and power tactics, or did they misuse or abuse their power?
Background references:
Luthans, F., Luthans, K. W., & Luthans, B. C. (2015). Chapter 10: Power and Politics. Organizational behavior: An evidence-based approach. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, pp. 280-287 [eBook Business Collection. Note: you don’t have to read the whole chapter, just the first part on organizational power. You will be reading the last section on organizational politics for Module 2]
Anderson, D. A. (1998). Using power and influence tactics for better results. Marine Corps Gazette, 82(12), 37-38. [ProQuest. Note: In general when looking up articles or books in the search engines start with just the title of the article rather than the whole reference. For better results, enter the following search term into the search engine: Using power and influence tactics.
Haneberg L. (2012). Chapter 5: Positively using your power. The ASTD Management Development Handbook: Innovation for Today’s Manager. Alexandria, Va: American Society for Training & Development. [eBook Business Collection]
