Essay About Class Discussion Of Your Own Оocases And Report Describing

Power and Politics in Organizations
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INSEAD Period 2/5
MBA PROGRAMME October-November 1998
Page 1
POWER AND POLITICS IN ORGANIZATIONS
Prof. Martin Gargiulo
(EW-022, -x4323)
Secretary: Christine Merle (x4174)
Overview
Organizations exist to facilitate cooperation among interdependent people. Yet,
the realities of the complex social machines in which most of our life takes place are
far from the consensual environment suggested by this image. While interdependence
canЎЄand shouldЎЄbring people to cooperate, it is also one of the main sources of
political conflict and power struggles in organizations. In this course, we examine the
sources of power and the strategic responses to interdependence in organizations, as
well as how these factors on the performance of individual managers and the
organization. You will learn how to analyze an organization from a political
standpoint, how to identify your key dependencies, and how to gain leverage on those
dependencies in order to make and to implement decisions.
Methodology
Power and Politics in Organizations is based on cases, videos, a textbook
(Jeffrey Pfeffer: Managing with Power, Harvard Business School Press, 1992), and
in-class discussion of your own ÐŽocases.ÐŽ± For this purpose, you will have to write a
report describing and analyzing a case where organizational politics had a
consequential impact on the outcome of the situation. Ideally, your report would be on
a situation in which you were personally involved. If this is not possible, you should
write about a situation you know well, either directly or through the key player(s).
You may change people and company names if you prefer to do so. I will select the
best reports to discuss in class and to illustrate various points of the course. This
format, which I have used in the past, provides a unique opportunity to discuss in
detail a situation you are familiar with, working through the information and the
analysis required to understand and to act in the political landscape of an organization.
Specific Course Goals
By the end of this course, you should be able to do the following:
1. Analyze the political context of a specific work environment.
2. Understand the sources and the dynamics of power in organizations.
3. Understand the different influence tactics and their application.
Requirements and evaluation
1. Analytical report (60% of final grade)
Your report on a case involving organizational politics should include a
descriptive and an analytical part. The descriptive part should include a brief
INSEAD Period 2/5
MBA PROGRAMME October-November 1998
Page 2
description of the organization, the setting in which the events evolved, the main
players, and, last but not least, what happened — i.e., what these players did, and what
were the consequences of their actions. This descriptive part should take you no more
than 3 pages, excluding figures and charts, if you have any. Do not include any
statement revealing your own analysis in this part, since it will serve as the the basis
for our class discussions. Your analysis of the case must be relegated to the second
part (3-5 pages, starting on a different sheet). In this analytical part, you should
address questions such as ÐŽoWhat were the sources of power of the different players?ÐŽ±
ÐŽoWhich events do you think were key to explain the outcome?ÐŽ± ÐŽoWhat were the
strengths and weaknesses of the main players strategy?ÐŽ± ÐŽoHow was his/her
assessment of the situation?ÐŽ± ÐŽoWhatЎЄif anythingЎЄshould he or she have done
differently?ÐŽ± Be as explicit and provocative as you can. The richer your reports, the
better our class discussion. Since the reports are the basis for the discussions of the
sessions 11 to 15, they are due on the 10th session of the course.
2. Class participation (40% of final grade)
The class participation grade recognizes your contribution to the learning of
your classmates. In line with this aim, class participation has aspects of both quantity
and quality. Regarding ÐŽoquantityÐŽ±, I put a premium on sustained (as opposed to
occasional) participation; regular class attendance is thus a necessary condition.
Regarding ÐŽoquality,ÐŽ± the following guidelines should help you to understand what I
consider to be good class participation:
ÐŽ¤ The points made are relevant to the discussion;
ÐŽ¤ The contribution goes beyond simple recitation of the case facts;
ÐŽ¤ There is evidence of analysis rather than just the expression of opinion;