what is the power of politics?
Introduction
- Power is having the ability to affect others directly or indirectly. With power comes great responsibility. It is important how power is used.
- When it is used for politics, it turns into a negative energy.
- Power can be personal power or power acquired through a position.
- Personal power can be power to influence and persuade others, or powers because of personal resources and finances. It can also come when the person possesses some extra and outstanding knowledge and skills.
- Positional power is power acquired because of a title or status.
- People can use their power positively or negatively to affect others. For example, positional powers give both reward powers and coercive powers and it is on the person holding the position to decide which power is to be used.
- Power and politics can affect individuals, organizations, and country as a whole.
Power and politics in organizations
- People are often scared of politics at workplaces. They believe people at higher positions and a power try to cheat them in one way or other.
- The extent of power and politics in an organization affects the behavior of employees and in the long run, determines the success of the firm. It can affect the level of their job satisfaction , their morale, and their productivity.
- In organizations, it is seen that people try to misuse their power acquired through position and manipulate the employees in various ways.
In offices, power can be used for politics in various ways like forming of groups, withholding
important information, passing wrong information , complaining , attacking etc.
- Convincing laborer's to form unions , creating bottlenecks for somebody’s promotion etc are all forms of office power and politics.
How can it be checked?
- Clear-cut policies and a well-defined chain of command for simple organizational structure.
- Flexibility in communication should be ensured and everybody should have a say in important decisions.
- The leaders should not engage in any kind of biased behavior against employees.
- A system of checks and balances should be developed.
- In every country, there are leaders that possess power. Again, some leaders use their power for the development of the nation while others just use it for politics.
- Blaming other party leaders, indulging in corruption, harassment of people, influencing vote banks etc are all forms of misuse of power for politics
- Power and politics can be used positively as well to achieve the required goals.
- Use power and politics to achieve collective interests rather than individual interests.
- Make more use of rewarding power than coercive power. Positive motivation works more for people than negative motivation.
- Influence and impact people, but in a positive way.
Conclusion
- When you hold power you are at a prestigious place and you should make the best possible use of it. It feels good when power is used to influence people in a positive way and to make a positive difference in their lives.
- So use your power with responsibility, care, and caution