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Contested Situations
Stanford’s
Jeffrey Pfeffer on using the principles of power
Power
can be a tricky concept. Most people tend to see it as a mysterious quality
that can’t really be defined. Jeffrey Pfeffer, Thomas D. Dee II Professor
of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford
University, doesn’t agree. Quiz him on what power is, and he has a ready
description — power is the ability to get your way in contested situations.
He says that it was primarily to clear the ambiguity surrounding it that
prompted his recent book, Power: Why Some People Have It — and Others
Don’t. “Many people see power as something that exists as a mystery. I
wanted to explain to people what it actually is,” he says. Power, like any
other managerial skill, can be learnt; and over time, you can work towards
getting better at it.
He believes that power is not a bad thing, in fact,
as his definition shows, it’s important when it comes to getting things done.
Understanding power is equally relevant to someone who is aspiring to it
and wants to become more successful, for those who want to maintain power,
as well as observers and commentators, so that they can better understand
the power plays that go on. There is a lot of social science literature and
research matter that can be used to understand power dynamics.
A lot of people tend to be uncomfortable with the
idea of power, and Pfeffer says that it often stems from the belief that
the world is a just place. “People like to see the world as a place where
virtuous behaviour will be rewarded. This blinds them to being as observant
about their surroundings as they are required to be,” he says. At times,
this blind sightedness can result in your downfall. It’s prudent to keep
your eyes and ears open and be aware of the reality around you and not lock
yourself in an ivory tower, he advises.
While power is automatically linked with the top
job, power struggles go on at all levels of the organisation. However, the
CEO does have more to grapple with. “If you are the CEO, there are two
issues that come up,” says Pfeffer. “To start with, you’ve either been
promoted from within or brought in from outside. Either way, you will be
surrounded by people who feel that they deserve your job more than you do.
It helps to be wary of these internal rivals.”
On the other hand, because you are the CEO, there
will always be people fawning over you and sucking up to you. “It is easy
to become overconfident and not remain as vigilant or proactive as you
should be. It’s important to not let
down your guard and to keep doing what got you into
power in the first place. Don’t think that now that you are the CEO it’s
okay to take it easy,” he warns. On the other extreme, there have been
numerous examples of people in power whose arrogance and uninhibited
behaviour sowed the seeds of their destruction, something else you need to
steer clear of.
It’s important to know how to use the principles of
power, says Pfeffer. The important thing for a person who aspires to it is
to build effective networks. Pfeffer recommends getting personal coaching
and taking active charge of your career. Ensure that your job places you in
the right positions where you have enough visibility, as well as the
opportunity to do well. Getting enough exposure to people at the senior
levels in your organisation is also helpful. Most of all, it takes hard
work.
Pfeffer, who has authored 13 books and teaches a
course on ‘The Paths to Power’ is dismissive about leadership literature
written by leaders. “Leadership literature written by those in leadership
positions is mostly fiction. It’s feel good management literature written
to make themselves look like a cross between Gandhi and Jesus Christ which
tends to gloss over the bumps and power plays that have happened along the
way,” he says. The rules of the game that you are told are not necessarily
the only rules that apply, he warns, and it is possible to play by these
without compromising on your ethics.
Pfeffer has been a long time advocate of
evidence-based management and says that it is possibly to apply that to
learning how to deal with power. “The best way to learn is from social
science literature. There is enough material out there and you need to find
the research literature relevant to the domain you are interested in,” he
says. He agrees that evidence changes all the time, but still, at any given
time, it is good to know what evidence suggests. “There are a lot of things
going into it and if you don’t really do that and understand power
dynamics, then all you are doing is wishful thinking. It’s not the truth.”
It is important for an individual to make the
distinction between what’s good for her/ him versus what’s good for the
organisation. Numerous socio-biological studies have shown that what is
good for the person isn’t necessarily good for the organisation. At times
like this, he recommends going with what you know is right and good for you
because the organisation doesn’t really care about you over its own
interests. “This kind of conflict of interest is not a new idea and at
times like this, it is important to put your personal interests on top,” he
says.
You also have to be willing to take risks, and do
things that might make you unpopular. “People tend to worry too much about
what other people will think of their actions instead of thinking about how
effective they are,” says Pfeffer. This often results in people taking the
wrong decisions. Any final advice on how to handle power? “Everybody has a
boss. Keep yours happy.”
Priyanka Sangani
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