Module 1 – Case
INFLUENCE TACTICS AND SOURCES OF POWER
Assignment Overview
Koch Industries is one of the most profitable privately held
corporations in the country. In spite of being owned primarily by four
brothers, it has not been immune from intense internal power plays and
intrigue. A decades-long dispute between CEO Charles Koch and his younger
brother Bill Koch led first to an internal battle for control of the company
and ended with a lawsuit between the brothers.
Carefully review the background materials regarding sources
of power within an organization and influence tactics. Examples of sources of
power include reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, and expert power.
Examples of influence tactics include forming coalitions, pressure, and
exchanging favors. Make sure to understand the main power sources and influence
tactics and know the vocabulary and definitions from the background materials before
starting the assignment.
The epic battle between two of the Koch brothers tested the
limits of both of their power bases within Koch Industries. Both used multiple
tactics before Charles Koch ultimately secured his position of almost unrivaled
power within the corporation. Do some research about this power struggle using
the Trident Online Library and online news sources. Here are some articles to
get you started:
Schulman, D. (2014, Jul). Koch vs. Koch. Mother Jones, 39,
16–27,64,2
Tomsho, R., (1989, Aug 09). Blood feud: Koch family is
roiled by sibling squabbling over its oil empire: Fired by his brother, William
sues often, helps feds to probe Koch Industries, haling mother into court. Wall
Street Journal [ProQuest]
Case Assignment
Once you have finished your research, write a 4- to 5-page
paper addressing the following issues.
Make sure to cite at least two of the required background readings in
addition to articles about the Koch brothers in your paper:
What were Charles and Bill Koch’s sources of power within
Koch Industries? Did they have reward power, coercive power, legitimate power,
or expert power? Any other sources of power? Refer to Bauer and Erdogan (2012)
or Luthans et al. (2015) in your answer, as you should demonstrate a solid
understanding of these readings as part of your answer.
What influence tactics did each of them use in their battle
for control? Refer to Bauer and Erdogan (2012) or Luthans et al. (2015) in your
answer.
Ultimately what do you think led to Charles Koch’s victory
in this battle, and what do you think are the most important lessons on
organizational power that you learned from reading about this power struggle?
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
Module 1 – SLP
INFLUENCE TACTICS AND SOURCES OF POWER
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 influence tactics used by this manager. Include
a discussion about whether or not this manager used the influence tactics
discussed in Anderson (1998) and Luthans et al. (2015) from the background
materials.
Did this manager make good use of their sources of power and
influence tactics, or did they misuse or abuse their power?
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
Module 2 – Case
ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS
Assignment Overview
All organizations have internal politics. However, most
organizations keep their political battles private and it is rare that the
public will know the details about political intrigue within the major
corporations. However, Hewlett-Packard (HP) is rare in that its political
battles were waged publicly. HP will make for an ideal case study both because
of the intense political behavior occurring at the top and because many
articles have been written about these political battles.
HP has been through five CEOs since 2005, and each change of
CEO has been controversial. The drama started in 2005 when then CEO Carly
Fiorina was under attack from several members of HP’s Board of Directors. Some
board members even took the dispute public by leaking information to the press.
Fiorina fought back by investigating the leaks, but ultimately lost the battle
and was ousted as CEO. Her replacement, Patricia Dunn, continued to investigate
leaks by the board through the use of private investigators. Even more
controversy emerged when it was discovered that the investigators used the
method of “pretexting” in order to obtain phone records of board members.
Case Assignment
For this assignment, make sure to first carefully review the
background materials regarding the causes of political behavior, types of
political behavior, and the ethics of political behavior. Examples of the
causes of political behavior include competition for resources, ambiguous
organizational goals, lack of trust, and performance factors. Examples of types
of political behavior include blaming others, selectively distributing
information, managing impressions, and forming coalitions. Regarding ethics, consider
the three main factors:
Does the political action violate individual rights?
Does it improve the welfare of those involved?
Does it increase distributive justice?
Review the background materials and do some research on the
political dramas at HP. There is a lot written about HP’s many dramas over the
years; here are some articles to get you started:
Pearlstein, S. (2011, Sep 25). How HP, Silicon Valley’s
darling, became a soap opera. The Washington Post
Veverka, M. (2011). The soap opera at HP continues.
Barron’s, 91(39), 25.
Kessler, M. (2006, Sep 08). Controversial HP probe started
under Fiorina; stock falls as board continues public feud. USA Today [ProQuest]
Harwell, D. & Paquette, D. (2015, Sep 27). Fiorina’s
divisive legacy. Washington Post. [EBSCOhost]
Once you have finished reviewing the background materials
and have completed your research on HP’s internal politics, write a 4- to
5-page paper addressing the following issues:
What individual and organizational factors of HP and its
senior leaders led to the intense political behavior? Refer to some of the
specific factors discussed on pages 877-883 of Robbins (1997) that you think
apply the most to HP in this situation.
What types of political behaviors did HP’s board members and
CEOs exhibit? Be specific and use the types of political behaviors discussed in
pages 297-301 of Luthans et al. (2015).
Were the leaks to the press by members of the board ethical?
Was the investigation by Patricia Dunn into the links ethical? Use the ethical
framework discussed on pages 896-898 of Robbins (1997) to guide your answer.
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
Module 2 – SLP
ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS
For this assignment you will be continuing to write about
your own workplace experiences as they relate to power and politics. Think of
one of the largest political battles you witnessed or were apart of during your
career, and think carefully about how the concepts from the background
materials apply to what you experienced.
In preparation for the SLP, make sure you have a thorough
grasp of the terminology from the background materials including the main
individual and organizational factors that lead to political behavior and the
types of political behavior. Once you are comfortable with the terminology and
concepts from the background materials, write a 2- to 3-page paper addressing
the following issues:
Briefly describe a political battle that took place in your
workplace. Explain who the main players were and what issues were at stake.
What individual and organizational factors led to this
political battle? Refer to the background readings in your answer, and in
particular pages 877-883 of Robbins (1997).
What types of political behaviors did the participants in
this political battle exhibit? Be specific and use the types of political
behaviors discussed in pages 297-301 of Luthans et al. (2015).
Do you think any of the participants behaved unethically
during this political battle? Use the ethical framework discussed on pages
896-898 of Robbins (1997) to guide your answer.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
Module 3 – Case
CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATION
Assignment Overview
For this Case study, we will be looking at a fictional case
of a manager caught between a rock and hard place. Nick Cunningham is a manager
at Synergon, a high-powered company involved in purchasing poorly managed
companies and then restructuring them to become more profitable. However,
Synergon has now purchased Beauchamp, Becker, and Company, which is a
well-managed and highly profitable company.
Nick is in an awkward position because he is in charge of
managing this merger, but he also knows that the success of the merger is
dependent on Beauchamp’s managing director and other top leaders remaining in
their positions and continuing their solid work. However, Nick’s bosses are not
known for taking a conciliatory approach towards companies they purchase and
usually force major changes on any company that they acquire. Predictably, Nick
is faced with a threat of retirement by Beauchamp’s managing director Julian
Mansfield due to Synergon’s strict policies and approach.
Before beginning the Case Assignment, make sure you have
thoroughly reviewed the tutorial and textbook readings from the background
materials. Pay special attention to readings on causes of conflict, types of
conflict, and conflict management styles. For this assignment you will need to
apply concepts from the background materials to this fictional case.
Case Assignment
Once you have finished reviewing the background materials,
take a look at this following article and think about how the concepts from the
background materials apply to this fictional case:
Cliffe, S. (1999). Can This Merger Be Saved? Harvard
Business Review, 77(1), 28-44. [EbscoHost]
Then write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following
questions:
Do you think this conflict that Nick Cunningham faces is
functional or dysfunctional? Explain your reasoning, and cite Bauer and Erdogan
(2011) or Luthans et al. (2015) in your answer.
What is the source of this conflict? Use the terminology
from the Pearson tutorial, Bauer and Erdogan (2011), or Luthans et al. (2015)
in your answer. For example, is this conflict a result of
relationship/interpersonal issues? Or from tasks/roles? Other?
Of the five styles of conflict management discussed in
Shearhouse (2011) or Bauer and Erdogan (2011) which one do you think would be
the best approach for Nick Cunningham to take?
What other advice would you give Nick Cunningham based on
the concepts discussed in any of the background readings?
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
Module 3 – SLP
CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATION
For the Module 3 SLP you will be applying the concepts you
learned in the background materials regarding conflict and negotiation to a
situation from your own personal experiences. Carefully review the background
materials regarding types of conflict, causes of conflict, negotiation stages,
and conflict management styles. It is important to first understand these
comments from the background readings before starting this assignment.
Once you have thoroughly reviewed the background materials,
think of a situation in the workplace where a conflict erupted and management
had to intervene and some type of negotiation was involved. Then write a three
page paper addressing the following four questions, and make sure to cite at
least one of the required background readings for each of your four answers :
Was this conflict functional or dysfunctional?
What was the cause of the conflict? Use the terms from the
background materials in your answer—for example, was the conflict a result of
interpersonal issues, a specific task involved, due to inter-organizational
issues, etc.
Of the five approaches to conflict management outlined in
Shearouse (2011) or Bauer and Erdogan (2011), which approach most closely
describes the approach used by management to resolve this conflict?
Did the negotiations involve integrative or distributive
bargaining? What stages of negotiation did management go through, and did these
stages match the five stages discussed in Bauer and Erdogan (2011) or the
Pearson interactive tutorial?
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
Module 4 – Case
PERSUASION
Assignment Overview
For this assignment take a close look at both the required
readings and videos on general concepts of persuasion such as the main
principles laid out by Cialdini (2001) or in Section 14.2 of McLean (2012).
Then take a look at some of the practical guides to persuasion such as Gorman
(2007) or the Pearson tutorials and see which one of them is the most useful
for you.
Case Assignment
When you have finished carefully reading these materials,
write a 4 page paper addressing the following issues:
Which of these readings or tutorials was the most convincing
or presented the most useful information? Explain your reasoning as to why you
found this source more convincing that the others.
Based on the ideas about persuasion that you read about in
the background readings, write a memo at least one page in length to your
employees trying to persuade them to cancel their weekend plans and volunteer
to work next weekend. This memo shouldn’t be an “order” that they need to work
on the weekend, but rather an attempt to persuade them to do so. Make sure to
use both the general concepts from Cialdini (2001) or McLean (2012) as well as
some of the practical persuasion guides to help you craft your memo.
Conclude your paper with a discussion of how your memo
applied the concepts from the background materials. Be specific as to what
sources you used and what sections of your memo was influenced by which source.
Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
Module 4 – SLP
PERSUASION
For this assignment, review the basic concepts of persuasion
discussed in Cialdini (2001) and McLean (2012). Then take a close look at the
first few slides of Jernigan (2013) and make sure you are clear on the
distinction between argument, persuasion, and propaganda.
Once you have finished reviewing the background materials,
think about communication that you receive in your daily life that is intended
to sway your attitudes, opinion, or behavior. This could be communication from
your employer, YouTube videos, TV advertisements, spam email, and a host of
other communication that you are exposed to in your daily life. After reviewing
some communication examples, write a 3-page paper addressing the following
questions:
Describe a communication example that you have seen that is
best described as propaganda. In addition to describing the communication,
explain why you think this was propaganda rather than argumentation or persuasion.
Use the distinctions spelled out by Jernigan (2013) in your answer.
Now find a communication example that you think is a good
example of argumentation. Describe the example and explain why you think it
fits the definition of argumentation described by Jernigan (2013).
Last, but definitely not least, find an example of
persuasion that you think best fits the definition of Jernigan (2013) as well
as exemplifies the concepts of persuasion discussed in Cialdini (2001) or
McLean (2012). Explain why you think this communication best fits the
definition of persuasion rather than propaganda or argumentation.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all
steps listed in the instructions.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don’t go
off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background
materials.
Make sure to cite readings from the background materials
page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of
information.
Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the
Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14
on in-text citations.
Module 1 discussion
Power and Influence
For the your first post in the first week of the module,
take the following self-assessment regarding your power and influence skills:
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/ftp/page292.html
Based on this assessment, what do you think you want to get
out of this class and what areas are you most interesting in improving or
learning more about this session?
For the second week of the discussion, take a look at some
videos from Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University. He is considered one of the
leading experts in the world on power and influence. Find a video from Dr.
Pfeffer on power or influence that you find useful and share the link with your
classmates. Do you think he practices what he preaches? In other words, does he
exhibit expert power?
Module 2 discussion
Organizational Politics in TV or Movies
For your SLP, you will be writing about a real-life example
of organizational politics from your own work life. For the discussion, we will
take a bit more lighthearted approach and look at some examples of how
organizational politics is portrayed in movies or TV as well as video games.
Notable TV series that focus on workplace life include
Suits, Mad Men, Silicon Valley, House of Lies, Ugly Betty, and The Office. You
can probably think of few more recent ones. In terms of movies, Office Space,
The Social Network, and Jobs are some examples of popular movies that revolved
around corporate life.
For your first post in the first week of this module, try to
find a good example of a recent TV series or movie that you watched that you
thought was a good example of any of the concepts from this module. Give a
short synopsis of the story involved and how it reflected concepts from the
background readings. If you can find a YouTube clip from this show or movie,
share the link with your classmates. Also, discuss how realistic the TV show or
movie was—did it seem similar to what you might find in real life?
Just as office politics is a common theme in movies and TV,
there are a surprising number of video games with an office politics theme. Do
a search on “office politics games,” “office simulators” or similar searches
and see if you find any games that look interesting or are relevant to this
module. Some of these games are even available for free—special kudos to any of
you who try the game out yourselves. But at least include a short description
of the game you found and a link to a video or webpage that illustrates the
game.
Module discussion 3
Conflict Management Self-Assessment
The reading by Shearouse (2011) discusses five conflict
management styles. Many companies sell conflict style questionnaires for use in
organizations. For the first week of this module, try your hand at a free
questionnaire. Here is one that allows you to identify your own conflict
management style based on five styles similar to those discussed in Shearouse
(2011):
https://edge.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/10.2_Conflict_Style_Questionnaire.pdf
Report your rating as well as your general impressions about
the usefulness of this questionnaire. Were you surprised by the results? Do you
think the results are accurate? Would the questionnaire be useful for your
organization?
For week two of this module, try your hand at using some of
the conflict management or negotiation tactics discussed in this module. This
could be with a coworker or family member. If everything is peaceful these days
at home or at work, you can also try negotiating for a better deal, such as
calling up your credit card company to try to get a lower interest rate or
calling up your cell phone carrier to get a lower monthly rate. Share the
results with your classmates, and don’t cause too much trouble…
Module 4 discussion
Battle of the Gurus
In Module 1 you looked at a video from leader/organizational
power guru Jeffrey Pfeffer. Part of your Module 4 materials are an article by
Robert Cialdini and a video for which he provides some narration. As you might
have guessed by now, Pfeffer and Cialdini are two of the most famous and
popular authorities on power, influence, and persuasion.
In addition to experiencing Cialdini’s presentation style
from his narration in the Background video, view some of his other videos on
YouTube. Find at least one that discusses persuasion. Post the link to the video
and share your thoughts.
After viewing at least one of Cialdini’s videos on
persuasion, discuss the following in your first post during the first week of
the class:
Who do you think is more persuasive given what you’ve read
about persuasion for this module—Pfeffer or Cialdini?
In what ways do you think these gurus are similar or
different?
Your second task for the discussion is to actually go out
and try to use some of Cialdini’s techniques from his videos or the background
readings. You can try them on a coworker, a family member, or even a salesperson
that you are trying to coax into giving you a better deal. Did it work? How did
these tactics work compared to what you tried for the Module 3 disussion? Would
you try this technique again? Share your story with your classmates sometime
during the second week of the module.
Module 4 reflective
discussion
Applying Course Concepts
Go back to the self-assessment that you took for the Module
1 discussion on power and influence skills. Based on what you’ve learned over
Modules 1-4, have you met some of your goals in terms of improving your power
and influence skills and knowledge? What are some areas that you plan on
learning more about in your future career?
In addition, explain how taking this course has given you
new insights into your own profession and career. Describe two concepts from
this course that you think are most applicable to your career.
