Who Gets Power and How They Hold on to It

Who Gets Power and How They Hold On to It

Power can be defined like the ability to get things done the way one wants them to be done. A power's person is measured by its ability to get it. To explain it, we will use a model of power called strategic contingency theory. It implies that when a company, for example, is having dangerous law problems that threaten its existence, the legal department will gain power and influence in the company decisions. There exist cases, where managers of departments have gained a lot of power by the critical uncertainties and problems facing the organization and in time they have replaced the head of the corporation getting advantage of all the power they got.

Moreover, the power should be shared in organizations and it is principally shared by the necessity. Power is shared because no person controls all the desired activities in the organization, because power derives from activities rather than individuals, it is never absolute.

There are three conditions that affect the use of power: scarcity, criticality, and uncertainty. Scarcity suggests that some departments will try to get power and influence when the resources of the organization are scarce. Criticality suggests that subunits will influence in the decisions to obtain resources that are critical to its own survival. The third condition is uncertainty, which for me is the most common at meeting time, it happens when the people are not agree about company performance, about the future of the organization, so under this premise power will affect decisions. Under uncertain conditions, the manager usually win it because is the one with more power in comparison with the others.

In conclusion, the real implications of power depend on the particulars of an organizational situation. In an organization, power is outside it, in the environment.