Chapter 13: Discussions
Authority: This is the force required to be applied in order to achieve the desired outcome. One characteristic that authority has to meet is that it has to be prescribed by the formal hierarchy and reporting relationships. In many organizations, authority has three properties, namely; it flows downwards; it is vested in organization positions and has to be accepted by the subordinates.
Centrality: This refers to the extent to which an employee is integrated into the network of interpersonal relationships within the work system. In other words, centrality is the thing in an organization that reflects the role of the department in the main activity that the organization engages in. In most organizations, the production department is more central.
Collective Bargaining: A type of negotiation used to resolves the disagreements that arise between workers and the management. The process is normally achieved through a union and end up in an agreement specifying the responsibilities of all the parties involved.
Competition: This refers to the rivalry amongst parties that have the same aim or have commonness of goals. The parties are in pursuit of the same reward/price.
Confrontation: The occurrence of two parties that have engaged in direct conflict trying to work out their differences. Also, confrontation may describe the action of a person who does not want to be engaged in conflict and does anything to ensure it is avoided.
Dependency: Dependency is the main element that underlies relative power, where power means being in possession of something required by another person. Organizational dependency is the relationship between separate but interdependent organization units.
Domains of political activity: This term refers to the specific areas in which politics play a role. In most business organizations, they are management succession: use of hiring and promotion to strengthen network alliances and coalitions by putting their own people in prominent places, resource allocation: a political activity that helps obtain agreement about allocation and structural change: reorganizations cause bargaining and negotiation.
Empowerment: This is the cat of sharing power and delegating power/ authority to subordinates in the organization. Empowerment of employees is crucial as it increases their morale and heightens their motivations for task accomplishment as well as prevents petty and interpersonal rivalries. When the employees are empowered, they have improved effectiveness and do their tasks creatively.
Intergroup conflict: The disagreement that occurs when one group aims to advance its position in relation to other groups. Intergroup conflicts occur when the participants unite as one group and have a negative attitude towards other groups.
Labor management teams: These are teams that are specifically built to increase the participation of the workers and provides a cooperative model for solving union-management problems. When companies employ labor-management teams, they enjoy benefits such as improved quality, reduced costs, and enhanced profitability.