The purpose of this assignment is to test your understanding of the theories of power and concepts related to organisational power and politics. The assignment will be also useful to enhance your critical thinking abilities, in preparation for the essay on “power and ethics”.
Address each of the following questions
• Regarding the theories of power, which one do you think is most relevant to explain power-related phenomena in contemporary organisations? Explain why you find this particular theory relevant and illustrate with examples.
• “The most basic prerequisite of power is that one person or group believes it is dependent on another person or group for a resource of value”. Reflect on this claim from a critical perspective, and illustrate your answer with a real-life example derived from PPK materials or from your own experience or observation.
• “For the most part, organisational politics is in the eye of the beholder.” Reflect on this claim and illustrate your reflections with one or two real-life examples derived from PPK materials or from your own experience or observation. Briefly consider the ethical implication of political behaviours in organisations.
Constructing the reflective responses:
The word “Reflective” in the title of the assignment means that you will need to utilise your reflection skills in order to answer the above questions. In other words, you will need to consider whether you agree or disagree with the assumptions underpinning them by ‘looking back’ on your own experience of the workplace. Then, you need to link your reflections to theoretical concepts discussed so far in this unit.
For example, if you are asked about Hobbes’ conception of power, you must first provide a brief appraisal of Hobbes’ core concepts (e.g., centralisation of power in the hands of a sovereign), and then reflect on the extent to which his ideas are relevant to explain contemporary organisational phenomena. You can refer, for example, to the centralisation of power in the hand of autocratic managers, telling a little story based on your own experience in the workplace. You can also refer to materials from sources such as television documentaries, films, media reports, etc.
As your responses will be framed as personal reflections, you are encouraged to write in the first person (Please note that this does not mean that you can write in the first person in all other units of your major. Please check with your other lecturers whether this is permissible).