Free Essay on Influence of Politics and Power in Delta Dental

Organizations encompass both material and human resources; usually, it is the human resources of a business that converts or transforms the organization's material resources into consumable or finished products. In an attempt to transform the material resources of the company, the management must make appropriate choices. Politics and power-play have adversely influenced the decisions on the kind of product or services produced by Delta Dental, various materials to use in production, technology to be adopted for efficient production, and the financial resources required. Such decisions have governed how people behave within this organization. These choices or decisions involve some politics; while the individual making the decisions or choices uses some power to ensure that their decisions are accepted and respected. Therefore, the influence of politics and power in Delta Dental presents a political analysis of intraorganizational relationships in which politics and power play is typical. This paper aims to analyze the influence of power and politics in an organization's culture.

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In one aspect, power has been used to get work done; unfortunately, some use it for the wrong reasons. Generally, the influence of power in modern organizations depends on whether it is used for the negative or positive type of power to control. In their study, Buchanan & Badham (2020) defines power as the capability, ability, or right to control people or other resources. (Fleming & Spicer, 2014) describes it as political control of a specific area, country, person, or organization with a lot of influence or control over other people and organizations. Politics and power have resulted in organized dentistry within the Delta Dental organization. It has ensured loyalties and stability across the extensive spectrum of dentistry. According to Williams (2019), team members are not risk-averse. They talk freely and unconstrained from established dentistry's politics; this has ensured improved performance of the organization.

Sources of Power

Various sources of power include legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent power (Fleming & Spicer, 2014).

Legitimate Power

The legitimate or positional power is usually based on the leader's present position within the company's hierarchy. It is inferred from the notion that employees accept the decisions of the leader due to their title and position within the business. As a result, this source of power allows the leaders to give their subordinates orders, provide guidance, review their work and feedback; this enhances maximum employee engagement, which improves the organization's performance.

Reward Power

Compliance also is plausible when a manager or a leader correctly uses reward power. Reward power mostly comes from being a legitimate authority, which then allows a manager or a leader to give out promotions, job assignments, raises, and other performance considerations. Managers should give out rewards according to what beneficiary values and should only be practiced when earned. Inappropriately using rewards diminishes employees' effectiveness and power; when used consistently and fairly, rewards can enhance a manager's power over time, and power managers or leaders can influence and improve organizations' performance.

Coercive Power

Coercive power pushes for compliance through punishment. Subordinates employees agree to a manager's decisions to evade non-compliance consequences, effects such as missing out on promotions, being written up, being given undesirable duties, or being fired. However, use unfairly coercive power may reduce workplace morale, inspire resistance, and distances employees from management. When adverse outcomes are earned, distance and resistance get decreased. Close relationships between management and workers enhance trust and increase workplace morale, which in turn improves the organization's performance.

Informational and Expert Power

Experts exercise influence over individuals who want or need their expertise. Expert power is essential since any person can acquire it. Expert control may result from having an ability or skill, such as the know-how to handle a sophisticated software program. It can also be exercised by individuals holding the knowledge of processes, situations, or people; knowledge help make sound judgments, decisions, and plans. Information power is linked to expert power in that it concerns holding knowledge. The ability to access essential information, keep it, trade it, or share it provides those with information influence, thus improving the organization's performance.

Referent Power

Usually, referent power concerns the less powerful individual's identification with the leader or manager. Personification, shared identity, hero-worship, idolization, or shared culture are sources of referent power. It is a type of power an alert leader or manager can practice only when personnel perceives this power. Charisma power is an intricate component of referent power. Referent control can be applied constructively to the advantage of the organization, has significant implications in the suitable exertion of power; it has been extolled as productive power support for modern management.

Leadership Behavior and Culture

Very little is known about the leaders' use of power in the Delta Dental company, either in political or administrative aspects. Power is a tool used in organizations daily; furthermore, organizations would not easily survive without power relations. Leaders have to influence others to have things done; this indicates that power is an essential tool in achieving organizational objectives and goals (Osland, Devine & Turner, 2015). Leaders must acknowledge their influence, know how to use it effectively, and introduce positive effects. By studying how power operates in businesses, one will be better equipped to apply it and become a more effective leader.

The behavior of powerful managers and leaders in an organization tends to improve the total power of workgroups and enhance the chances of their juniors to be promoted in time. The study of power and politics also help leaders develop a strategic leadership style, maximize employee engagement, improved decision processes culture, and build trust.

Leadership Influence

Leaders usually possess a powerful influence on various organizations’ cultures. They established the tone for how workers perceive their job experience; therefore, culture and leadership are linked. In most cases, leaders' achievement depends on their capability to improve the shape or uphold organizational culture. However, it is a formidable task and one that necessitates conviction, selflessness, and strong character. Besides nurturing such qualities, one can do some specific actions to improve their impact on company culture. These actions may seem to be complicated; however, they are essential in developing a strategic leadership style, maximizing employee engagement, improving decision-process, and building trust.

Strategic and Intentional Leadership Style

Leaders are the role model; employees usually watch how they speak and act, how they handle tough situations, what they believe in, and how they motivate others. Their purpose as a Delta Dental leader is not just to get direct reports to work collectively toward achieving a common goal. Their behaviors and attitudes also form the foundation for how that task gets done. Workers look to leaders who genuinely believe in the Delta Dental organization's mission and vision; they need to comprehend that their leader identifies with the cause and articulates it and explicitly spreads the organization's values. If one wants the employees to build a results masterpiece, the leader needs to implement the right culture canvass. An intentional and strategic leadership style can help to generate an environment that produces profoundly enthusiastic workers that provide at peak levels.

Maximize employee engagement

That is the formal way of relating to the creation of a team of believers who genuinely get into the organization's vision and feel committed to achieving it (Park & Lee, 2020). As a culture cultivator and a manager, the leader's task is to sell their team on considering the big picture; that can be challenging. It means the leader must make sure workers understand the vision. Not just conventional ones, but concepts that shake up the state quo cause a revolution, or change the community. Then the leader also makes sure they understand how their tasks play a role in accomplishing the vision. In a leading culture, great managers’ work to motivate teams to be 100% dedicated to performing for the cause; this is beneficial in that it improves the Delta Dental organization's general performance.

Improved decision culture

A leader's standard operating styles should reflect the organization's vision and values. If leaders want to build a customer-focused culture, they have to ensure their behaviors reflect that; the way leaders operate tells more about what is essential to the rest of the workers. The influence on culture should also be acknowledged in significant decision-making. The leader should focus on how their workers will feel about some decisions and how it will change their perspective on their jobs. Successful leaders always know how to improve their views from various financial ledgers in making decisions that develop great cultures and achieve superior results within Delta Dental.

Building trust

Trust infiltrates almost every part of any work environment; it is the centerpiece of a magnificent culture. The responsibility for building that trust rests on the shoulders of every leader. Leaders should build trust, transform their culture, and form positive relationships with those they lead. They should be equitable by sharing their rationale, being consistent in their approach, and being open for feedback, above all, keeping commitments to those they serve. A trustworthy work environment motivates employees and thus improves the general performance of the Delta Dental organization.

Sources

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons. https://www.amazon.com/Reframing-Organizations-Artistry-Choice-Leadership/dp/1118573331

Buchanan, D., & Badham, R. (2020). Power, politics, and organizational change. SAGE Publications Limited. http://sk.sagepub.com/books/power-politics-and-organizational-change

Fleming, P., & Spicer, A. (2014). Power in management and organization science. Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 237-298. https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/19416520.2014.875671

Osland, J., Devine, K., & Turner, M. (2015). Organizational behavior. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118785317.weom060151

Park, J., & Lee, K. H. (2020). Organizational politics, work attitudes and performance: the moderating role of age and public service motivation (PSM). International Review of Public Administration, 1-21.
https://doi.org/10.1080/12294659.2020.1750755

Williams, B. (2019). Something's Rotten: Oral Health Care Access in the United States. S. Cal. Rev. L. & Soc. Just., 28, 1. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/scws28&div=4&id=&page=