A manager needs to understand the interdependency of departments, internal partnerships, and the influence of power and politics to effectively manage across the organization. Effective managers use various political tactics to increase their power within the organization to coordinate and support the work of their peers and subordinates to meet company objectives. Managers regularly acquire and use power. Power-oriented behavior has an impact on managerial career progress, on job performance, on organizational effectiveness, and on the personal lives of employees (Obholzer, 1995). It involves the combined topics of power, influence, authority, and organizational politics. When running ...view middle of the document...
In other words the formal structure defines how it will apply resources to carry out what it needs to do (Egan, 1994). The formal structure also reflects the authority and responsibility that individuals have for applying the organizational resources. Formal power structure can hinder managerial effectiveness in several ways. In formal structures, decisions get made through personal influence and are not made by people who are meant to make them. People argue about who should be doing what and some things do not get done at all. The organization can sometimes seem fragmented and time and resources are wasted. While running the Good Sport simulation, I navigated the power structure in many ways. Processes need to be broken down and allocated to individuals and departments so that they can share the workload or employ specialist skills. Because the work of many individuals needs to be coordinated towards the common mission, specialist management roles and an organizational structure are required to manage effectively.The informal structure is the network of relationships in the workplace that are not described informal job descriptions, role statements, organizational charts, etc. The informal structure is the "unofficial organization" that is implied by saying "It's not what you know, but who you know..." We all know that this exists and most people in organizations use the informal structure without realizing that is what they are doing. If you want to influence someone you could not normally reach you may approach them indirectly through someone else who is close to your "target" person. The informal structure is not inherently positive or negative (Halton, 2003). In the simulati...
