This is the second of two articles dealing with the influence of organisational politics on projects and project managers.
In the previous article I referred to a well-known book by Jeff Pinto,” Power and politics in project management”, which provides one of the best resources on how project managers can manage the complexities of dealing with power and authority within the organisations in which they work.
Pinto makes a distinction between what he calls the naïve approach to organisational politics, which is particularly common among technically oriented project managers, the “shark” who spends all too much time schmoozing with senior executives rather than doing the job of project delivery, and finally what he calls a sensible approach to politics.
The naïve approach to politics is the way a lot of subject matter experts or technical people approach organisational politics: it’s an unpleasantness to be ignored while we push on with our detailed work, but complaining that we are never consulted by our superiors or that our recommendations are always ignored.
Taking the sensible approach instead, we need to acknowledge the importance of having some decision-making power and control over our objectives, our resources and our overall work environment.
Pinto makes the point that even a staid technical person should be aware that we can facilitate the implementation of our work if we take a sensible and practical approach to power, seeing that political astuteness can be an enabler to your work.
There are two elements in all decisions: the power to make the decision and the quality of the information available. Generally, the problem in most organisations is that the people have the knowledge don’t have the power, and the people who have the power don’t have the knowledge. The fundamental need therefore is a communications channel between the knowledge workers and decision-makers.
In this approach, you are not looking for personal gain by being using organisational politics, but simply by being more astute, you can establish lines of communications with senior decision-makers and stakeholders.
This will allow you to access decision-makers more effectively, inform them what is required, and negotiate with them to action your recommendations. In other words, you manage upwards to ensure that those who have power have sufficient knowledge to make the right decision.
Power and influence in organisations
Given the many ways in which problems can arise in our communications with senior stakeholders, it’s critical that we get some degree of power and authority within the organisation so that we can influence stakeholders, modify their attitudes or perhaps shape the way they perceive the work and the desired outcome.
We get power by acquiring power bases within the organisation, either directly through our own influence by formally ensuring we get a clear delegation of power from our superiors. The key term here is the expression “managing upwards”.
There are number of ways we can achieve some power and influence within the organisation.
First, if you’re dealing with a functionally aligned project team were everyone comes from the same department, you may already have some formal power over the people working with you, based on your job title or by delegation from your departmental manager. This kind of power is called legitimate or formal power, authority to tell team members what to do and to delegate any tasks you require in your project. Your power comes directly from your job position and your status in relation to other people within your department.
In other cases, people may not directly be involved with or control your project, but by controlling the budget, people such as the accounts department, the financial director and others may have a fair degree of power over your project. Similarly, if we report to them or have some other authority over financing and budgeting within your department, this may give us power that’s not otherwise there in our job title.
This kind of power, less direct power, is called bureaucratic power, and depends a lot upon the nature of your organisation. It is based on the administrative support provided by this department to the entire organisation, e.g., accounts, HR or IT.
For example, this kind of power would be stronger in the public sector or in traditionally bureaucratic organisations such as insurance companies and banks, as well as other fully structured organisations such as the military.
Bureaucratic power can be a bottleneck. Even if they are not the person who can say yes or no, they might delay things or otherwise cause complications. For example, auditors may have some bureaucratic impact on project approvals and funding, just by being pedantic about the degree of documentation or preparation required to approve the project.
There are two other sources of power, both of which are fairly obvious: the power to reward or to punish.
This power is very similar to legitimate or formal authority, but with a slightly different spin. People who can offer bonuses to project teams are not necessarily limited to your immediate superior in the hierarchy. Likewise, stakeholders who are unhappy with your project, are not necessarily in your immediate chain of command, but can still make life difficult for you.
The more immediate source of power for many project managers is subject matter expertise. Subject matter experts have power and authority because they are respected by everyone in the organisation. They are the guru, they are the people we all respect as the umpire when there are disagreements about technology, techniques or work methods.
We may not be the expert ourselves, but it can be valuable to know who other respected experts within the organisation. Then, in the process of negotiating project requirements or in acquiring resources, we can direct queries and objections to our proposals to the right person, someone who will support our position due to their expert knowledge.
Finally, there is the charismatic leader, leaders like Steve Jobs, for example, and other famous entrepreneurs or thought leaders.
Some of you may work in that kind of workplace: I don’t mean just Apple or Samsung! Similar charismatic leaders can occur in other workplaces, including charities or not for profits. Such organisations often have their own folklore and a leader or founder who has shaped the direction of the organisation.
Harnessing organisational power
Being aware of these different sources of power within organisations, we can start utilising this knowledge by harnessing the strengths and power bases of different senior executives or external stakeholders.
Managing upwards really means gaining a different kind of power: referent power. Referent power or referent authority means delegated power, power that’s been clearly and formally delegated by line management for the purpose of delivering the project.
We need this formalised, so utilising a carefully stage-managed kick-off meeting may be a very obvious way to achieve some power in your project. This stage management needs to ensure that your delegation is public and clear-cut to those attending the kick-off, as well as communicated broadly to other stakeholders within the organisation.
Of course, this is only going to be a start. Being delegated the power still requires us to consult and negotiate with other stakeholders, including our project sponsor. It’s important to maintain good communications and credibility. We must be careful not to overcommunicate, or to go complaining of problems: no stakeholder, especially your project sponsor, wants to take on your problems. They have plenty of their own!
Instead, you will have more credibility by going to senior people for a specific decision (for example choosing option A or B) or to backup a decision you want endorsed to resolve an issue. The first step, is to achieve the communication channel; the second step to understanding how best to harness their power and authority.
The fundamental need is to have a clear communication plan for dealing with stakeholders and actually to follow it, not over communicating but providing key information that is credible and valid, and gaining their buy-in and backup by consistent, credible performance.
In another article, I will discuss stakeholder engagement and creating a high level communications plan for your project.