Influence perception and power in organizations

Abstract

There is a lack of clarity on the definitions of power and personal influence. Power and personal influence have been studied as separated phenomena in Social and Organizational Psychology, since little effort has been made in relating the various levels of power in the organizational environment. Differing organizational power of person influence as separated phenomena yet considering correlation studies as essential between those variables, the study here described had the following aims: 1) identify the power configurations in two organizations, in the public-sector; 2) verify the extent in which individuals perceive themselves (self-ratings) as users of organizational systems of influence; 3) investigate the degree in which individuals perceive themselves as influential in their workplace; 4) evaluate the degree in which individuals are perceived by others (colleagues ratings) as influential in their workplace; establish relationships between self and colleagues-perceptions of influence and power configurations and demographic variables. For that purpose, a self-perception scale was used in order to measure the usage of organizational systems of influence (constructed and validated). The configuration of organizational power scale and a five-point Likert scale were also used, the latter being a scale which measured the degree of self-and-colleagues-perception of influence in their workplace. All scales were applied in 202 employees of two small Brazilian organizations, in the public sector. Data were treated statically through descriptive analysis (means and standard deviations) and inferential methods, such as ANOVA a Multiple regression (Stepwise). Results were analyzed focused on the relevance of this study for power and influence theories in organizations.