“Power Play”
A pragmatic and valuable article on essential of effective organization. This “Power Play” article, written by Stanford University professor, Jeffrey Pfeffer, offers a primer on why power matters, how to get it, and how to use it to advance your organization’s agenda, especially on large corporation domain—thus, not incidentally, furthering your career.
My overall impression is that the author has explained the several reasoning and principle of power play in a practical way while utilizing an understandable and simple strategy & and approach. When push comes to shove, the author explains, there are several things powerful people do to prevail. They mete out resources; deploy rewards and punishments to shape others’ behavior; advance on multiple fronts; make the first move; co-opt antagonists; remove rivals (nicely, if possible); avoid drawing unnecessary fire; use a personal touch; persist; attend to important relationships; and make their vision compelling.
Throughout the article, the author has relied on several case studies and real world examples of people who exercised power skillfully to implement their plans—people ranging from the SAP corporate consulting team, director of UCSF’s breast cancer center to a successful software executive to an Indian cricket mogul.
The author contends that if you want to get anything done in a large corporation, you need power and bare knuckle strategies. And it won’t just fall into your lap: You have to go after it and learn how to use it. Many highly competent people get stuck because they’re uncomfortable with that reality.
The author has been able to draw the importance of power play in the organization and developing the ability to build and wield power which gives support to Jeffrey Pfeffer key claim that; “Acquiring real clout – the kinds that helps you get stuff done – requires bare knuckle