Paper Summary:

The paper discusses types of power that include legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power and referent power, and looks at the differences between good and bad politics and good and bad leaders. The paper then discusses how strong leadership and proper management enable a business to reach heights of success, however, when a business is ran by self-serving leaders, then its viability as an organization will be short-lived. The paper uses Enron CEO Kenneth Lay as an example of bad politics leading to the corporation's demise, and Microsoft's Bill Gates as an example of how the proper use of power, good politics, visionary leadership and correct management can take a small company to the heights of greatness.

From the Paper:

"If there are two like peas in the pod, then power and politics are apropos relation to the common saying. Throughout history, men and women of all sorts seek to gain power and wield political control over their fellowmen, the organization and over vast lands and nations. Perhaps the feeling of omnipotence and omniscience gives a person such as rush that history has shown narcissistic and megalomaniac individuals clinging to the heights of power and politics for as long as they could. In business, government or any industry, whether in times past or the present, power and politics are intermingled and inseparable. Power is basically the ability of an individual or group to exercise control and influence on others. Politics has been known as both the science and the art of government or governing people and resources. In both cases, there is an authority wielded - whether legal or attained by force or coercion, and the authority enables the power holder to enforce rules, extol obedience, command people and sometimes pronounce judgment. Control oftentimes is the lifeblood of power and politics and it is "established by various methods of power exercised by managers and those in leadership positions to achieve desired effects in behaviour (Powers, 2008).""

Sample of Sources Used:

• Arnette, A. (2006). "The power of politics in business." Entrepreneurial Success. [Online] Retrieved July 18, 2009 from Making IT!, http://www.makingittv.com/EntrepreneurialSuccessThePowerofPoliticsinBusiness.htm.
• DWS mg. (2008, November 17). Microsoft marketing strategy: Why Bill was better than Steve. [Online] Retrieved July 18, 2009 from, http://dwsmg.com/microsoft-steve-balmer-and-bill-gates.html.
• Nichols, J. (2002, April 15). "Enron: What Dick Cheney knew." The Nation. [Online] Retrieved July 18, 2009 from, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020415/nichols.
• Powers, M. (2008, June 23). "Power and politics." Associated Content. [Online] Retrieved July 18, 2009 from, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/826311/power_and_politics.html?cat=3.

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