Any help is appreciated, looking for a summary of this article focusing on one (

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Any help is appreciated, looking for a summary of this article focusing on one (1) or (2) points, realating to either a personal experience or a real world/work situation. THanks as always. see link to article

https://elearning.uh.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-4190641-dt-content-rid-28646757_1/courses/H_20181_TELS_3340_17375/Exercising%20Influence%20Linda%20Hill%201994.pdf

Exercising Influence

All influential managers have power, but not all powerful managers have influence. What does it take to convert your power into influence? The answer is twofold:

• To be willing and able to empower those on whom you are dependent;

• To be willing and able to cultivate networks, mutually beneficial relationships with those on whom you are dependent.

Reconciling Myths and Realities: The Case of New Managers?

For most new managers, the decision to pursue a managerial career is a carefully considered one, yet their expectations of this new role often turn out to be incomplete and overly simplistic. New managers are blinded to the realities of management by their personal motivation and ambitions. In their initial conception of what it means to be a manager, they tend to think of the rights and privileges associated with the managerial role—the formal authority—rather than the duties and obligations. It is usually the power of the position that attracts them to management: "I [had] always wondered what it would be like to be in charge and get people to do things the right way," one new manager explained.

First-time managers are eager to implement their ideas about how to run an effective organization. When they start in their new positions, their primary aim is learning how to exercise their newfound authority and gain control. They erroneously believe that their formal authority will be the primary source of power on which they will rely to influence others. Many adopt a hands-on, autocratic approach consistent with their initial notion of the managerial role: the manager as boss.

They choose such a style not because they are eager to exercise power over people, but because they want to impact results.

After a short time on the job, they confront the realities of management. They find themselves enmeshed in a web of relationships with people who make what seem like unending, often ambiguous or conflicting, demands. Consequently, new managers’ daily routines are often pressured, hectic, and fragmented and do not fit their expectations of power and control. As one manager remarked, being a manager felt more like being a "puppet in a puppet show" than being the boss.

They soon learn that formal authority does not guarantee influence. Their subordinates do not necessarily follow their directives. As one manager put it, with a hearty laugh, after some time in his new position: "Whatever you do, don’t let the title of ‘Manager’ get to you, because it’s not much of a title." Ironically, to be effective, managers must develop the capacity to exercise power and influence effectively without relying solely on their formal authority. They have to establish trust and credibility with their subordinates before they can influence them. A stellar track record as a star individual contributor is rarely enough; others’ attributions of trustworthiness and credibility are based largely on their firsthand interactions with the managers.

As first-time managers come to refine their understanding of what it takes to have influence, they begin to recognize that what they want is not simply to be in control, but rather to gain the commitment or "buy-in" of those with whom they work. Formal authority may be enough to effect changes in behavior, but to gain commitment or changes in attitude as well as behavior, managers have to empower others. Empowerment means sharing power with others—that is, providing others with positional and personal sources of power so that they too have the potential to influence. Empowerment does not guarantee that others will or should exercise their influence in all circumstances; certainly there may be matters that should be left to the manager’s discretion.

Initially, the idea of sharing power seems anathema to new managers, as it suggests an abrogation of responsibility and control over what happens in their unit. But a paradox of power is that sharing power actually increases a manager’s power and hence "control."3 For instance, one of the most effective ways to foster initiative and responsibility is to grant others the autonomy (a positional source of power) to define how they will accomplish a task and the opportunity to acquire the necessary expertise (a personal source of power) to do it. The manager still sets the overall parameters or agenda within which work should be accomplished; empowerment is the process by which ample room is left for those "closest to the action" to improvise and adapt to local exigencies and unexpected events. Empowerment promotes trust, and thereby increases a manager’s ability to exercise influence. By sharing their power, managers can build bridges and connections with others to motivate and inspire them to pursue mutually agreed-upon goals. David McClelland, who has devoted much of his career to the study of power and influence, sums it up best:

People who feel they are pawns tend to be passive and useless. . . . Slaves are the most inefficient form of labor ever devised by man. If a leader wants to have farreaching influence, he must make his followers feel powerful and able to accomplish things on their own.4

In addition, the excessive use of power often diminishes a person’s actual influence, for it can lead to abuses of power. The very powerful may increasingly exaggerate their own self-worth and denigrate others; their self-aggrandizement can cause them to take liberties and exploit others in ways that would otherwise be unthinkable. This, in turn, causes others to distrust them, which slowly but surely erodes their capacity to influence them.5 By adopting a policy of empowering others—leveling the "power playing field"—managers can check this insidious process.

Just when they think they have a handle on what their new role is and what it takes to influence their team members, managers begin to recognize a new set of dependencies—dependencies on those over whom they have no formal authority—in particular, superiors and peers. They usually stumble upon these dependencies the hard way: their teams face unreasonable performance objectives with limited resources, for example, because the managers have neglected to manage up and manage laterally. In order to influence those over whom they have no formal authority, the managers find themselves having to develop other sources of power. In short, what first-time managers soon discover is that being a manager is not only a position of authority, but also a position of interdependence, with people both inside (senior, juniors, peers) and outside (suppliers, customers, competitors, regulators) the organization. In fact, the higher up you go in an organization, the more interdependent you become; to use the analogy of an orchestra, managers are the conductors who coordinate the efforts of many.

Managers have two sets of responsibilities: agenda-setting and network-building.6 Their job is to reconcile others’ numerous and conflicting expectations by developing an agenda, a framework within which they can make strategic decisions to commit the unit to significant courses of action. As the formal authority and the "nerve center" for their units, managers are uniquely placed to balance and manage inevitable trade-offs and to equitably negotiate and integrate their unit’s interests with those of others. Accomplishing this job requires, as one manager said, "equal amounts of expertise [technical knowledge], analytic ability, and interpersonal and group dynamics skills." The latter are critical; managers can implement their agendas only by effective network-building with a complex set of people both inside and outside the organization.

To be competitive in a global economy, companies are breaking down traditional boundaries to create lean, adaptive, fast-moving, entrepreneurial organizations. They are forming strategic alliances with suppliers, customers, and even competitors, and they are replacing pyramid structures with "cluster organizations," in which groups of people from different functional areas are arranged like bunches of grapes on a corporate vine.7 These groups come together to work on different initiatives on a semipermanent basis. Thus, in contemporary organizations, network-building skills have become a prerequisite for managerial effectiveness.

Influence as Exchange

Networks are mutually beneficial alliances or exchange relationships based on the law of reciprocity; that is, that "one good (or bad) deed deserves another." The primary way managers exercise influence and get things done is by providing resources and services to others in exchange for resources and services they require. Cohen and Bradford use the metaphor of "currencies" to describe this process of influence as exchange.8 Effective managers consider those on whom they are dependent as potential allies, even when they may at first appear to be adversaries.9 They attempt to build mutually beneficial alliances with them by discerning what "currencies" they might have to offer that their allies might need or want. As Cohen and Bradford point out, just as many types of currencies are traded in the world financial market, many types are "traded" in organizational life (see Exhibit 2 for a list of the major currencies). If you want to do business in a given country, you have to be prepared to use the appropriate currency, and the exchange rate can change over time as conditions change. And in the long run, "debit" and "credit" accounts must balance for exchange relationships to work.

In other words, a manager will be influential only insofar as he or she can offer something that others value. Those managers with a broad repertoire of sources of power—a "diversified portfolio of capital"—are more likely to have access to a variety of currencies. For example, managers who are central in the work flow or information networks in their organizations are more likely to possess task-related currencies. If they are likeable as well, they will also have relationshiprelated currencies to trade. And managers with more currencies are more likely to have "just the right one" for building a network with a given person or group on whom they are dependent.

Building and Cultivating Your Network

The first step in exercising influence is identifying those on whom you are dependent to get your job done. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Whose cooperation do I need?

• Whose compliance do I need?

• Whose opposition would keep me from accomplishing my work?

Many managers find it helpful to draw a map of these dependencies (see Exhibit 3). As you can see from the map, managers can have "first-order" and "second-order" dependencies (e.g., they are dependent not only on their immediate superior but also on their superior’s superior). It is always better to overestimate rather than underestimate dependencies. All too often, otherwise talented and successful managers have derailed because they were blindsided by someone whose position and power they had not anticipated.

After you have identified whom you are dependent on, you are ready to "step into their shoes" and see the world from their perspective.

• What differences exist between myself and the people on whom I am dependent (goals, values, stakes, pressures, working styles)?

• What are the underlying forces that have created those differences?

• What sources of power do you have relative to those on whom you are dependent?

With this analysis you can appreciate what others value and what currencies you might have to offer as the basis on which to build a mutually beneficial relationship. In addition, diagnosing others’ points of view as well as the basis for their positions will help you anticipate what their assumptions, perceptions, and feelings will be about your decisions and actions. This information is vital for selecting the appropriate influence strategy and tactics and conducting win/win negotiations.10

You will also want to assess the quality of your relationships with those on whom you are dependent:

• What are your relationships with them like?

• Do you share mutual trust and credibility?

Trust and credibility increase the willingness of others to be influenced by you. They breed goodwill; people are more likely to take your intentions and actions at face value even when circumstances are ambiguous. They will require less "proof" of the value of what you are offering and assume that you will deliver what you have promised. Cohen and Bradford note that with trust, people will be less stringent about whether you are paying back in kind; they will extend you a larger line of credit, and they will be more liberal in your repayment terms. Such flexibility can be invaluable to managers, especially during times of organizational change and uncertainty, when it is by definition more difficult to establish "fair exchange rates."

Trust and credibility cannot be established overnight. Trust is a function of how an individual perceives a manager’s competence (i.e., "Does he or she know the right thing to do?") and character (i.e., "Does he or she want to do the right thing?").11 In turn, credibility is a function of an individual’s perceptions of whether he or she trusts the manager and whether the manager has influence (i.e., "Can he or she get it done?"). We all know managers who have influence but whom we do not trust; we often refer to them as "political animals." And on the other hand, we all know managers whom we trust but who do not have influence; although we might befriend them, we would not like to work for them (see Exhibit 4).

It takes time and energy to build and maintain a network of relationships, and the best time to begin building these relationships is before you really need them. Managers should focus theirenergies on cultivating relationships with the key people on whom they are dependent—those relationships that are especially important to their effectiveness. They should pay particular attention to critical gaps, people who are critical to their success but with whom they do not have relationships.

It is easier to identify common currencies and develop relationships with those who share your background, values, interests, or working styles. It is well-documented that most of us are more comfortable and prefer to spend time with those similar to us. For example, it is no surprise that bottlenecks in organizations often occur between different functional departments. People from different functional areas are likely to have different educational and career histories and perhaps values and working styles, and it can be challenging for them to find common ground and a mutually comfortable way of working. Because senior executives tend to associate mostly with other senior people, they often become isolated from those at lower levels of the organization. Without sufficient contact with those closest to the customer and suppliers, they can end up developing strategies based on impoverished information. To counteract this natural tendency, many senior executives make it a priority to "manage by walking around" or attend corporate training programs for junior managers on a periodic basis. Relationships with those who are dissimilar on multiple dimensions (e.g., a senior manager in a different functional area and geographic division) can be more difficult to establish and therefore require more explicit and proactive strategies.12 Ensuring that your network includes relationships with a broad mix of people can be a demanding but worthwhile endeavor.

Safeguards Against the Abuse of Power and Influence

Thinking about influence as exchange can engender an instrumental, impersonal, and perhaps cynical view of relationships with others at work. We are all familiar with the more cynical exchange strategies implicit in the sayings "what goes around comes around" or "let the buyer beware." It can be all too easy to exploit those who need the "currencies" only you have to offer. However, it is important to remember that networks are mutually beneficial relationships. Over time your exchanges with others should be fair and equitable.

What is "fair and equitable," of course, is a subjective judgment. One of the more common mistakes managers make in determining what is "fair and equitable" is relying on the golden rule for guidance—"do unto others as you would want others to do unto you." However, others may not want what you want, or need what you need. As discussed above, you should "climb into their shoes" to understand their specific desires and needs. Although it may seem counterintuitive, to treat people fairly is to treat them differently.

Below are some rules of thumb about exercising influence that help managers avoid the abuses of power:

• Think in terms of building long-term relationships. Think not only about success in achieving your immediate influence objective, but also about improving your relationship.

• Avoid reliance on formal authority. Instead, whenever possible rely on expertise as your source of power.

• Foster a system of checks or constraints on your power. Share power; do not hoard it.

• Use your power and influence to accomplish ends that are not entirely selfserving (recognize interdependencies and invest in others’ agendas).

• Realize that ends do not always justify the means. In the end, exercising influence in an effective and ethical manner begins with how you think about it. It pays to think about building partnerships as opposed to "doing deals" with those with whom you are interdependent. Consider how we treat those we view as partners:

• We value the different perspectives and talents they bring.

• Not only do we bring problems to their attention, but we fight hard to prevent them from making mistakes.

• We are honest in letting them know how both of us are doing. • Foremost in your considerations is the welfare of the enterprise of which you and your partner are members

Explanation / Answer

2. Southwest Airline

Competitive strategy is all about performing totally different from others.. It means deliberately identifying a differet route from the competitors and deloiver a unique mix of proposition of values.

The company generally offers short-haul, with low cost one point to another point service between midsize cities and then to add on to secondary airports in large cities. The major strategy from Southwest is they dont concentrate on logn term distance services. Its customersmajolry include business travelers, families, university students. Southwest's frequent departures and economical fares easily attract pricesensitive customers who otherwise opt other services such as bus or car. would travel by bus or car,

Mainly managers describe strategic positioning in terms of their customers: "SW airlines s serves price- and convenience-sensitive travelers," for example. thus they play a staregy totally differetn from their rivalries.

A full-service airline is configured to get passengers from almost any point A to any point B. To reach a large number of destinations and serve passengers with connecting flights, full-service airlines employ a hub-and-spoke system centered on major airports. To attract passengers who desire more comfort, they offer first-class or businessclass service. To accommodate passengers who must change planes, they coordinate schedules and check and transfer baggage. Because some passengers will be traveling for many hours, full-service airlines serve meals.

A full-service airline is generally configures to get passengers from almost any point A to any point B. In order to attract a large number of customers with distant destination services company follows hub and spoke models especially for connection flight and for other segment business class flights are charted with less waiting time and flight time.

Southwest, in contrast to their rivalries have a tailor made model in air craft services that enables lesser turn around time and thus they could able to deliver services to the short distance more frequent with lesser number of flights. Automated ticketing at the gate encourages customers to bypass travel agents, allowing Southwest to avoid all sort of commissions. A well maintained standardized fleet of 737 aircraft boosts the efficiency of maintenance.. They wont offer any meal service to the passengers but hospitality level is extremely well.

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