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Max Weber, the ‘founding voice’ on power in organisations saw power as a pervasive aspect of organisational life (Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2011, p 252).
1) Define and discuss power and politics using examples from your organisation to compare/contrast theory and practice.
2) Determine a plan of action to address dysfunctional power and office politics.
3) You must utilise research from at least 7 current references (in the last 10 years) that support your discussion.
Essay Writing Guidelines:
Read the task and marking schedule carefully and understand what you are being asked to do. You will need to follow an essay structure.
The following structure is recommended for this assignment, which enables you to address each of the instructions following the essay format:
1) Read as much about power and politics as possible. You are advised that a good answer will draw on material beyond the textbook and modules.
2) Write an introduction, which identifies what you will cover; outlines the structure, explains how you will present the discussion and describes the outcomes.
3) Select, define and discuss relevant theories/concepts to explain power and politics in organisations.
4) Use examples from your organisation to showcase the difference between theory and what happens in practice.
5) From your research, determine how you might address dysfunctional power and office politics.
6) From the findings (review of the current literature) and your discussion, you should be able to draw conclusions about power and politics in the last section of your essay. dysfunctional power
I would hope students will discuss dysfunctional power as the use of power to further a manager's personal ends without regard to the effects on others, and that which causes negative effects for the organisation such as an increase in turnover, bullying, and a culture of intolerance.
A good example would be the David Jones sexual harrassment case, where the CEO Mark McInness abused

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