Assignment Overview
Koch Industries is one of the most profitable privately held corporations in the country. In spite of being owned primarily by four brothers, it has not been immune from intense internal power plays and intrigue. A decades-long dispute between CEO Charles Koch and his younger brother Bill Koch led first to an internal battle for control of the company and ended with a lawsuit between the brothers.
Carefully review the background materials regarding sources of power within an organization and influence tactics. Examples of sources of power include reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, and expert power.
Examples of influence tactics include forming coalitions, pressure, and exchanging favors. Make sure to understand the main power sources and influence tactics and know the vocabulary and definitions from the background materials before starting the assignment.
The epic battle between two of the Koch brothers tested the limits of both of their power bases within Koch Industries. Both used multiple tactics before Charles Koch ultimately secured his position of almost unrivaled power within the corporation. Do some research about this power struggle using the Trident Online Library and online news sources. Here are some articles to get you started:
Schulman, D. (2014, Jul). Koch vs. Koch. Mother Jones, 39, 16-27,64,2
Tomsho, R., (1989, Aug 09). Blood feud: Koch family is roiled by sibling squabbling over its oil empire: Fired by his brother, William sues often, helps feds to probe Koch Industries, haling mother into court. Wall Street Journal [ProQuest]
Assignment : INFLUENCE TACTICS AND SOURCES OF POWER
For the Session Long Project this session you will be applying the concepts from the background materials to your own personal experiences in the workplace.
You likely have experienced many if not all of the concepts at one point or another in your career, but you may not have been familiar with the precise terminology.
In preparation for the SLP, make sure you have a thorough grasp of the terminology from the background materials including the main sources of power and types of power tactics.
Once you are comfortable with the terminology and concepts from the background materials, think of a manager that you worked with closely who held a fair amount of power at the organization you worked for.
Then write a 2- to 3-page paper addressing each of the following questions.
For each answer, make sure to cite at least one reference from the required background readings.
1. What were this manager's main sources of power? Include a discussion of reward power, legitimate power, and expert power as well as other sources of power discussed in the background readings.
2. Discuss some influence tactics used by this manager. Include a discussion about whether or not this manager used the influence tactics discussed in Anderson (1998) and Luthans et al. (2015) from the background materials.
3. Did this manager make good use of their sources of power and influence tactics, or did they misuse or abuse their power?
Attachment:- Case - Koch Industries.rar