Why should you be concerned about issues of power, influence, and negotiation in organizations? All organizations are political entities in which power and influence are important. Your ability as a manager to obtain the scarce resources required to get things done is determined by your ability to accumulate power, influence others, and negotiate for the resources you need. Without power and influence you will find it more difficult to negotiate for access to resources, to persuade your peers to work cooperatively with you for mutual gain, and to persuade your subordinates to work productively. Without power and influence you will have little impact on organizational goals, strategies, or outcomes—and you will not be effective as a manager.

At the same time, remember that power and influence are double-edged swords. Used judiciously and ethically, power and influence can help somebody with integrity to achieve great things in organizations. However, power does tend to corrupt. Power can be and has been abused by skilled managers who have used their power unethically to the detriment of others—and often themselves.