Mini-Case Political Pyramid
Organizations provide a power base for Individuals. From a purely economic
standpoint, organizations exist to create an excess of income over expenses by
meeting needs in the marketplace. But organizations also are political structures
which provide opportunities for people to develop careers and therefore provide
platforms for the expression of individual interests and motives. The development
of careers, particularly at high managerial and professional levels, depends on
accumulation of power as the vehicle for transforming individual interests into
activities which influence other people.
A political pyramid exists when people compete for power in an economy of
scarcity. In other words, people cannot get the power they want just for the asking.
Instead, they have to enter into the decisions on how to distribute authority in a
particular formal organization structure.
Questions:
1. By interviewing concerned individuals, in what instances can individuals gain
power within organizations?
2. Comment on the ethics of "gaining comparatively at someone else's expense."​