Political Resources - Inventory

The following questions are designed to help you think about the political resources you have. They are divided between the four types of power-base:

authority - the power and authority that goes with the position or office that you hold
expertise - the power that goes with the particular skills that you possess that others need to access
resource - the power that goes with the resources that you control
interpersonal - the power and influence that derives from you and your personal skills, in particular skills in influencing, and leadership.

The questions help to identify whether you have the particular type of power in each section, but there is space for you to add additional indicators of your own. The more positive indicators you have, the greater your power.

1. Do you have formal authority?

		Yes	No
a	Do you have the formal right (say, in your job description) to make decisions, other than trivial ones?
b	Do other people need your approval before they take action?
c	Do you supervise someone else’s work?
d	Do your decisions significantly affect important aspects of the organisation’s work long-term?
e	Does your manager typically support your decisions and not over-rule them?
f	Do you encounter any resistance to your right to make decisions, supervise others, give approval, from subordinates, peers, more senior managers?

Yes answers to any of (a) - (e) indicate your possession of authority.
Yes to (d) indicates a high level of power based on authority.
Yes to (f) suggests a reduction of your political resources which you may need to do something about.

2. Do you have the power of expertise?

		Yes	No
a	Does it take a year or longer to do your job adequately?
b	Do you need a qualification to do your job?
c	What is the highest qualification in your field — do you have it?
d	Are you the only person in your organisation who can do your job?
e	If you were to leave your organisation would they have difficulty in replacing you?
f	Does your knowledge and skills relate to a major aspect of the organisation’s work?
g	Do people frequently consult you and follow your advice?
h	Do more senior managers clearly show that they value your contribution?

Yes to any of (a) - (h) indicates your possession of expert power,
but No to (g) and (h) suggests a lack of perception of your expertise by others, and you may need to do something about this if this political resource is to be fully used.

3. Do you control resources?

		Yes	No
a	Can you give or withhold access to the following resources of your organisation: money information (non—trivial) promotion training senior managers and other powerful people computers and other operational or administrative facilities ‘perks’
b	Are others aware that you can give or withhold access to these things, perhaps because you have on occasion refused them?
c	Do others have alternative sources to these resources?

Yes to any of the items in (a) indicates that you have power based on resource control.
No to (b) suggests that you may need to do something about this in order to fully use this political resource,
but Yes to (c) in reference to any resource indicates a low level of power in relation to that resource, to which you may not wish to draw attention.

4. Do you have interpersonal power?

		Yes	No
a	Are you on good terms with a number of people in the organisation across different departments and hierarchical levels?
b	Do you know who the powerful people are, and are you on good terms with them?
c	Do people confide in you?
d	Do you usually speak at meetings?
e	Are you an "active listener" — you make sure you have understood the other person’s point of view?
f	Do you make sure that other people take your views seriously when it matters to you?
g	Do you avoid being either passive or aggressive in formal or informal discussion with others in the organisation?
h	Can you hold the attention of a group or larger audience?

Yes to any of these questions indicates your power based on interpersonal skills.
No to any of (d) - (h) suggests that training would help you develop your political potential.

Looking back over your answers to the question in this paper you will probably have found that you have in some degree each of the types of power-base. If you give yourself a rating for each of the four types on the chart below, you will have a profile of your political resources.

You may wish to take action to alter the profile which emerges. Two questions which are useful to ask when deciding what to do are:

do the people who have got to the top of your organisation have any characteristics in common?
are there any trends which might demand different characteristics for success in future?

Profile of Political Resources
High	5
	4
Medium	3
	2
Low	1
		Authority	Expertise	Resource Control	Inter-personal Skill