45-843 Organization Power and Influence

6 units, Carnegie Mellon University

Important Info: Attendance in the first week of class is mandatory. If you miss both sessions in Week 1, you will be dropped from the class. This course addresses issues of power, influence and political behavior with organizations. The central theme of this course is that understanding the nature of power, how to get it and how to use it, are essential for any manager to be effective. By power, we do not mean the ability to "beat out" the opponent; we mean the ability to mobilize the resources in an organization to eff ectively accomplish organizational goals through other people. While the readings will cover much of the theory and research which has been conducted on power, the class sessions will be devoted to demonstrations and applications of the theory. Included will be cases and exercises. We will explore answers to the following questions: What is power? Who has power in the organization? How do they get it (and keep it)? How do they use it? What effect does it have on people? What effect does it have on the performance of an organization?

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Spring 2027, Spring 2026

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