Ba420 Power and Politics

1. What forms of interpersonal power are evident in the case? Provide evidence to support your answer. One form of interpersonal power is coercive. This is shown by the attitude of the original executives at Disney. The reason for this observation is how the executives required Lasseter to receive ‘great art education’ in order to be hired at Disney. It was also mandatory for him to be taught animation prior to his hiring. Next interpersonal power is reward. Lasseters persistence to learn animation and to work at Walt Disney was his driving force.

Eventually his reward came when he was hired on by Disney. Another reward was the amazing 3D animation movies he created for Disney (Pixar). Lastly expert was also evident in this case. This is obvious in the expertise and detail in the animated movies created by Walt Disney and Lasseter. Combined, their innovative talent in 3D animation set the standard for major motion pictures of this style. 2. In what ways do the two faces of power appear in this case? Two faces appear in the story. The first is the face of darkness, the other one the face of light and truth.

In the case of executives at Disney, they perceived the presence of Lasseter as a threat to their existence. What John Lasseter wants, on the other hand, is just pure contribution of his modern talent to the organization that he sees with ‘personal admiration and respect for Walt Disney and animation in general. There were faces of power to maintain the manual style of animation. While the other force was Lasseter’s overflowing enthusiasm to infuse technology into traditional animation in order to improve on it.

The end result was two forces merging and creating a single reinvigorated Disney company, relevant to the present era. 3. Does the firing of John Lasseter from Disney Studios and the events leading up to his firing demonstrate the ethical use of power? Explain your answer. I don’t believe that there was ethical use of power in this case. Both Lasseter’s hiring and firing was exercised by the executives at Walt Disney in order to continue their existence. The executives realized that the blend of Lasseter’s talent into the company could mean the end to their presence with the company.

They choose to benefit themselves over improving Disney’s animation department by firing Lasseter. 4. Did the firing of John Lasseter indicate the existence of political behavior in the Disney organization? Yes. The company was politicized by the fact that Walt Disney has never been closely challenged by any serious animation studios. They were wary of the fact that Lasseter would bring a change to their system, ultimately changing it from within the organization. Because of this the executives reacted in a way as to preserve their perks and other benefits.

They decided the best strategy would be to terminate Lasseter from the company by any means necessary. 5. Describe a situation, from your experience, where political behavior in an organization contributed to benefit or detriment to you or someone else. In my experience as a Soldier, I have not experienced too much of this issue during my career. As I rose through the ranks and began to work in higher echelons I began to see and experience more of the political banter that occurs to benefit people of the organization.

My example is small, although it led to the decision to retire by a man who had no plans on retiring. My first line supervisor had 24 years of service in the military when we worked together. He had a wealth of knowledge and never held back or strayed from helping his subordinates. He and his boss did not see eye to eye on many things and often had long discussions about what was right and wrong with the organization we worked in. He never faltered and stood for what he believed was right.

One morning as we prepared to leave on a mission his boss wanted him to be somewhere even though the mission took precedence over everything else. His boss came over to our area and halted all actions from happening. Next followed a claim of disrespecting a person of higher grade and he was removed from our company within a week. As he felt the system had failed him he decided it was time to retire. Our organization lost years of experience and the Army lost a valuable part of its senior core of Non-Commissioned Officers over a grudge.