Management Essay - Self-chosen topic: "Power - Strategic Management Tool".

Kindly suggest and contribute appropriately toward
1. Introduction & Statement of Purpose
2. Power related ideas ....
3. Techniques and/or approaches -
Essay of explanation or discussion / qualitive, quantative and/ or
colaborative ..comparative ...analytical ...
Thanks

Where is your essay?

You need to tell us a little more before we can be helpful. For what purpose are you writing this essay? What do you mean by "power - strategic management tool"? What are your own preliminary thoughts about the form and content of the essay?

Yeah, it's difficult to help you based on so little information, and what you have given us is fragmented and unclear. Post the exact instructions for the assignment, preferably along with a draft of your essay at least attempting to follow the instructions. Then we will have plenty of material to work with when trying to give you meaningful feedback.

I have yet to start the drafting the essay.

1.The idea is to write an essay on any management topic (own choice)as PROJECT PAPER to complete my Master Degree Program.

2.The subject which I thought to be appropriate for that purpose is the roles of "power" as tool of strategic management.

3.From my limited understanding, "power" which "empowers" an organization to function effectively is the least discussed (or analyze) as stand-alone topic of management although "power" is mentioned and/or quoted popularly like other management concepts or techniques. Examples: Effective Team Building / 7-Habits ...... by S. Covey / Miller's Bolt – A Modern Business Parable by Thomas Stirr/The Paths of Leadership by Andrew T. Le Peau ./ The Heart of A Leader – Insights on the Art of Influence by Ken Blanchard ..

4.I have yet to decide on specific approach on how to write the paper. For now to start with, the approah is by an outline as well by way explanation on the key roles of power in relation to strategic management.

5.I am starting to write down as much as possible - ideas, theories, and descriptions of power. To analayze their relevance to past and contemporary management practices - such as " The Power of Under-Table"= An art of securing business deals ... Power dressing to influence ...

HOW TO APPROACH?
Outline type?
Explanation type?
Discussion type?
Distinguish type?
Analytical type?
Informative type?

INTRODUCTION

Managing an organization without power or authority is like driving a vehicle without fuel of gas. Power or authority is highly sought commodity in management practices within and outside an organization. Talks about losing, gaining, balancing and sustaining power such as economic, financial and political power are everyday affair in the market places. Power remains the highest aspiration in various forms of management control. Yet, it seems that power is so well-dressed or concealed that it makes power less discussed as key element in the arts of effective or strategic management. The title of this essay is called "POWER- TOOL OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT". + + + ...

OBJECTIVE

The main objective of this essay is to outline as well as to explain the prime roles of power in strategic management practices. .......

BODY
[1] Definition of Power
[2] Meaning of Power
In the context of the essay to include ...........
[3] Types of Power
[4] Characteristics of Power
[5] Administration of Power

CONCLUSION

References

Dear Moderator,

It is hoped that the moderators are quite clear now about the subject matter from reading the above framework. Helps are much needed to throw in ideas and/or suggestions into the essay...

Kindly modify or suggest another topic for the essay,

Thanks

So, what we are talking about here is not an essay but, rather, a thesis?


The very first thing you will need to do is to define and operationalize "power." You need to do this first in your own mind, in order to guide which references that use the word will, in fact, fit within your conception of it. Because the word is used variously and generally, you will also need to define it very early in your thesis, briefly in the introduction and then more comprehensively either in your methods section or in a definitions section prior to your literature review.

I see that you have included a definition section in your outline, but this outline is more appropriate for an essay or term paper than for a thesis. Please clarify which you are writing.

Dear Moderator,

Ever so many thanks for the valuable ideas and guidelnes.

Frankly, what I am doing now is basically some prepatory work pending near future discussion on the subject matter with the Dean, School of Management in my Un.

Instead of doing the Master Degree in Management by research (Thesis), I had opted to study 12 Management Subjects - with three(3)assignmnets including four semester-examinations(i.e one paper for every subject) PLUS an Essay or Project Paper Assignment. I intended to do do research theis for Ph.D in due time.

Further comments/ guides + + + ... are very much appreciated where ever you see appropriate.

Ever so many thanks once again.

Correction

Add in " per subject" before "three (3) assignmnets" ....and after " including four ...."

To read : Instead of doing the Master Degree in Management by research (Thesis), I had opted to study 12 Management Subjects - with three(3)assignmnets per subject including four semester-examinations(i.e one paper for every subject) PLUS an Essay or Project Paper Assignment.

My apology

Be careful when writing on abstract concepts not to use ambiguous phrasing. For instance:

"Managing an organization without power or authority is like driving a vehicle without fuel of gas."

This could mean that managing an organization when that organization has no power or authority is like driving a vehicle that has no fuel, or it could mean that it is difficult for a manager without power or authority to do his job, much as it would be difficult for a driver to drive a car that lacked fuel.

Make sure to say precisely what you mean, to avoid confusion later on.

Dear Moderator,

Once again I thank you for your analytical and valuable comment.

This is an intriguing insight, and might be worth a section of its own. At least in the States, where democratic ideals hold sway, power is sometimes deliberately camouflaged in service of an illusion of workplace democracy. Managers who themselves have democratic or communitarian values may feel uncomfortable with their own power and thus downplay or disguise it. How do such dynamics factor into the use of power in strategic management?

You might also ask yourself if power can be more effectively exercised if it is concealed than if it is overt. In other words, managers may conceal their own power because they are uncomfortable with it (great insight there from Simone), but they may also conceal it because they view doing so as enabling them to use it more effectively. Put another way, can concealment of power be viewed as a type of power in itself, that enhances the power being concealed?

Dear Moderators,

Very valuable comments. Thanks.

Grateful if assistance could be extended (if possible) to recommend (list of some)books, essays and journal on power so that I could search for them in libraries and/or google.

I would suggest searching Google Books and Google Scholar for "power as tool of strategic management." That should at least allow you to track down a few useful sources, and they will probably reference others, which in turn will reference still others, and so on.

Where did you get the idea? Look in the reference sections of the books, articles, or other course materials that led you to the idea. This is the way that scholarship works, finding trustworthy sources from other sources.

You can also augment your Google Books and Google Scholar searches with Jurn and Scirus.

Dear Moderators,
Thanks for the tips.
Will do so and be in touch in due time.
Shalom