More Powerful Together… Recruiting Allies and Forming Coalitions
One of the biggest challenges young professionals face may very well be properly navigating the internal politics within their organization. Part of the difficulty is business executives do not like to talk about and/or often deny it exists. Organizational politics refer to activities that are carried out with the purpose of acquiring and using power and “other resources to obtain one’s preferred outcomes in a situation in which there is uncertainty or dissensus about choices” (Pfeffer 1981, p. 7). Allies and coalitions are examples of relational sources of power (Berger and Reber 2006). Coalitions can be either a hard or soft influence tactic, depending on whether it is employed in a straightforward and open environment, or characterized by “clandestine work behind the scenes to quietly gather the support of others” (Berger and Reber 2006, p. 116). A PRSA Fellow preferred to use both approaches:
First I got permission from my boss, and then I created this group that I told you about. I called it crisis prevention committee. And they would tell me things in confidence and my office had walls, so that was nice, where they could come in and tell me what’s really going on, so that we could be proactive and prevent crises.
This chapter focuses on the second type of coalition building (i.e., soft influence tactic), which involves informal conversations with colleagues throughout the organization to build support for certain positions or count the votes before a meeting. Fortunately, the public relations executives interviewed have provided a glimpse into how to use internal politics in ethics counseling by recruiting allies or forming coalitions.
The process begins with building relationships with colleagues throughout the organization, and choosing allies among “those with whom they interact frequently and with whom they feel comfortable” (Eisenhardt and Bourgeois 1988, p. 758). A VP of corporate communications for a Fortune 500 company believed this was fundamental to effective public relations:
Informally, I had to work very aggressively, horizontally across the enterprise to get people to buy into my ideas, to support my ideas, and in many cases I ultimately learned that I needed to let go of my ideas and let somebody else take them, which felt very odd, very, very odd. So kind of informally, that’s how things get done… even now we joke about we don’t care how we get the ball in the end zone as long as we score. (Neill 2014, p. 602)
This same senior executive provided a specific example to illustrate the point. Two business units, he recalled, were making decisions inconsistent with company values and external communication. Corporate Communications and Marketing worked together on market research that ultimately supported their arguments:
We realized that our business leaders were listening to us, but we didn’t have the ball all the way punched into the end zone, and that we were going to have to exert more influence to get this stopped. And so formally, we went to the research team. Informally, we went to other influencers inside the company…like the chief communications officer, like the head of risk [management], like the general counsel, and just asked them to start asking questions. And the rest of it took care of itself, but we needed people in positions of higher authority than us…we also realized that our influence sometimes has limitations, and so we had to find— we had to educate others and get them as fired up about it as we were…because it was a peer-to-peer discussion. (Neill 2014, p. 602)
As this example illustrates, people create coalitions when “they do not have the power to change the organization independently or want to avoid the political consequences associated with unilateral action” (Murnighan and Brass 1991, p. 289). Senior executives with veto power must be included in successful coalitions, and they are often likely to be among the first invited to participate (Murnighan and Brass 1991). Neill (2014) found informal coalitions were used even in companies where public relations had a direct reporting relationship to the CEO. These informal coalitions were connected to public relations’ internal boundary-spanning role, its need to monitor activities throughout the organization to be proactive and therefore effective. Neill (2014) found public relations executives serving in leadership roles at the division level in the company identified issues at their level, but they lacked the authority to address them. For that very reason, they reached out to people serving in more senior positions as allies or formed coalitions with influential leaders from a variety of departments as a means to enhance their influence.
Based on accounts like the one described above, public relations executives need to develop political astuteness in identifying who the key decision makers are in each situation, their strengths and weaknesses, personal preferences, and their motivations (Berger 2005; Spicer 1997). One PRSA Fellow maintained it was a matter of developing an appreciation for their colleagues’ challenges:
Understand the concerns from their point of view, whatever their professional practice area…their fears about the outcome, whether it is personally or professionally. Will I look bad, will I look stupid? Will I look like a crook if I do this and such? What is the potential long-term fallout versus the pain today? A lot of us want to avoid the pain today and it causes bigger problems down the road…I go back to really listening to everybody’s interests and what their concerns and fears are and how it might affect their ability to do their work or do their job or be successful. And how can we be ethical and frequently how can we be transparent about something without it hurting them and can I help them get there.
Identifying Allies
Being politically savvy also means knowing who sits on influential committees and how decisions are made in an organization (Berger and Reber 2006; Pfeffer 1992). Complicating this effort is the reality that venues for discussing an ongoing issue may shift from boardrooms to hallways, individual offices, and coffee shops making it difficult for public relations executives to stay informed (Berger and Reber 2006). This reality requires public relations executives to “anticipate arena shifts and insert themselves into the process, or try to create information briefing sessions with key decision makers” (Berger 2005; Berger and Reber 2006, p. 730). A VP of corporate communications for a Fortune 500 company described how his department found a way to insert themselves into the decision-making process:
Every either new solution or major change that we might be making to a product or service is centrally managed by this product management committee. So there are 100 product managers… there are 12 people on this committee. We don’t sit on the committee, but we’ve actually gone from being at the tail end of the pipe…to all the way upstream where…we have two places in their process where they have to get through brand [and reputation committee] and PR before someone who’s coming up with a new product or service can proceed to even get funding. (Neill 2012, p. 42)
Being politically savvy also involves identifying influencers within the company or organization and choosing the best ways to approach them. The case study involving the Fortune 500 company mentioned at the start of this chapter also offered insights regarding the communication channels that were used. As the VP of corporate communications recalled:
Over lunch, catching people at the Starbucks. We have two Starbucks inside here. I got some work done down in the fitness center; we have four fitness centers, and in drive-bys or texting…and saying I need to catch you on something can you call me on your drive home, because I know I can’t get to him [senior executive] during the day; he’s booked from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., but I know when he goes home. So text me on your way home or call me on your way home. (Neill 2014, p. 603)
While this example may seem unusual, in reality allies and coalitions are a routine influence technique used by public relations professionals. In response to surveys with members of the PRSA College of Fellows and SPRF, 55.6 percent said they had recruited allies or formed coalitions, and the most common partners were executives working in legal, human resources, and operations. A member of the Page Society made relationships a priority from day one:
Anyone in communications immediately upon arriving in your job, it’s all coalition building…I came out of a political background, so I knew that if you wanted to get something done you had to have a grassroots strategy. I would go into every organization saying who’s in senior management. I may be too junior to know who the chief legal officer is, but I guarantee you that she has direct reports that I can find ways of working with. So I would seek out opportunities to network. I would make sure that if for instance there was something to be written…find out a way to go meet with that person. My philosophy being if they know you, they can’t distrust you. You immediately build a relationship bridge when you meet the person.
As a new professional, building relationships with colleagues in other departments might seem a little intimidating. A PRSA Fellow urged young professionals to overcome their anxiety:
You should make friends with corporate counsel or their equivalent outside. If you are a junior person I know that might be difficult, but if you are working for [a] senior communications manager perhaps you could suggest for your own benefit and growth if it is possible to sit down and meet with them and learn more about their department, do a little job shadowing informally. Lawyers are great mentors. That is the first place I would go.
Allies also are important for staying informed and limiting surprises, which is why one PRSA Fellow said this is so critical to public relations’ environmental scanning and issues management roles:
They’re essential. You can’t do the job and certainly can’t be an advisor without having those allies who are going to give an early heads up or warning of issues that might be coming. The sooner you can be involved in the discussion, the more likely you are to influence it, so you don’t have a critical juncture where you’re making decisions and digging in your heels.
One public relations executive working in education said he has relied on allies as a form of influence throughout his career:
This particular individual had a deep seeded distrust of communications people for whatever reason and so be it. But I also figured out very quickly that another person on our staff, another senior member, did have his ear and did have his confidence. And so what I learned to do was when I wanted to get an issue floated and get approval for it, was use this other person to go through. I just sort of knew instinctively that I would never be able to have that kind of trust and cooperation, but I could still get my job done letting somebody else take the ball, get the credit for it. I don’t care who gets the credit for it as long as we can get the things done. (Neill and Drumwright 2012)
He added that allies can improve your personal credibility as well:
Every one of my bosses always has been willing to second guess me. Whenever I say something, they turn to their trusted counsel, whether it be legal counsel or whoever it may be, and say, “What do you think about it?” And the cool thing is when that individual says, “Yes, I agree”…and all of the sudden, they’re going, the PR guy actually is saying things that match what the other people who I know and trust, so it’s a matter of building your own credibility within the organization. (Neill and Drumwright 2012)
Recruiting Allies
There are different approaches public relations executives can use for recruiting allies. A PRSA Fellow once shared a book chapter with a colleague in human resources to begin the discussion:
So I asked her to read it…so that we could then discuss it, because I felt as if—for us to help move a significant change initiative in that organization, we were going to need to be forthright…So by giving her this chapter to read, and by setting up the time to then discuss it, and to talk about who else should we get involved… she helped because she was not only my boss, but she also was a member of the key leadership team. So she enabled me to present this point of view as well as to conduct some research among the leadership team…We did not have legal sitting at the table with us at that point in time, but what happened is if you have a complete leadership team that’s bought into the direction as we did, then we became an influencer of legal, and then…we were stronger in terms of our arm wrestling with legal versus if it was just me or her or somebody else.
Senior executives provided several recommendations for new professionals who might be intimidated by the idea of recruiting allies, including this approach from a member of the Page Society:
I would say allies are critical. I mean especially the first couple of times you do it. You don’t want to be the lone wolf. And so I would suggest starting with your boss and hopefully your boss is ethical and just saying, “Hey, there’s something that doesn’t sit right with me. Let me tell you what I’m seeing and perhaps you can help me make some sense of it”…In a non-threatening way…I frequently like that “hmm, this just doesn’t seem right to me” approach rather than accusatory is probably early on in your career or probably throughout your career the better approach.
Recruiting allies does not typically happen through electronic communication. As a PRSA Fellow said, “Well, it’s not the kind of thing you do by e-mail. You sit down face-to-face and eyeball to eyeball, and there are times when it might be a telephone conversation if someone’s not in the office.” Allies are especially critical when you are new to an organization and have not built the necessary relationships. As a member of the Page Society advised, “If you have to bring in a negative early on then I would usually get an ally who knew them better and do it. I wouldn’t just coldly go into somebody I’d never met before.” This advice is consistent with Conger’s (1998) recommendation to reach out to colleagues with high credibility to champion a position when you have yet to develop the necessary reputation and relationships.
In the situation described below, forming a coalition allowed executives to share information and piece together what was really going on. Consistent with the concept of social capital, Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) pointed out that new knowledge can be created by “combining elements previously unconnected or by developing novel ways of combining elements previously associated” (p. 248). Trust is essential for these information exchanges to occur (Nahapiet and Ghoshal 1998), as this PRSA Fellow explained:
I was gathering data, and as I began to ask for copies of emails, substantiating evidence from people who might have been involved in certain things, they kind of began to wonder what do you need this for? And with a number of them, it became clear that they saw what was going on too. And they said, “Well, let me show you what I’ve got.” And so actually there were a couple of us that went to the business ethics resource together, because we were each getting a different picture, but when we put it together, it became very clear what was going on.
This situation escalated into some of the employees serving as whistleblowers. Last resort influence tactics such as rocking the boat and whistleblowing will be discussed more in Chapter 6.
Summary
Public relations executives need to be politically savvy when it comes to understanding how decisions are made in an organization and who the key influencers are for a given issue. They routinely engage in private conversations with colleagues in other departments to determine where their colleagues stand on an issue prior to meetings and to build support for a decision that is consistent with the organization’s values and mission. As a natural progression, they often recruit allies and form coalitions with others who share their views as a means for enhancing their influence. Allies also help public relations professionals piece together important information and resolve issues before they become a crisis.
Questions to Ponder
1. Based on the accounts in this chapter, how would you go about recruiting allies?
2. What are some circumstances that public relations executives might face that may require them to recruit allies as a means of influence?
3. How would you identify who to approach as a potential ally? What characteristics would you find beneficial?