Question

When the contract with one of their major suppliers was about to expire, the management of Pierre and Collins began seeking tenders from potential vendors. One of the top management executives, Todd Hughes, wanted the contract to go to a vendor he personally knew. In order to do so, he held separate discussions with two key members of the organization wherein he downplayed the potentials of the competing tenders and convinced them to support this offer. At the meeting to finalize a supplier, Todd and his supporters strongly supported the tender of the supplier they had chosen amongst themselves and convinced their CEO to hire this supplier despite the higher price quoted by him. Which of the following power tactics is being used here?
A) ingratiation
B) legitimacy
C) coalition
D) pressure
E) inspirational appeals

Answer 1

The correct answer is "C) Coalition".

A coalition is an alliance among individuals in which they cooperate between each other in order to pursue a common goal. However, every member of the coalition acts on their own self-interest. This partnership is normally of a temporary nature.

In this case, Todd got support from 2 other key members of the organization, forming an organization. The goal was to convince the CEO to contract Todd's candidate of preference as a supplier. Each of them probably had their own, different interests regarding the accomplishment of this.