Furthermore, organizational politics encompasses the process by which power is obtained and used in the organization. The exchange structure is made up of the organization's resource allocation system and organizational members who have authority to allocate those resources. Efforts to change the exchange structure's equilibrium involve political activity on the part of challengers to the status quo and those who seek to sustain it. In this respect, organizational politics is seen as neutral. Negative power, identified as coercion, eventually leads to powerlessness.
Groups can be subject to powerlessness due to lack of information and support.
Positive power, identified as power sharing, democratic, and participatory in decision making and implementation, has the potential to enhance the power of the sharer. Furthermore, changes in organizational knowledge may threaten the power base and will be resisted by organizational members. Thus, we can think of the determinants of individuals' influence as being similar to the IT department's sources of influence. There are other sources of CIO influence in addition to those suggested by the strategic contingencies model. A CIO's sources of influence will enhance the CIO's store of influence.