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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to understand the level of power faculty membershave and key influence tactics they use in decision making process at Saudi universities.The six research questions guiding the study were: (a) How do faculty members assesstheir own power during departmental meetings? (b) To what extent do faculty membersreport using specific influence tactics during departmental meetings? (c) To what extentdoes self-assessed power explain the use of influence tactics for faculty membersworking in Saudi universities? (d) To what extent does the gender of faculty membersalone explain the observed variation in self-assessed power and the use of influencetactics during the departmental meetings? (e) To what extent do other personalcharacteristics of faculty members (country of origin, professor rank, years ofexperiences age, previously appointed in any leadership position, currently appointed inany leadership position) individually explain the observed variation in self-assessedpower and the use of influence tactics? (f) To what extent do personal characteristics offaculty members (gender, country of origin, professor rank, years of experiences age,previously appointed in any leadership position, currently appointed in any leadership position) jointly explain the observed variation in self-assessed power and the use ofinfluence tactics?Six research questions were examined in this study using descriptive statistics,bivariate tests and simple and multiple liner regression by using SPSS. In total, thesample population for this study was 953 full time faculty members holding Ph.D. degreewith varying nationalities, rank, and fields and currently working for more than a year inpublic universities in Saudi Arabia.After examining the study findings, the following three conclusions are suggestedand discussed: (a) Power relationships between men and women faculty members arepredominantly shaped by Saudi cultural values, (b) The societal norms present in SaudiArabia have an impact on interpersonal behavior, including the influence tactics used bymen and women faculty members, and (c) Gender, age and years of experience andimpact the facultys perception of power and power strategies in Saudi universities.