1. What can we learn from this exercise about power in organizational hierarchies?
2. How is this exercise similar to relations in real organizations?
3. How did students in each group feel about the amount of power they held?
4. How did they exercise their power in relations with the other groups?

Your organization is in the process of preparing a budget. The challenge is to balance needs with financial resources. Of course, the needs are greater than the resources. The instructor will distribute a budget sheet showing a list of budget requests and their costs. Each group has control over a portion of the budget and must decide how to spend the money over which they have control. Non management has discretion over a relatively small portion, and the executive group has discretion over the greatest portion. The exercise is finished when the organization has negotiated a satisfactory budget or when the instructor calls timeout. The class will then debrief with the following questions and others the instructor might ask.