What is Power?

• Power: the capacity to influence those who are in a state of dependence. Power is not always perceived or exercised (i.e. professors holding a great deal of power over students, but they only use a small bit of it). Power can flow in any direction of an organization.

The Basis of Individual Power

• Power can be found in the position that you occupy in the organization or the resources that you are able to command.
• Legitimate Power
  • Legitimate power: power derived from a person’s position or job in an organization. When legitimate power works, it often does so because people have been socialized to accept its influence.
• Reward Power
  • Reward Power: power derived from the ability to provide positive outcomes and prevent negative outcomes. It corresponds to positive reinforcement. Reward power often backs up legitimate power. Any organizational member can attempt to exert influence over others with praise, compliments, and flattery, which all constitute rewards.
• Coercive power
  • Coercive power: power derived from the use of punishment and threat. Often supports legitimate power. It can occur across organizational members in any position.
• Referent Power
  • Referent power: power derived from being well liked by others (charismatic leaders have referent power). It is potent for two reasons: 1) it stems from identification with the powerholder, 2) anyone in the organization may be well-liked, irrespective of his/her other bases of power.
• Expert Power
  • Expert Power: power derived from having special information or expertise that is valued by an organization. Most commonly found among lower-level members in scientific and technical areas. Of all the bases of power, expertise is most consistently associated with employee effectiveness.

How do People Obtain Power?

• Doing the Right Things (Extraordinary activities, visible activities, relevant activities)
• Cultivating the Right People
  • Outsiders: establishing good relationships with key people outside one’s organization can lead to increased power within the organization;
  • subordinates: making relations with lower-level members, perhaps mentoring them too;
  • peers: cultivating this may lead to one’s future acquisition of power;
  • Superiors: liaisons with key superiors probably represent the best way of obtaining power through cultivating others.

Empowerment—Putting Power Where It Is Needed

• Empowerment: Giving people the authority, opportunity, and motivation to take initiative and solve organizational problems. Empowerment fosters job satisfaction and higher performance. Used effectively, empowerment puts power where it is needed to make the organization effective.

Influence Tactics—Putting Power to Work

• Influence tactics: tactics that are used to convert power into actual influence over others. Tactics include: assertiveness, ingratiation (flattery), rationality, exchange (favours), upward appeal (making formal/informal appeals to org. superiors), coalition formation (united support from org. members).

Who Wants Power?

• In the past, psychologists viewed people who sought power as neurotics who are covering up feelings of inferiority, striving to compensate for childhood deprivation, or substituting power for lack of affection.
• Institutional managers: they use their power for the good of the institution rather than for self-aggrandizement (McClelland)
  • Institutional managers are more effective than personal power managers (use their power for personal gain) and affiliative managers (are more concerned with being liked than with exercising power)