Power can be categorized into two types: Formal and informal
A. Formal Power:
It is based on the position of
an individual in an organization. Formal power is derived from either one’s
ability to coerce or reward others or is derived from the formal authority
vested in the individual due to his/ her strategic position in the organizational
hierarchy. For example, a manager may threaten to withhold a pay raise, or to
transfer, demote, or even recommend the firing of a subordinate who does not
act as desired. Such coercive power is the extent to which a manager can deny
desired rewards or administer punishments to control other people. The
availability of coercive power also varies across organizations. The presence
of unions and organizational policies on employee treatment can weaken this
power base significantly. Formal power may be categorized into four types which
are as follows:
1. Coercive Power:
The coercive power base is
being dependent on fear. It is based on the application, or the threat of
application, of physical sanctions such as the infliction of pain, the
generation of frustration through restriction of movement, or the controlling
by force of basic physiological or safety needs. In an organization one can
exercise power over another if they have the power to dismiss, suspend, demote
another assuming that the job is valuable to the person on whom power is being
unleashed.
2. Reward Power:
The opposite of coercive power
is reward power. Reward power is the extent to which a manager can use
extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to control other people. Examples of such rewards
include money, promotions, compliments, or enriched jobs. Although all managers
have some access to rewards, success in accessing and utilizing rewards to
achieve influence varies according to the skills of the manager.
3. Legitimate Power:
The third base of “position”
power is legitimate power, or formal authority.It stems from the extent to
which a manager can use subordinates’ internalized values or beliefs that the
“boss” has a “right of command” to control their behavior. For example, the boss
may have the formal authority to approve or deny such employee requests as job
transfers, equipment purchases, personal time off, or overtime work. Legitimate
power represents a special kind of power a manager has because subordinates
believe it is legitimate for a person occupying the managerial position to have
the right to command. The lack of this is legitimacy will result in authority
not being accepted by subordinates. Thus this type of power has the following
elements:
Ø It represents the power a
person receives as a result of his/her position in the formal hierarchy.
Ø Positions of authority include
coercive and reward powers.
Ø Legitimate power, however, is
not limited to the power to coerce and reward. It encompasses the acceptance of
the authority of a position by members of an organization.
4. Information Power:
This type of power is derived
from access to and control over information. When people have needed
information, others become dependant on them. (For example, managers have access
to data that subordinates do not have). Normally the higher the level, the more
information would be accessed by managers.
B. Personal Power
Personal power resides in the
individual and is independent of that individual’s position. Three bases of
personal power are expertise, rational persuasion, and reference.
Expert power is the ability to
control another person’s behavior by virtue of possessing knowledge,
experience, or judgment that the other person lacks, but needs. A subordinate
obeys a supervisor possessing expert power because the boss ordinarily knows
more about what is to be done or how it is to be done than does the
subordinate. Expert power is relative, not absolute. However the table may turn
in case the subordinate has superior knowledge or skills than his/ her boss. In
this age of technology driven environments, the second proposition holds true
in many occasions where the boss is dependent heavily on the juniors for
technologically oriented support.
Rational persuasion is the ability to
control another’s behavior, since, through the individual’s efforts, the person
accepts the desirability of an offered goal and a viable way of achieving it.
Rational persuasion involves both explaining the desirability of expected outcomes
and showing how specific actions will achieve these outcomes.
Referent power is the ability to
control another’s behavior because the person wants to identify with the power
source. In this case, a subordinate obeys the boss because he or she wants to
behave, perceive, or believe as the boss does. This obedience may occur, for
example, because the subordinate likes the boss personally and therefore tries
to do things the way the boss wants them done. In a sense, the subordinate
attempts to avoid doing anything that would interfere with the pleasing boss
–subordinate relationship. Followership is not based on what the subordinate
will get for specific actions or specific levels of performance, but on what
the individual represents – a path toward lucrative future prospects.
Charismatic Power is an extension of
referent power stemming from an individual’s personality and interpersonal
style. Others follow because they can articulate attractive visions, take
personal risks, demonstrate follower sensitivity, etc.
Dependency: The Key to Power
The General Dependency Equation
is as follows:
Ø The greater B’s dependency on
A, the greater the power A has over B. When an individual possess anything that
others require but that which alone the individual controls, he / she can make
others dependent and, therefore, gain power over them.
Ø Dependency, then, is inversely
proportional to the alternative sources of supply.
This is one of the reasons why
most organizations develop multiple suppliers rather using just one. It also
explains why individuals in general aspire to financial independence.
Three factors are responsible
for dependency. They are as follows:
Ø Importance
To create dependency, the
thing(s) you control must be perceived as being important. Organizations
actively seek to avoid uncertainty and hence, those individuals or groups who
can absorb an organization’s uncertainty will be perceived as controlling an
important resource.
Ø Scarcity
A resource needs to be
perceived as scarce to create dependency. For example, low-ranking members in
an organization who have important knowledge unavailable to high-ranking
members gain power over the high-ranking members. The scarcity-dependency
relationship is also important in the power of occupational categories.
Individuals in occupations in which the supply of personnel is low relative to
demand can negotiate compensation and benefit packages, which are far more
attractive than can those in occupations where there is an abundance of
candidates. Thus scarcity in supply of certain types of skilled people can give
them power to bargain over compensations and other benefits.
Ø Non-substitutability
The more that a resource has no
viable substitutes, the more power that control over that resource provides.
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