Coercive Power And Its Effects On Society

Power in politics is a person who has the ability to influence a person in terms of their behaviour; however they possess no right to - unlike authority. There are many ways in which a person can influence another’s behaviour; one such example is through coercion. Coercion refers to the use of violence or threats in order to influence someone. [Jones and Norton, 2011]

5. Coercive Power refers to leaders who penalize or punish to bring about desired results. The main objective of coercion is compliance.

A manager needs to understand the interdependency of departments, internal partnerships, and the influence of power and politics to effectively manage across the organization. Effective managers use various political tactics to increase their power within the organization to coordinate and support the work of their peers and subordinates to meet company objectives. Managers regularly acquire and use power. Power-oriented behavior has an impact on managerial career progress, on job performance, on organizational effectiveness, and on the personal lives of employees (Obholzer, 1995). It involves the combined topics of power, influence, authority, and organizational politics. When running an organization, all these

Coercive power is the ability of a person to influence someone's decision-making by removing something as punishment or threatening punishment if the person does not follow the instructions. There are different situations in which exercising coercive power is a great help; insubordination, implementation of a change, harassment or growth. This power is necessary when dealing with problems of insubordination, it is important to keep employees controlled because one that does not follow the rules affects others. (Root, 2017) It is important that within the correctional system the rules of behavior are clear, either with the inmates or with the officers working in the correction system. An example of insubordination within the prison is when a correctional officer consistently arrives late for work; one way of the coercive power is to subtract that time from your check.

Coercive power, reward power and legitimate power are all formal powers. A person’s position in a company can give him influence over others below him, thereby affording him formal power. Coercive power is dependent on fear. A person reacts to this power out of

Tyranny is harsh absolute power in the hands of one individual, like a king or dictator. People are worried about tyranny because there are many types of tyranny. One ruler who takes all the power for himself of herself is an example of tyranny. Tyranny by the many is another example when the majority denies rights to a minority. The Constitution is a set of basic principles that determines the powers and duties of a government. The constitution of the United States guards against tyranny by making three branches that are separate and distinct in the government structure. (James Madison, Federalist paper #47, doc B & James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788, doc C )

The handling of power is also paramount in an organization. Boleman and Deal offer meaningful insight in this aspect. They observe the following,

From the Personal Power Profile, it can clearly be said my preferred power base is referent power and second is expert power. On the other end of the spectrum is coercive power. These results show I prefer to influence others through esteem, respect, and demonstrating practical knowledge and skills. Conversely, I absolutely do not care to influence or exercise power over another by coercion or administering punishment.

Coercive power is the power that is able to punish those who do not follow orders as requested by the leader. On the other hand using coercive power may also be used to influence the decision of that is being made by taking something away as a punishment if he or she does not follow a request that has been made. The American Red Cross uses

In addition to power established because of organizational hierarchy or role, power is also established based on the level of influence or status one holds in an organization (Anichich, Fast, Halevy, Galinsky, 2016). “Status is the outcome of an evaluation of attributes that produce differences in respect and prominence” (Ketner et al, 2003 p. 266) They co-exists but are not co-dependent on each other. It’s possible to have status without power and power without status (Ketner et al, 2003). Whether one’s control comes through status or positional power, lauding control or significant influence over another inevitably leads to conflict.

“Coercive power relies on the fact that people fear you, and reward power is only effective so long as people value the rewards you have to offer. Legitimate power relies on your rank in the company hierarchy, and recent events

The concept of power is an applicable leadership concept. Leaders use power to decipher whether they have the ability to acquire the commitment or obedience from their workers/officers. Leaders that are educated or trained under the old-paradigm, have low levels of expectations of others around them, and tend to use

Coercive power: being able to punish others for not doing what needs to be done

| When leader use his power to punish or penalise his subordinate to control their behaviour it is known as coercive power. Such power is based on the extent to which a leader can punish in order to control his subordinate. This power varies from one leader to another (Wood et al, 2010).

Coercive power is the power to enforce compliance through fear, whether psychological, emotional or physical.