EXERCISE FOR GAINING POWER Essay

Power is extremely difficult to achieve in a large way. Power can be earned by a position or ranking in a group. "There should be choices I want to wake up in the morning to decide things.”(97)Power can also be lost or taken by doing something wrong. "Steer clear of an occasion governed by a rule which is so easy to break."(34) If someone has power then people will either fear or obey the amount of power that person has. This can make people who dislike that person cause she or he to lose power. If power is lost that person may not have any input on a large agreement between a specific person or a group of people. Once a person is powerless they can't change or accept something new to themselves.

Second issue: The second issue that would be challenging for me is counseling individuals who abuse power. This can be very similar to the first issue as adults have mental and physical strength over children; however, the differences include professors over vulnerable students, supervisors over employees, for example. Power, which is exerted inappropriately, has the ability to manipulate and harm another by not allowing them to self-actualize. Abuse of power can come in the form of harassment, oppression, or any other imbalance in a relationship.

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

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

As you can see having power has more advantages than disadvantages, but one of the main problems is that you can have the power and still not be an effective leader. When you have the authority, leaders often feel that they can say anything to make the people believe that they are correct. Most of the time people are blinded by the power, that they are often bamboozled to what is actually right. They feel that people with power can do no wrong; they will always be fair and truthful, when most who hold the power are not honest people at all. It goes to show you that just because you have the power, it doesn’t make you an effective leader, it just makes you the boss. Being in a situation where you have worked hard and not given the credit, due to the fact that you have had a manager with power that doesn’t want you to excel is an obstacle that many people working in society face today. So called leaders who hold their power

he was resourceful (thanks to his experience from the bottom of the company to the top

At the beginning he was told to report to Jenkins, however, once he got to the site he was assigned to Jeff Hardy.  After the company reorganization, he found himself wondering whether he should report to Knight or Hardy. However, despite the confusion, he never brought up this question to Hardy, Jenkins or Knight. He perhaps then fell into the trap of a “boss­subordinate relationship” and went with the structure he felt was assigned without truly understanding its reasoning. ii. He didn’t take enough time to understand HQ’s perspective on various issues a. Replacing the chief engineer, rejecting frequency reuse patterns, or failing to get sign off on agreements for GMCT cell sites indicate failures in managing upward management relationships. Problem #2: Employee Dynamics Strengths 1. Peterson was committed to building an empowering environment for employees. i. Peterson called weekly construction meetings, which invited all to report on the company’s weekly progress and issues. Shortcomings 2. He failed to consider alterations in team dynamics when making hiring and salary decisions. i. He hired Trevor at a higher salary rate to the resentment of other employees, causing significant damage to the trust and respect between employee and manager.

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.

We have to contend, in the exercise of our personal power, with the influences of such power-channels in our environments and how they add to, limit or distort our exercise of power - e.g. hierarchies, coalitions,

One of the most important is that this supervisor’s employees were completely denied the opportunity to learn and grow. This definitely breeds resentment among the employees, as the entire staff begins to feel that shortness in opportunity is preventing them from moving forward professionally (Walker, 2002). Furthermore, a lack of learning and developing leads to low self-esteem, motivation, and moral. It was very obvious that the entire team felt this way, as they were not trusted to take on these situations. This, in turn, negatively affected the entire company, as talent was not being properly developed.

Experience is a key to knowledge. It is a type of power one can simply acquire by observing, encountering, or either undergoing an event. It is a type of power that I have used throughout my life. Expert power. The process of experiencing is when one obtains a skill or a piece of knowledge from an event in their life which can later be utilized in their life. As we gain experience, we become experts in a specific role to which we can help others meet their goals. Experience doesn 't just mean being someone for an extended period of time, it could mean having to go through struggles in their life or just by making a small mistake that they have been through already. Experience is something that we all have

It is important for managers to understand the sources of power and influence as they must rely upon the cooperation of subordinates in order to be successful. Strong managers rely upon more than just authority they also use leadership skills and power to obtain the most productivity from their staff. According to French and Raven (1959) there are five sources of power. Referent power seems to be the most influential and the least affected by change. To quote Paul Argenti,

Power means to be on top, that there is no competition against you. I personally believe power gets you respect. People follow a powerful person. A powerful person is someone who does anything that they please in any particular way without any restraints. Another the way of having power to be financially successful. Having financial power in my world is another way of being powerful because money has a huge value in today's society and can affect people’s decisions. Having power is important to me not only for the respect factor but because by being powerful I would have less financial worries.

The concept of power is present within various realms of all organizations. Power, however, is not something that should necessarily be looked at negatively. There are justifiable types of power that may be important to criminal justice organizations. The main role of power in criminal justice administration should be to gain compliance from subordinates of all types, and turn that power over time into acceptable forms of authority (Stojkovic et al., 2008). It is for this reason that power is an important attribute in criminal justice agencies.

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