The Five Bases Of Power And Personal Power

Legitimate Power - Is the same as positional power - obtaining compliance through formal authority. Positional power is external to you. It is your important job title, college degree, etc. It can be taken away from you.

Some theorists believe that ‘power is everywhere: not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere… power is not an institution, nor a structure, nor possession. It is the name we give to a complex strategic situation in a particular society. (Foucault, 1990: 93) This is because power is present in each individual and in every relationship. It is defined as the ability of a group to get another group to take some form of desired action, usually by consensual power and sometimes by force. (Holmes, Hughes &Julian, 2007) There have been a number of differing views on ‘power over’ the many years in which it has been studied. Theorist such as Anthony Gidden in his works on structuration theory attempts to integrate basic

The two major types of power are position power and personal power. Position power is power held by an individual due to the position they hold within an organization; whereas, personal power is power bestowed upon an individual due to their personal connection with (or likability) by their followers. power is divided “Position power includes legitimate, reward, and coercive power” (Northouse, 2010). “Personal power includes referent and expert power” (Northouse, 2010).

First, before I forget, I have to state how power can be powerful. Power could be used for many acronyms. Power could stand for leadership, power could stand for a higher standard over another person, whether they like it or not. Certain people have power, whether they like it or not, whether they want it or not. In a group of people there has to be a leader, and a

The power and influence theory focuses on the different ways a leader uses power and influence to get things done. The most well known of power and influence theories is French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power. This model distinguishes between using your position to exert power and using your traits to be powerful. It says that using personal power is the best because expert power (the

According to Peter G. Northouse, Personal power comes from the followers and include reverent and expert power. Followers give it to the leaders because followers believe leader have something of value. Treating power as a share resources is important because it deemphasizes the idea that the leader are power wielders. (Northouse pg.16). Leaders (managers) and followers (staff employees) must work together and have trust between one another, however the manager must set boundaries between friendship and the office relationship. Setting these boundaries not only protect the individuals but also the company from legal liability. Managers as leaders shouldn’t be view as having more power rather they should possess the ability to motivate the staff to achieve high quality job satisfaction.

In the world we live in today the roles of power and leadership are often confused. Although they have similar meanings, they can be distinctly defined between the latter. The key difference between the two is the term of effect. Power is the exercise of leadership, and leadership is only defined if you have power. Leadership always involves attempts on a leader to affect behavior or a follower in a situation, whereas power is not equivalent with influence on another person’s behavior. Although power and leadership have similar meanings, they are certain differences that can point out what makes

1. Power is the ability to have control over someone or a community. If used wisely, it can be a great virtue to one and can increase the respect others have for him or her. Power is also one’s role to instruct or affect the conduct of others or the course of events.

Power refers to the ownership of power and impact over others. Contingent upon how power is utilized, it can prompt positive or negative conclusions in an association. Control in individuals is similar to power in batteries; the higher the voltage of battery, the more electromotive energy it can convey; subsequently, it can have more noteworthy effect. Likewise, individuals with more prominent wellsprings of force are better ready to lead and impact others than individuals with less and lesser wellsprings of force. The all the more influential you are, the more impact you ought to have. Persons can have master force; referent force; prize force; coercive power or true blue force.

Power has been addressed in academic literature in several ways but most commonly describing “power as the ability to control valued resources and administer rewards and

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 is defined as a political action coerced to exercise or to pursuit. It influences and controls the content of political power. The theory of power is argued by Niccolo Machiavelli, Hannah Arendt, and Karl Emil (Max) Weber. Machiavelli’s position stood that power is held by individuals. As for Arendt, she believed power was maintained within groups, while Weber believed power lied in institutions.

Leadership comprises of a leader and their followers, and their interactions, where the leader utilizes their influence on their followers. Clawson states, "Leadership is about managing energy, first in leaders and then in their followers" (Clawson, 2006). The influence that a leader has on their followers is power. A leader can express their power in various manners, in French and Raven’s (1959) Five Base Model of power, a characterization of power in leadership and management, defined in five bases and citied by Hinken and Schrieshiem, (Bass, 1990) as followed:

The management can use this power to demote, transfer, fire or deny raises to their employees. The third power base of Position is legitimate power. This power stems from the level of hierarchy in which the subordinates report directly to the authority over them for decisions. Process Power controls the input and output of organizations to make sure that the processes are carried out efficiently and effectively within. Information power is the control of information or access to it within an organization. Information can be controlled to a ?need to know? basis and/or just limited to the upper management. This type of power compliments the legitimate power. Finally, there is Representative power in which an organization uses an individual to be there spokesperson both within the organization and when dealing with people outside of the organization.

The five types of power are identified as Legitimate power, Power of reward, Coercive power, Referent power and Expert power