The Sources Of Personal And Positional Power

The amount of legitimate power someone has depends on the importance of the position she or he occupies and the willingness to grant authority to the person in that position. The benefits of this type of power are that incorporates weight of the entire organization, effective for gaining obedience, helps large organizations function effectively. The costs are that lowers follower task performance, lowers follower task satisfaction, and may become less effective overtime.

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

Leadership is defined in many ways, but what it is in common in each definition is the emphasis on influence over other’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and attitudes. According to Spector (2012), power is “the extent to which one person can influence another to do something” (p. 321). This means that that power is what inspires subordinates to follow an employer. There are five sources of power. Expert power is given when there is a perception that the person has knowledge or expertise in an area. Referent

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

Power and leadership play a big role in accomplishing the objectives of a team. A person having these two attributes can direct a group of people towards achieving their common goal. These two components of authority are also essential to each other in order for the leader to be successful. Power is a person’s ability to influence others and leadership is a person’s talent to guide a group of people to achieve their common goal. A person that has power

Interview: Marin Alsop, music director of the Bournemouth Symphony, discusses the power in music and the power in the position of conductor October 7, 2003

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.

Sources (Bases) of Power Power, as it relates to leadership, is the ability to influence the behavior and attitudes of others. Influence is the degree of actual change in the target person’s attitudes or behaviors. (Shriberg, Shriberg, & Kumari, 2010, pp. 116-117) In 1959, two psychologists, French and Raven, created a list of power sources. They named five sources from which individuals derive power: expert power, referent power, legitimate power, reward power, and coercive power.

Power is commonly defined as the capacity or ability to influence others (McShane & Von Glinow, 2015, p. 284), whether that power is derived from a person, team or organization. Power, therefore is a necessary component to effective organizational behavior. Large organizations experience a great deal of power shifts as personnel changes are made. These inevitable shifts have the potential of creating interpersonal conflicts, as work performance is often measure by past successes. When a person steps into a new position within an organization, understanding office politics and sources of power utilized by their superiors may be necessary in effective assimilation into the new position.

The Oxford Dictionary defines power as the “capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.” This ability seems efficient for tasks and duties concerning cooperation as decisions are managed out by a percentage of the population while the rest spend their time doing the actual work instead of debating on choices. From reading the above sentence, it seems that power is used as a good method in leadership to carry out decisions for the team for the greater good of everyone. However, there is corruption due to the inner nature of those using power. Many use it for their own gains whether by a single individual, a small group, or the majority population- as shown in Animal Farm by George Orwell.

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,

The concepts of power and influence are interconnected. Power is the potential or capacity to influence. In contrast, influence is the application of power to accomplish a specific purpose (Bacon, 2012). It is necessary for leaders to exert power in order to achieve organizational objectives. However, it is imperative they are able to influence their followers effectively.

The person and the power are inseparable. The top executive in an organization is always the one who holds the most political power. This is because on his shoulders rest the future of the company, given his ability to let the people under him move the way he likes either by persuasion or force. These people may have the tendency to not act without the presence of the person who has the most power. Power is demonstrated by the one who holds it either through acts, gestures, words of even through written rules and guidelines. Without somebody powerful, there will be confusion and chaos.

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

The second source of power that influences individuals and organizations behaviors is known as Personal Power. This power focuses more on the individual?s independent nature within the position that he or she has been placed. There are three sources under this power that are apparent in most organizations that are well managed. The first is expert power in which control is based on the knowledge or experience that the individual possesses in the position that he or she holds. Rational persuasion is the power to control behavior by being able