Introduction
The concept of leadership is integral to contemporary business and economics as well as to other spheres such as politics or education. A leader as a member of any organization is expected to use his or her abilities to motivate, discipline or reward workers to achieve the determined goals. Thus, leaders have a potential to influence the other people and improve their performance in different ways. It should be mentioned that the concept of influence is closely related to that of power while they are not synonyms (Lyman et al. 3).
Power can be treated as a resource that is utilized to change someone’s behavior or a certain event. Thus, the use of power can be called influence. It is common knowledge that leaders apply diverse styles in dealing with people. Leadership styles determine the choice of strategies that leaders utilize in achieving their goals. Similarly, the source of power used by leaders has an impact on their behavior in relation to employees and the effectiveness of their work. This paper aims to analyze the concept of power on the whole as well as its forms and their sources in particular.
Understanding the Concept of Power
The phenomenon of power was fist studied and defined by social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven more than half a century ago (Lyman et al. 4). Nevertheless, their ideas and findings are still applied in the study of the problem of power and significantly contribute to understanding this concept and the way leaders influence other people. Thus, French and Raven described five bases of power in 1959.
They included such bases as legitimate, reward, expert, reference, and coercive ones (Lyman et al. 6). Legitimate power base is grounded in the belief that an individual has the formal right to demand something, and others are expected to be compliant and obedient. Reward base can be explained as the ability of a person to compensate another for compliance. Expert power base is grounded in high levels of skill and knowledge possessed by an individual. Referent power base develops as a result of the individual’s attractiveness, worthiness, and respect perceived from other people. Coercive base implies the idea of punishment of an individual by another person for noncompliance.
One more power base, informational, was added later (Lyman et al. 6). It is grounded in the ability of an individual to control the information necessary for others to achieve something. Despite much criticism and to some extent rudimentary nature of the framework developed by French and Raven, it contributes to the understanding of the concept of power and its sources. To empower the analysis of the mentioned power bases, they are divided into position power and personal power. Both types of power sources have certain advantages and disadvantages if selected as a basis for leadership styles.
Positional Power Sources
Positional sources of power comprise legitimate, rewarding, coercive, and informational power. These types of power are gained by individuals who occupy certain positions with identified duties. While these sources of power are considered to be effective, they are easily lost because they are attributes of the occupied positions and do not depend on a personality of individuals appointed to them. Therefore, positional sources of power last as long as a person occupies a certain position.
Legitimate Power
Legitimate power is grounded in the belief that the agent “has the right to issue directives that the target is obligated to accept” (Lyman et al. 7). This power base is typical, for example, of a president, prime minister or monarch. Similarly, CEOs in organizations or chiefs of diverse departments possess legitimate power. This type of power is usually related to electoral mandates, social hierarchies, cultural norms, and organizational structure, which lead to legitimate power.
Still, this type of power is unstable and cannot be predicted. In case a person loses the position or the title, the legitimate power disappears since it is an attribute of the position and not the personality. Moreover, the scope of this power has certain limitations. Legitimate power is not absolute and is applicable to settings, which the others consider to be under control of this leader. Legitimate power is closely related to formal authority and both concepts are commonly treated as synonyms (Lyman et al. 8). It is one of the impersonal sources of power because it is grounded in position in the system and not personal qualities of an individual in this position.
Reward Power
Reward power can be explained as “the ability to offer tangible rewards in exchange for a target parson’s compliance” (Lyman et al. 7). This type of power is more typical of people in leading positions who have an opportunity to suggest certain rewards such as an increase in pay or promotions. Currently, the range of rewards is wider and includes training opportunities, interesting tasks, or even simple compliments.
An individual who is promised or expects a reward is more likely to accomplish the task successfully and with better performance. Still, this power is not universal and can sometimes be weaker than expected. Usually, rewards are promised by supervisors or managers who frequently do not have direct control over salary increases or promotions and need permission to perform these actions from higher authorities such as boards of directors. Consequently, the reward can be provided later or not provided at all, which decreases trust and motivation of employees thus weakening the reward power.
Coercive Power
Coercive power is one of the controversial sources since it is the power to punish (Lyman et al. 7). While it can be efficient under certain conditions, coercive power can result in dissatisfaction and resentment of the individuals who face it. The usual tools of coercive power are threats and punishment. Still, the effectiveness of this source of power depends on “credible threat,” which means that the target individual should believe that the person in power has the necessary resources and is ready to use them for punishment in case the individual does not comply (Lyman et al. 7). Some scholars unite coercive power and the reward one and treat them as sanctions, negative and positive respectively.
On the one hand, these two powers have much in common because they both are grounded in credibility of treats and promises, and are aimed to stimulate the achievement of the purpose. On the other hand, they have a significant difference, which is the impact on further relationships with the individual who is the target of power application. Thus, repeated cases of punishment can have a negative effect on the image of the person in power while regular rewards for the completed tasks are likely to increase the attractiveness of the influence agent and positively influence future cooperation.
Informational Power
Informational power was added to the framework later to meet the demand of time. In contemporary conditions, the control over important information needed by other individuals for their tasks leads to a powerful position. For example, a person who has access to such confidential documents as financial reports or the knowledge about the coming changes in staffing policy, or financial affairs of a company, possesses informational power. In the world on the whole and in the modern economy in particular, information is a particularly influential form of power. However, the power is not in the information itself but in unlimited access to it. Informational power can be realized through sharing, withholding, manipulating, distorting, or concealing information depending on the position of the individual and the defined goals. Thus, information become a helping source, a weapon, and a bargaining tool used to achieve some purposes.
Personal Power Sources
While positional forms of power can be effective, they can form a technocratic and cold leadership style. Researchers agree that true leaders need to find power in concepts other that their position, opportunities for punishment or rewards, and access to information. Thus, a leadership style can be more productive and beneficial in case it is supported by personal power sources such as expert and referent power. These types of power depend on attributes of an individual and thus can be transported from one position or role to another.
Expert Power
Expert power is grounded in the perceptions of a target individual about the expertise or experience possessed by the influence agent (Lyman et al. 8). In case individuals are aware that the leader has knowledge and skills within the necessary issue that empower him or her understand the current situation and suggest solutions or make judgment, they are likely to listen to such leaders, trust them, and respect.
It can be concluded that expert power contributes to an increase in value of ideas and decisions of such leaders. While expertise is not a universal resource, it is effective in certain conditions where the field of expertize is meaningful. Also, it should be mentioned that the expert power is grounded in credibility (Lyman et al. 8). Moreover, expert power can be improved through the application of confidence, decisiveness, and skills of rational thinking in different fields and addressing diverse issues. However, when the knowledge becomes more common or other individuals gain similar experience and expertise, this type of power becomes less influential.
Referent Power
Referent power is another type of personal power sources and is personal by its nature. According to French and Raven (qtd. in Lyman et al.), the basis of referent power “lies in the psychological identification of the target with the agent of influence” (8). Referent power develops when an individual likes and respects another one, and identifies with him or her in some way. For example, celebrities usually possess referent power, which can be utilized to influence people.
This type of power is frequently used in advertising to persuade people which goods to buy or which politician to elect through referent power of celebrities. In conditions of a workplace, an individual who possesses referent power usually has a positive impact on the employees and tends to obtain a strong impact on the people. At the same time, referent power results in a big responsibility since an individual can obtain it without a purpose.
Also, it demands integrity and honesty from a person who possesses it because referent power can become a dangerous tool in case a person who possesses it decides to use power for personal advantage. However, while referent power has certain positive features, it does not show high effectiveness if used alone. Therefore, leaders who struggle for respect and trust as well as for the success of the team should combine referent and expert sources of power.
Conclusion
Summarizing, it should be mentioned that by understanding the diversity of forms of power, an individual has an opportunity to learn how to use them to full effect as well as avoid the negative power bases. It should be kept in mind that every individual has certain powers that can be revealed in different situations. Thus, it is not necessary to occupy a leadership position or be on a senior role to have powers because personal sources of power do not depend on any positions.
Moreover, leaders with personal powers are more likely to be successful and gain respect and trust of the people than authoritative and powerful leaders who base their ideas on positional power sources. The choice of the sources of power is under the influence of the leader’s personality and is expected to correspond to both personal and corporate goals. On the whole, the position of a leader and the selected sources of leadership power determine the effectiveness of achieving organizational purposes and the overall performance of organization on the whole and every employee in particular.
Work Cited
Lyman, Porter W., et al., editors. Organizational Influence Processes. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2015.