Bases of Power Paper
Bases of Power Paper
Power is something that each and every one of us wants to have, but the saddest thing is that few people have it. One of the main problem with power is that when people get they do not want to share or leave to other people. In this essay, I will look at five different sources of power namely legitimate, reward, referent, coercive, and expert. The essay will also discuss the relationship between power and dependency. I will also look at the direct correlation of dependency and power based on the scenario given in the study case. Evidence shows that power is not implemented to individuals rather it sways from employees to the management.
Coercive power: Coercive power is the situation where one person (manager) has power over another person (employee). This is on the negative impacts that can develop from a given situation. Coercive power is to force an individual over something which in a normal situation that person under force would not have done it. Evidence shows that coercive power is best for the company’s benefit, but for the employee it is not the best. Coercive power can develop an abusive environment where the manager forces the employee to do things that are not ethically right. The best example is that of employee one. The employee knows that the manager uses evaluation to give bonus, and since the employee wants a week of in respect to his bonus, he works overtime to get those bonuses, (Schermerhorn & Osborn, 2008).
Reward Power: Reward power is another source of power that is used in business operations by most firms. Study explains that reward power is the ability to command over something. In other words, t is the ability of a person give what is required and remove what is not required. An individual must have a commanding power over the subordinates to achieve organization goals. In this case, the marketing manager uses the concept of reward power by reminding employee one of the benefits of superior performance. He encourages all employees to work beyond 40 hours and by so doing employee one takes this opportunity to achieve his targets, (Schermerhorn & Osborn, 2008).
Legitimate Power: People have described legitimate power as the situation of having authority that exists in the organization. In other words, legitimate power is achieved by default due to the position an individual has in the organization. In this situation, employee two is the only person with CPA in the entire organization. This person takes advantage of his position simply because no any other person has the ability to prepare financial records for the organization. In this case, the employee commands to work for few days something that the management accepts. The marketing manager also has legitimate power although not as compared to the accountant employees. Legitimate power gives the person power to delegate duties to the subordinates, and this can be seen in this scenario, (Schermerhorn & Osborn, 2008).
Expert Power: Evidence shows that expert power comes from the knowledge or experience an individual has in a given situation. Experience is the key aspect in developing expert power in an organization. The person with expert power is valued in the organization and can get whatever is demanded simply because to some point he or she is of benefit to the company. In this case, the accountant employee posses expert power over other employees in the organization. He is the only person who has skills to prepare financial statements of the company. This means that the company must value this person and give him what he wants in order to help the company achieve its goals and objectives, (Schermerhorn & Osborn, 2008).
Referent Power: Referent power is the situation where someone has the power over others. In other word, it is the influence created by an individual due to the fact the he or she is liked by other people within the organization. In this case, employee three has referent power. Having worked for the company in a span of not less than a year, he has the ability to command over something. Although he is not experienced enough, the employee out of his ability to have influence over something, the organization made him leader of a given project, (Schermerhorn & Osborn, 2008).
Power leads to dependency, and that is the reason why most people want power to create a dependency environment for their survival. To explain this lets consider a situation where someone has things need to be accomplished and another person has the potential to fulfill these needs. We can see that there exists some sort of dependency simply because one party has needs and the other has the potential. The person with the power should command in order to make things accomplished. An organization depends on employees to achieve its goals. There are those employees who have power and should direct their subordinates on what to do thus power and dependency develops dependency relationship, (Schermerhorn & Osborn, 2008).
Reference:
Schermerhorn, J. R. & Osborn, R. N. (2008). Organizational Behavior, 10th Edition. NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
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