Base or Sources of Power
The poser comes from a source or base it comes in particular form. It is being utilised in a specific manner. Social psychologists John French & Bertram Raven has described five bases or sources of power which are Coercive, Reward Power, Legitimate Power, Expert Power and Referent Power.
Coercive Power: In India, employees are unwilling to work on their own unless they have certain fear of punishment. It needs strong directive behaviour. Coercive power is necessary to engage effectively the labourers. Coercive power based on fear. Many illiterate employees act out of fear of negative results that might occur if they fail to comply the instructions coercive power rests on the application or threat of application of physical sanctions such as infliction of pain, generation of frustration & restriction of movement. If employees are unable & unwilling to perform; they are fire, transferred, demoted or use of force is made and so on.
Reward Power: Employees demonstrate readiness to work for achieving some reward. The superior has power to reward the outstanding performers. It is opposite of coercive power. In this case people works for getting some reward, recognition & repute. It is highly useful for improving superiors’ behaviour. It helps growth of employees which comply with the wishes or directives of seniors for getting positive benefits. Reward power is anything that other person can value ex. Money, favour, promotion, interest, friendly treatment, important information & so on. While coercive power is negative reinforcement, reward power is positive reinforcement. For example if one can give something of positive value or avoid negative to employees, he has reward power over the employees. Managers are given several forms of reward powers such as power to increase to pay, grant promotion, praise, recognise, crate friendly atmosphere & so on. In expectancy theory, manager has power of positive valences & positive reinforcement which are perceived by employees. It is important to note that the employees or person on whom the power is exercised much value & accept this power. If employees do not accept this power of manager; it has no positive impact on the employees.
Legitimate or Position Power: Legitimate power arises because of position of the employees. Manager is in a position to induce compliance or influence behaviour of the employees by virtue of his position. It is the power which is received by the person because of the position or formal hierarchy of an organisation. Legitimate power is authority because the definition of authority is legalised & legitimised power. The authority is well accepted by the employees. They recognise third boss as having the authority of sometimes positive & sometimes negative reinforcement. Authority to legitimate power has coercive as well as reward power by virtue of position but coercive power in its own form as describe above need not have position similarly, reward power in subtract form need not form need not have position. People exercise coercive or reward power by virtue of personality & not by virtue of position. Sometimes, these coercive & reward powers are debatable. But in case of position power, the manager is legally authorised to exercise coercive or reward power. People achieve power by being legally authoritative & are given the position to exercise the power. Higher position has power over lower position.
Expert Power: Expert power depends on knowledge & expertise if a person possesses the expertise & others recognise his expertise; the former has expert power over others. Expert power is well rewarded by employees for their effective performance of the job. The person possessing the expert power is creditable, trust worthy & relevant. He is in a position to show sometimes tangible knowledge to others. He is required to demonstrate physically his expertise knowledge to others. Credibility, trustworthiness & relevance are the basic components of expert power. His specialisation, technical skills & other relevant knowledge are well accepted and are given credit to him by employees. He is required to guide the juniors on technical performances which are really guiding factors for development of employees. Trustworthiness depends on the reputation of being honest & straightforward. Trustworthy person can exercise expert power which is easily accepted by employees. Relevance of time, person & energy is important for expert power. Persons having no position can effectively use expert power & influence by his expertise knowledge.
Referent Power: Referent Power depends on personal traits. It is developed out of admiration of the person. The person possessing referent power becomes model to be followed by others. Many a times, referent power holders have charishma by which large no. of persons are influenced.
Source: Various OB Books & Notes
Tags: Authority, Authority and Power, Base, Bertram Raven, of, Power, Sources
By: Management Duniya
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