Bases of Power, Research Paper Example

In any organization individuals are able to exude a wide array of power based on several different bases of power.  According to French and Raven, these five bases for power in an organization can be legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent (Alexandrou, 2008).  Power can be used positively or negatively within a company.  In many cases, individuals will use their positional power in order to influence other employees to perform work based on how the individual desires, not necessarily what is best for the employees or the organization.  Therefore, a sense of selfishness and ego can often come into play as the example with Company A has shown.

Legitimate power is any source of power that is legitimate and based on an individual’s specific title or accolade. For instance, the marketing manager is able to use power over the marketing team based on his position as the manager of the entire department. This power is legitimate because in the company’s hierarchy, the manager clearly controls the entire department and oversees the employees within the department as well.  However, legitimate power does not always mean that the individual is using the power positively. As the example shows, the individual with legitimate power can sometimes use coercive power as well in tandem with the legitimate power to control the thoughts and behaviors of the employees.

For instance, coercive power can be found by the example of the marketing manager for Employee 1. While it is unclear whether or not employees receive overtime pay for working more than 40 hours per week, it is clear that the manager is suggesting to the employees that it would look very favorably if the employees would work more than the allotted time. The manager uses the yearly reviews for salary bonuses to influence and coerce the employees in a negative manner so that they will work more than the expected time period.

Employee 2 is able to utilize three different types of power.  While he has been able to use coercive power to negotiate a shortened work week, he has also showed expert power.  The employee is the only certified public accountant in the company, so it is clear that this employee is the expert on financial statements and accounting information.  Furthermore, the company cannot have completed financial statements without the employee’s work; therefore, it is clear that the employee is has a base for expert power.  Again, this example shows that an individual can use expert power in tandem with coercive power to achieve specific desired end results.  Finally, the base for reward power within an organization is also evident within the example for Employee 2.  This employee is the only knowledgeable individual in the area of accounting and is therefore rewarded for this expertise and knowledge by having a reduced work week.  The company is using this knowledge and specific skill set to reward the employee.

Referent power usually means that an individual receives power because of his or her association with another individual that has power, either by legitimate, expert or reward bases.  With Company A, it is very difficult to determine what individuals may have been using referent power.  It can only be assumed that Employee 3 was using referent power because of his quick movement up the company ladder.  This employee also was able to make a sales pitch without being with the company for very long, which would lead people to believe that he shares some form of a relationship with an individual of the company that has actual power.  Nevertheless, it is clear that all of the bases of power can be intertwined and utilized with one another through the same employee or even by multiple employees within the organization.  In the end, an organization is defined by the individuals with power and the actions they perform using their given bases of power.

Dependency is a term that defines the relationship where an individual or organization possesses something that another individual or group requires.  For instance, all of the bases of power require that the followers remain dependent on that individual.  A manager’s use of legitimate power requires that the employees he or she manages continue to be dependent on the manager’s skills, knowledge or position.  In contrast, the manager is dependent upon the organizational structure of the company to ensure that he or she remains in a position where legitimate power continues to be given.  A change in the system would change the manager’s power.  Referent power is very similar because Employee 3 is dependent on his relationship with other individuals within the company for his power base.  If these relationships are not as strong or are severed in any way, the amount of referent power changes.  This is true because Employee 3 remains dependent on his relationships for success within the company.

There is a direct relationship between power bases and dependency within this example for the organization.  Perhaps the clearest example of dependency is the company’s reliance upon Employee 2 as the only individual with accounting skills that can provide financial statements.  This dependency has given the employee a large amount of negotiating power through the reward, coercive, expert and reward power bases. The company, then, is dependent on the employee to continue to perform his or her duties effectively for the organization to be successful.  The company has effectively lost almost all power through this dependency and must suffer the consequences of providing the employee with the only shortened work week in the organization. However, it appears as though this is a reasonable trade off because without the CPA accountant, the organization would not be able to provide the legally required financial statements to the government, its lenders and its shareholders.  This only continues to work for Employee 2 as long as the organization remains dependent on his or her expertise as a CPA.  If the organization would hire another accountant, the company is no longer dependent on Employee 2 at such a high degree, which would reduce his or her coercive and expert power bases. The employee also would not be rewarded as greatly as he or she currently is if there is another employee on staff to reduce the company’s dependency of Employee 2. Therefore, it is clear that both the employee and company can be dependent on one another for the current and future status of the power bases.

References

Alexandrou, M. (2008). Sources of power in organizations [Online Forum Comment]. Retrieved from http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/blog/sources-of-power-in-organizations/

Lipp, G.D. (2006). Life on the highwire: the balance of leadership, teamwork & service. Proceedings of the Sla leadership conference Fair Oaks, CA: G. Douglas Lipp & Associates. Retrieved from https://www.sla.org/PDFs/SLARevIII.pdf