Question

What is a power? What are the two main bases of power? Can power in an organization be a positive thing?
List & explain the five bases of power
What are the nine most often identified power or influence tactics and their contingencies (definations)

Answer 1

For better understanding answer was explained in several parts:

Power: the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way.

- Power is defined as the ability to act or have influence over others.
An example of power is the strength needed to run five miles. An example of power is the authority a local government has to collect taxes.

- The concept of power derives its ultimate meaning from the 2 strong bases of power.
In other words, the following 2 bases are the core foundation for organizational power.

They are as follows:

1) Informal Power
2) Formal Power

Informal Power refers to the power that comes from an individual’s unique characteristics.
These are the most effective because personal skills, traits and knowledge influence personal power.

Formal Power refers to the power that establishes because of the individual’s position in an organization.

- In general opinion power in an organization itself is neither good nor bad. But it is precisely its way of using what determines whether it is functional or dysfunctional (harmful).
However there is also a positive face of power usage, which contributes in achieving individual, group, and organizational goals and objectives.

- The five bases of power are

bases of power were identified by French and Raven in 1960, which laid the groundwork for most discussions of power and authority in the latter half of the 20th century.
These five types of power are Coercive, legitimate, Reward, Referent, and Expert. Power can be manifested through one or more of these bases.

COERCIVE POWER :

Coercive power rests in the ability of a manager to force an employee to comply with an order through the threat of punishment.
Coercive power typically leads to short-term compliance, but in the long-run produces dysfunctional behavior.
Coercion reduces employees' satisfaction with their jobs, leading to lack of commitment and general employee withdrawal.
In the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, coercive power has seen a decline in the last 50 years.
Several reasons contribute to this, ranging from the legal erosion of employment-at-will and the awareness of employee violence or other forms of retaliatory behavior.
Equally important as an effect on the receding popularity of coercion as a basis of power has been the influence of quality management theorists, such as Philip Crosby and W. Edwards Deming. They suggested that there is a decline in productivity and creativity when coercive power is employed.
The use of coercive power results in an atmosphere of insecurity or fear. In spite of this insight, coercion as a base of power continues to play a role even in those organizations influenced by theories of quality management.In times of economic crisis or threats to the survival of the organization
at large, coercion may come to the forefront. Coercive power may also materialize as organizations attempt to streamline their operations for maximum efficiency.
If employees must be fired, those who fail to conform to the organizational goals for survival will be the most likely candidates for termination. The threat of termination for failure to comply, in turn, is coercive power.

LEGITIMATE POWER :

Legitimate power rests in the belief among employees that their manager has the right to give orders based on his or her position. For example, at the scene of a crime, people usually comply with the orders of a uniformed police officer based simply on their shared belief that he or she has the predetermined authority to give such orders. In a corporate setting, employees comply with the orders of a manager who relies on legitimate power based on the position in the organizational hierarchy that the manager holds. Yet, although employees may comply based on legitimate power, they may not feel a sense of commitment or cooperation.

REWARD POWER :

Reward power, as the name implies, rests on the ability of a manager to give some sort of reward to employees.
These rewards can range from monetary compensation to improved work schedules. Reward power often does not need monetary or other tangible compensation to work. when managers can convey various intangible benefits as rewards. Huey describes Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., as an active user of reward power.
Walton relies heavily on these intangible awards, indicating that "nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They are absolutely free-and worth a fortune".When reward power is used in a flexible manner, it can prove to be a strong motivator, as Crosby, Deming, and others have shown.
Still, when organizations rely too rigidly on rewards, the system can backfire. Employees may be tempted to unethically or even illegally meet the quotas to which overly rigid reward systems may be tied. Another problem associated with rewards as a base for power is the possibility that the rewards will divert employees' attention from their jobs and focus their attention instead on the rewards dangled before them.

REFERENT POWER :

Referent power derives from employees' respect for a manager and their desire to identify with or emulate him or her.
In referent power, the manager leads by example. Referent power rests heavily on trust. It often influences employees who may not be particularly aware that they are modeling their behavior on that of the manager and using what they presume he or she would do in such a situation as a point of reference. The concept of empowerment in large part rests on referent power. Referent power may take considerable time to develop and thus may not prove particularly effective in a workforce with a rapid turnover of personnel. One common error in applying referent power in cross-cultural situations, however, comes in misunderstanding the ways in which employees identify with their superiors. Since identification with one's superior in the United States is hampered by symbols of legitimate power (for example, titles or dress), those who advocate its use encourage managers to dress down to the level of their employees and use terms such as "facilitator" and "coach"
coupled with "associates" and "group members" rather than "boss" and "subordinates." In societies such as Argentina or Mexico, symbols of legitimate power may not readily hamperidentification, whereas American-style egalitarianism may diminish the respect employees feel for the manager.
In short, U.S. employees are likely to identify with managers by personally liking them and feeling liked in return, whereas Argentine and Mexican employees are likely to identify with managers by respecting them and feeling respected in return.
Thus, referent power may be more cross-culturally variable than the other four bases of power laid out by French and Raven. Imberman describes how specialized training is now used in the grocery industry to train Latino immigrants in the democratic supervisory techniques of U.S. managers. In the past, when these men and women were promoted to supervisory positions, they tended to rely heavily on the Latino model of authoritarianism under which they were raised.
The managerial style hindered their ability to effectively supervise employees or to garner the respect they were seeking.
To remedy this situation, specialized training programs are now utilized. The end result is effective and confident supervisors, motivated workers, higher productivity, less waste, and better customer service.

EXPERT POWER :

Expert power rests on the belief of employees that an individual has a particularly high level of knowledge or highly specialized skill set. Managers may be accorded authority based on the perception of their greater knowledge of the tasks at hand than their employees. Interestingly, in expert power, the superior may not rank higher than the other persons in a formal sense. Thus, when an equipment repair person comes to the CEO's office to fix a malfunctioning piece of machinery,
no question exists that the CEO outranks the repair person; yet regarding the specific task of getting the machine operational, the CEO is likely to follow the orders of the repair person.
Expert power has within it a built-in point of weakness: as a point of power, expertise diminishes as knowledge is shared.
If a manager shares knowledge or skill instruction with his or her employees, in time they will acquire a similar knowledge base or skill set. As the employees grow to equal the manager's knowledge or skills, their respect for the superiority of his expertise diminishes.The result is either that the manager's authority diminishes or that the manager intentionally chooses not to share his or her knowledge base or skill set with the employees. The former choice weakens the manager's authority over time, while the latter weakens the organization's effectiveness over time.

- The nine most often identified power or influence tactics and their contingencies are:

The nine are, legitimacy, rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, exchange, personal appeals, ingratiation, pressure, and coalitions.

Ones that have an upward influence is rational persuasion. Ones that have a downward influence are rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, pressure, consultation, ingratiation, exchange, and legitimacy. Ones that have lateral influence are rational persuasion, consultation, ingratiation, exchange, legitimacy, personal appeals, and coalitions.

- Definition of identified power or influence tactics are:

Power is the ability to influence other people. It refers to the capacity to affect the behaviour of the subordinate with the control of resources.
It is an exchange relationship that occurs in transactions between an agent and a target.