Question

What types of power and what is the difference between personal power and positional power? Discuss the implications of these differences for managers?

Answer 1

DIFFERENT TYPES OF POWERS

Leaders are considered to have different types of powers within them and also they can be achieved through their position. To have a power is considered to be a weapon to use wisely to manage people and activities in an organisation. But it all depends on the way a leader uses it, if it is used negatively for gaining personal needs it could adversely effect the organisation and also the leader itself but if proper care is made and the powers are used in a positive manner it bring many gains for the organisation.

The different types of power are,

• Coercive power :- It is using the power to force someone to do something against their peronal will and preference. It may also be in a way of threat or stubborn behaviour towards employees. They often make the employees feel their job is at risk.
• Legitimate power :- This type of power is positional power where the superior have the authority to give orders and subordinates are responsible for the work they do. It is highly formalised in nature as the higher official have control over the subordinates. It is considered as a good power for betterment of the organisation.
• Reward power :- In this the leader praises the employees for the work they done either in words or providing monetary gains. Here the leader makes it clear that if they work upto certain level or according to ceritain quality they will be rewarded. This way people will be motivated to do more work.
• Expert power :- When the leader is an expert in any kind of subject he has the power to direct on matters which belongs to his scope of knowledge. As he has high level of knowledge on specific subjects people follow him and his actions.
• Information power :- In this one has a new information that others don't know or they are unfamiliar with the information in such a case he has the power to specify the information to other people and they are keen to know the information whether it is positive or Negative.
• Referent power :- when an individual is well know among many people by his work or his behaviour he has referent power. Many people recognize him for the good works he have done.
• Charismatic power :- It is a personal power of a person to attract people and influence them by his way of behaviour and nature.

Here there are two types of power that is personal and positional.

Personal power are those which are already in a person. That is if a person is able to influence others by his nature or charisma it is personal power. People can induce other people to do work through this power. The other one is positional power who gets the power by their followers and by the role you have in the organisation.  If you have positional power you can have authority over others and it is mainly of reward power and Coercive powers.

Both the powers are to be used effectively. A person can have both the powers and other may lack any one of the powers. So in an organisation we see different managers treating people differently. One may use only his positional power and give orders to the subordinates and the other may use both the powers to influence people to do work through his charismatic way even though he has the positional power to give orders. This makes the employees more Motivated to do work than the employees who are threatened to do work. These differences among the managers can cause conflict and rivalry to outshine the other one. If a manager have both the powers he will not indulge in unnecessary fights and conflicts rather he try to make each employee stay in the job and work as per the needs of organisation thereby personal and organisational needs can be achieved but the managers who lacks personal powers may see the other as unhealthy competition and try to bring them down. Many times a person only have perosnal power and no positional power and so he cannot use his skills in the organisation. So there should be a balance between both the powers to avoid the differences and conflicts.