Bases of Power in an Organization
Bases of Power in an Organization
Leadership in an organization can be defined as the approach and manner in which directions are provided, plans implemented and workers motivated. The bases of power can be said to be the ways and methods which the managers of an organization use in order to influence the behavior of the employees. It is also referred to as the possession of authority on the employees and having an influence over other people. Power is extremely beneficial tool in an organization because it depends on it and the way it is used; it leads to either positive or negative change. Power is categorized into five bases according to French and Raven in 1960. Dependency, on the other part, is reliance of an organization on certain employees or even an employee relying on the organization. Overreliance of an organization on different individuals or a few workers is usually highly discouraged. This is because an organization can fail due to an individual’s failure. In the given scenario, the organization is dependent on the employee 2 because he is the only one who can prepare the company’s financial statement. The five bases of power are legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent (David, 1992).
Legitimate power can also be referred to as positional power. This is because it is the position an individual holds in the given organization’s hierarchy. In this case, a manager’s power over the junior workers is given a priority. It gives the power to the managers to issue orders to the junior workers. In our scenario the employee 1 works in the marketing department where the marketing manager ensures and encourages employees to work even beyond the required 40 hours a week. He keeps on reminding the workers to work hard in order to receive the yearly bonus.
Reward power is another base of power which arises from the person’s ability to influence the allocation of resources and incentives in any given organization. The incentives can be in the form of
Leadership in an organization can be defined as the approach and manner in which directions are provided, plans implemented and workers motivated. The bases of power can be said to be the ways and methods which the managers of an organization use in order to influence the behavior of the employees. It is also referred to as the possession of authority on the employees and having an influence over other people. Power is extremely beneficial tool in an organization because it depends on it and the way it is used; it leads to either positive or negative change. Power is categorized into five bases according to French and Raven in 1960. Dependency, on the other part, is reliance of an organization on certain employees or even an employee relying on the organization. Overreliance of an organization on different individuals or a few workers is usually highly discouraged. This is because an organization can fail due to an individual’s failure. In the given scenario, the organization is dependent on the employee 2 because he is the only one who can prepare the company’s financial statement. The five bases of power are legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent (David, 1992).
Legitimate power can also be referred to as positional power. This is because it is the position an individual holds in the given organization’s hierarchy. In this case, a manager’s power over the junior workers is given a priority. It gives the power to the managers to issue orders to the junior workers. In our scenario the employee 1 works in the marketing department where the marketing manager ensures and encourages employees to work even beyond the required 40 hours a week. He keeps on reminding the workers to work hard in order to receive the yearly bonus.
Reward power is another base of power which arises from the person’s ability to influence the allocation of resources and incentives in any given organization. The incentives can be in the form of