Knowing power of a leader


Power

In order to be influencial, a leader has to posses power. Power  is a potential ability to influence others’ behaviour. Much of leaders’ power is derived from their formal position and the ability to allocate rewards. In some cases, leaders may have expert or referent power depending upon their individual characteristics.

Sources of power
(a)Position power
The manager’s position gives him/her the power to reward or punish subordinates in order to influence their behaviour. Legitimate power, reward power and coercive power are all forms of position power that the manager can use to change employee behaviour.
(i)    Legitimate power: Power that stems from a formal management position in an organization and the authority granted to it. Once a person is appointment to a certain post (e.g. as Supervisor) subordinates understand that they are obliged to follow his/her direction with respect to work activities.
(ii)  Reward power: It stems from the authority to reward others. Managers can give formal rewards, such as pay increases or promotions, and may also use praise, attention, and recognition to influence behavior.
(iii) Coercive power: Refers to the authority to punish or to recommend punishment. Managers have coercive power when they have the right to fire or demote employees, criticize them, withhold pay increases, give reprimands, make negative entries in employee files, and so on.






(b)Personal power

Personal power comes from internal sources of the manager, such as a person’s special knowledge or personal characteristics. Subordinates follow a leader because of the respect, admiration, or caring they feel for the individual. Two forms of personal power are expert and referent power.
(i)    Expert power: It results from a leader's special knowledge or skills regarding the tasks performed by subordinates. When a leader is a true expert, subordinates tend to go along quickly with his or her recommendations.
(ii)  Referent power: It comes from the leader’s desirable personal characteristics that command identification, respect, and admiration from subordinates. When workers admire a supervisor because of the way he/she deals with them, the influence is based on referent power.

Keep in mind that the described different types of power are interrelated and most leaders have a combination of them, depending on the leadership style used. Authoritarian leaders, for example, use a mixture of legitimate, coercive, and reward powers to dictate policies, plans, and activities of a group. In comparison, a participative leader uses mainly referent power, involving all members of the group in the decision-making process.

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