![]() It can also create recruitment challenges and promote hostility within the workplace. Its effects include low employee retention rates and morale. It can wreak disruption across an organization. This form of power uses threats, force, and intimidation. Coercive powerĭictatorships are prime examples of the exercise of coercive power. It can concentrate rewards in the hands of loyalists, favorites, and superiors. If exercised poorly, reward power can also corrupt a system. Within a work environment, reward power focuses on the ability of power to impact salary increases, promotions, bonuses, benefits, privileges, and titles. It can be used positively to recognize hard workers and provide what they have rightfully earned. This form of power centers on influencing the system. Įmployees in this type of power environment are free to question why certain people have been placed in roles of power. It is given by showing that you have the right skills for the role. In the workplace, you receive power based on your position in your organization. People with legitimate power have earned that power through honest, transparent means. Let’s look at the three types of positional power more closely, including legitimate, reward, and coercive power. You acquire this type of power because of the position you occupy within the organizational structure or hierarchy.īecause it is based on external factors, positional power can be taken away. Positional power is awarded to a person because of their rank or title in an organization. ’Īll types of power can be classified as either positional power or personal power. These types of power were later elaborated upon in psychologist Nicole Lipkin’s book, ‘ What Keeps Leaders Up at Night. There are seven main types of power, first described by renowned psychologists Bertram Raven and John French. Or when exhibiting nepotism or manipulating those that report to them. People that wield power could be viewed as unjust or corrupt when they use their personal power to achieve unscrupulous goals. Power can be viewed as both a positive and negative trait, depending on the way it is used. With upward power, it’s the subordinates who influence the decisions of their managers, supervisors, and leaders. This is to encourage direct reports or subordinates to achieve specific organizational goals and objectives. Many company hierarchies exert downward power. Or superiors could exert power over their employees. A direct report could use their power over their superiors. Power can be exerted either upward or downward. If you hold actual power over someone, you can demand they do certain things or act a specific way. Unlike power, with influence, you can’t impact someone’s actions or behavior just by telling them to do something. Influence is the ability to change how someone else thinks or behaves based on persuasion. It is given through delegation or officially bestowed upon a person. But they are all different in several ways.Īuthority entails power, but it has more legitimacy. The term ‘power’ is often used interchangeably with synonyms authority and influence. Power is the capacity to make others act or believe in a certain way. The definition of p ower is the capacity to make others act a certain way or believe in something. Here’s everything you need to know about the concept of power, from different theories on power to how to use it correctly. It’s important to understand where different power comes from in order to create change within your sphere of influence. A friend might have a different type of power over you in your personal life.īut with great power comes great responsibility. Your manager at work might have power over you professionally. Because of this, power comes into play in our everyday lives. When I listen to her tell her story about raising awareness to secure salary protections for pregnant athletes, I see a different kind of power.Įvery relationship has power dynamics, even if we aren't fully aware of them. When I watch a world-class athlete like Allyson Felix run, I see power. One that has a lot of, well, power.īut what is power? And what does it mean to have power?
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