THE LEADERSHIP USE OF POWER AND AUTHORITY

THE LEADERSHIP USE OF POWER AND AUTHORITY

Leaders influence people to do things through the use of power and authority.

 Power is the ability or potential to influence decisions and control resources.

 Authority is the formal right to get people to do things or the formal right to control resources.

Types of Power

· Legitimate Power – is the authentic right of al leaders to make certain types of requests. These requests are based on internalized social and cultural values in an organization. It is the easiest type of influence for most subordinates to accept. . For example, virtually all employees accept the manager’s authority to conduct performance evaluation.

· Reward Power – is a leader’s control over rewards of value to the group members. Exercising this power includes giving salary increases and recommending employees for promotion. Wealth leads to ac considerable reward power, being extremely wealthy leader has become almost synonymous with power.

· Coercive Power – is a leader’s control over punishment. Organizational punishment includes assignment to undesirable working hours, demotion, and firing.  Effective leaders generally avoid heavy reliance on coercive power because it creates resentment and sometimes retaliation.

· Expert Power – derive from the leader’s job-related knowledge as perceived by group members. This type of power stems from having specialized skills, knowledge, or talent. Expert power can exercised even when a person does not occupy a formal leadership position. An advertising copywriter with a proven record of winning ad slogans has expert power, and so does a marketing manager who knows how to create demand for a product.

· Referent Power – refers to the ability to control based on loyalty to the leader and the group member’s desire to please that person. Having referent power contributes to being perceived as charismatic, but expert power also enhances charisma. Part of the loyalty to the leader is based on identification with the leader’s personal characteristics. Referent power and charisma are both based on the subjective perception of the leader’s traits and characteristics.

· Subordinate Power – is any type of power that employees can exert upward in an organization, base on justice and legal considerations. This type of power restricts the extent to which power can be used to control them. For example, certain categories of workers cannot asked to work overtime without compensation, and a worker need not put up with being sexually harassed by the boss.

Influence Tactics

In addition of various types of power, leaders may sue many other influence tactics to get things done. Eight frequently use influence tactics follow:

1. Leading by Example – means that the leader influences group members by serving as a positive model of desirable behavior.

2. Leading by Values – means the leader influences people by articulating and demonstrating values that guide the behavior of others. Ideal values for a leader to pursue includes mutual respect, trust, honesty, fairness, kindness, and doing good.

3. Assertiveness –refers to being forthright in your demands. It involves expressing what you want to be done and how you feel about it. Assertiveness also refers making orders clear.

4. Rationality – means appealing to reason and logic. Strong leaders use this frequently. Pointing out the facts of a situation to group members in order to get them to do something is an example of rationality. Appealing to reason and logic works best when the leader is perceived as knowledgeable.

5. Ingratiation – refers to getting else to like you, often through the use of political skill. A typical ingratiating tactic would be to act in a friendly manner just before making a demand. Effective managers treat people well consistently to get cooperation when it is needed.

6. Exchange – is a method of influencing others by offering to reciprocate if they meet your demands. Leaders with limited expert, referent, and legitimate power are likely to use exchange and make bargains with subordinates. Using exchange is like using reward power. The emphasis in exchange, however, is that the manager goes out of his way to strike a bargain that pleases the team members.

7. Coalition Formation – is a way of gaining both power and influence. A coalition is a specific arrangement of parties working together to combine their power, thus exerting influence on another individual or group. Coalitions in business are a numbers game – the more people you can get on your side, the better.

8. Joking and Kidding - are widely used to influence others on the job. Good-natured ribbing is especially effective when a straightforward statement might be interpreted a harsh criticism.

Which influence tactic should the leader use? Leaders are unlikely to use all the influence tactics in a given situation. Instead, they tend to choose an influence tactic that fits the demands of the circumstances.

Employee Empowerment and the Exercise of Power

          Empowerment is a way for leaders to share power, also referred to as shared leadership. When leaders share power, employees experience a greater sense of personal effectiveness and job ownership.

         Shared leadership also means that leadership should flow between individuals on teams, depending on the nature of the tasks and skill s of the team members.

         A key component of empowerment is the leader’s acceptance of the employee as a partner in decision-making.

Self-Leadership and Empowerment

          For empowerment to work well, people must exercise self-leadership, the process of influencing oneself.  Self-leadership is possible because people have the capacity to lead themselves, particularly when faced with difficult yet important tasks.