My church is currently without a minister and I have been asked to be on the call committee. I agreed to serve, and another member was assigned to lead the committee of six people. The committee is made up of three men and three women. The men are middle-age or older, the leader is a businessman. Of the women, one is retired, another is a mother working on her dissertation and the last is a public school teacher. There has been one meeting so far.
The first meeting was an organizational meeting which the leader called to order. After review of the group charter, it was determined that two other positions needed to be filled: chaplain and secretary. The leader quickly recommended one male as chaplain and one female as secretary. There was little discussion, certainly no forewarning to the individuals and no challenge to the appointments.
The leader operated from important bases of power. The leader has referent power in the congregation. He is a long time member with deep roots in the congregation. Also his wife is an organist and he sings in the choir. He is well known and liked. He has served in various leadership positions over the years. He has also served in this capacity before. This experience gives him expert power considering that the other committee members do not have the same experience. These are both types of personal power.
The committee leader also has position power from which to operate. By action of the church council he was appointed to lead the committee through the process, giving him legitimate power. There is no base for coercive power in this relationship. However, there may be some reward power. Often there are times when the committee must travel to interview or to witness a minister’s ability to perform the requisite duties of the position. In his business capacity he has access to a fleet of vehicles and by using one of those vehicles, can reward the committee members by negating the need to drive personal vehicles to various long distance sites.
Anderson, John and Keltner (2012) discuss the “personal sense of power” (p. 337) as something that varies within social contexts such as work or friend relationships. Personal power can be organized by individuals across one-on-one relationships and in groups and is also related to personal factors. In the situation discussed above, the group lead evaluated his personal power over our group and rightly sensed the level of authority that we would yield to him.
References
Anderson, A. John, O. P., and Keltner, D. (2012). The Personal Sense of Power. Journal of Personality.80 (2) 313-344, doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00734.x
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.