Learning about sources of power made me reflect on my own work experiences. At work, I have always wondered why customers come to me to complain, want to know where an item is that they are looking for or will ask me if I am the manger. Vendors come up to me and tell me they are here to fix something at the store. New associates ask me if I am their Area Manager.
Customers are a focus of my work. My job is to make sure customers needs are being met at each store locations that I visit. I will grade each store on how well they are meeting customers needs. But customers don’t know what my job is or what I’m in the store to do. Customers see a tall gentleman with a large bodily structure that is wearing a company name badge with a similar theme of clothes to the rest of the associates but just a touch nicer. They see me coaching associates or giving them advice but from the customer side of the counter. They also see me with an iPad in my hand.
When a vendor comes in for either a delivery or a repair, they see all the things that a customer will see or most times, me sitting in the store’s office pulling up paperwork and documents for review.
New associates are generally learning the roles of their job and see all of the things a customer & vendor see, but new associates see how differently the person training them is acting while I am in their store.
While simply doing my job, do I have power because of what I’m wearing, where I’m sitting, or talking to someone? Or do people give me power because of what I’m wearing, where I’m sitting or talking to someone?
According to Richard Hughes, “A Taxonomy of Social Power” (Hughes, 1993) has five sources of power. The one that I feel is most relatable to my role as an auditor is Expert Power. Expert Power allows an individual the ability to influence others through knowledge and skill. (Hughes, 1993) I’ve worked for the same company 28 years. Throughout 28 years of service, I’ve learned a thing or two. This knowledge and skill allows me to lead followers.
What I’ve come to learn is that to have the title of auditor, I needed to have skills and knowledge of the company and be able to help guide people to meet company expectations. Having this title, I am required to wear a company name tag, dress professionally, have professional conversations with associates, do research on the company computer, and grade a store. My title has no positional power over anyone in the store. My only power is influencing others, yet everyone sees me as a leader. Including those that do not know me or my title.
References
Hughes, R. e. (1993). Power and Influence. In Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (pp. Ch. 5. pp. 107-131). Homewood, IL: Irwin.
Williams, J. (2018, May 28). Lesson 7: Power and Influence. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1940315/modules/items/24597517
Chris C. says
In agreement with both you and other commenters, I would say you certainly have expert power. As is evidenced by over two decades of on the job experience. Although I would argue that you have other types of power as well and are possibly giving yourself too little credit. As an auditor, you have both legitimate and reward power. Through this role, your company has empowered you as someone with formal authority who reviews stores and attempts to make them better. According to “A Taxonomy of Social Power”, legitimate power is a function of the situation just as a teacher can assign papers you can recommend protocols for the store to follow. (Hughes, 1993) As an auditor do you also give ratings to stores and devise improvement plans? If so this further legitimizes your power as corporate will be looking at these reviews.
Assuming you do provide feedback and ratings of stores this would also give you reward power. In your post, you mentioned when auditing stores you mentioned that newer associates notice a difference in their field trainers while you are present. This means that the trainers recognize that your opinion is valuable. Reward power is described as a “function of the relationship among leaders, followers and the situation. It involves the potential to influence others to die to one’s control over desire resources. (Hughes, 1993) A good review from you could result in a higher budget for the store or help the store manager’s career trajectory. In turn, the review is the desired resource. Thus you have reward power as well.
This post was interesting because you seem to be underestimating your own power. Keep up the good work man.
Reference:
Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (1993). Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. Homewood, IL: Irwin.
Mirand Weitzel says
There is no doubt that your knowledge and job title give you power in this situation. If twenty eight years with the same organization does not make you an expert, then I don’t know what does. As an auditor, you probably have to possess a wide breadth of knowledge about your industry in order to understand what you’re look through and looking for. You can’t assign a score to something unless you know all of the ins and outs of it. This strong understanding of the business gives you expert power. French and Raven state that expert power is a function of the amount of knowledge one possesses relative to the rest of the group. You probably have more experience than those surrounding you in the stores you visit, making you more knowledgeable than them.
One thing you failed to mention is your legitimate power. As an auditor, you must examine and analyze a store and provide feedback on how they’re doing. If you give a poor report on a store, your feedback could result in people getting laid off or the store potentially closing altogether. Your role in the organization gives you legitimate power (French & Raven, 1959).
Your ability to provide feedback on a store’s shortcomings also gives you coercive and reward power. These types of power involve influencing others through the promise of rewards and the threat punishments (French & Raven, 1959). You may not directly or explicitly provide rewards or punishments, but your scoring of a store can influence those who can. Again, your feedback can sway those directly in charge of a store to punish or reward their subordinates.
I think your post is thoughtful and introspective. You did a great job of understanding and applying the course material to your own real life experiences. I can tell that you are very confident in your abilities on the job. Keep up the good work! I challenge you to be a little more aware of the power you possess, both on and off the job.
References
French, J. & Raven, B. H. (1959). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies of Social Power. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
Adam John Swain says
Good evening,
According to the text, Power is the capacity to produce effects on others (House, 1984), or the potential to influence others (Bass, 1990) and “Influence is the change in a target agent’s attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors as a result of influence tactics”. (as cited by the Pennsylvania State University, 2018). I don’t doubt that you have expert power in the company, having 28 years and the ability to influence because of your experience, but I believe that because you actually affect behavior, as evidenced by your statement of giving advice, addressing customer’s concerns and the change in behavior by the trainers, you are actually influencing those around you. The difference here is that you are actually doing it (influencing) vice only having the capacity (power) to.
Though you may dress similarly to the other workers, yours is a bit more refined, as you pointed out. Perhaps people think that you have power because of your attire. The lesson gives the example of those who dress more smartly are perceived to be authority figures or more powerful. More specifically, “when we want to be seen as more powerful we often dress in suits. This is because we are judged to have more power dressed in a suit than in jeans and a t-shirt” (The Pennsylvania State University, 2018). More simply stated, you probably get approached more because you look like someone who may be in charge.
With regard to influence tactics with the other employees, I’m not sure that one squarely fits your situation. The lesson says that leaders may use, “rational appeal when parties are relatively equal in power, when resistance is not anticipated, and when the benefits are organizational as well as personal” (The Pennsylvania State University, 2018). Rational persuasion occurs when a leader uses facts or evidence to influence others. This makes sense to me because you are offering advice for the betterment of the company and to help the individual behind the counter. Because you have tenure in the company, you may also be able to leverage legitimizing tactics. Yukl et al., (1992) define this tactic as agents making requests based on their position of authority (as cited by the Pennsylvania State University, 2018). You have stated that you have no real positional power but your experience and appearance may have made you appear to be an authority figure, thus granting the opportunity to use legitimizing tactics.
Thanks for your post, it made me really have to sit and think about the material and its application.
Adam
Canvas learning management system. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1940315/modules/items/24597532
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE.
Yukl, G. A., Lepsinger, R., & Lucia, T. (1992). Preliminary report on the development and validation of the influence behavior questionnaire. In K. E. Clark, M. B. Clark, & D. P. Campbell (Eds.), Impact of Leadership. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Home. (2018, June 08). Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2018/06/08/what-people-think-of-me/
Leayle Benjamin says
Hello,
Within your posting, it provides the perfect example of how individuals perceive power and influence from various factors. Hughes et al. (1993) references that among the things that can affect the power and influence of an individual is clothing. It states that “Uniforms and other specialized clothing have long been associated with authority and status” (p. 112). From what you wrote, I believe the customers and new associates within your organization that are not familiar with your job title give you power since they see that you are well dressed. I also find it interesting that stature is another source of perceived power and influence. I did a little research on it and according to Erik Lindqvist (2012), there is a positive correlation between an individual’s height and leadership. Based on your height, people are more inclined to just assume that you are in a managerial position. The way you dress and your stature help to explain why many customers come to you to complain or why vendors just assume that you are a manager and talk to you about fixing something within the store.
I would agree with you that you definitely have expert power within the company. Your 28 years of experience with the organization is influential since, as Hughes et al. (1993) explains, your “corporate memory provides a useful historical perspective to newer personnel” (p. 114). How many of those years have you been an auditor? From your post, I did not see if you mentioned how long you have held the duty of auditor and this could affect your expert power as an auditor. For example, if you have been with the company for the 28 years but only been an auditor for 1 of those years, it would be hard to have expert power in the field of auditing. If you have been an auditor for the majority of the 28 years, then that’s a different story. Overall, I enjoyed reading your blog and feel that you did a great job!
Reference:
Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (1993). Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. Homewood, IL: Irwin.
Lindqvist, E. (2010, May 24). Height and Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.ifn.se/wfiles/wp/wp835.pdf