Leadership has always been a term of integrity and respect. Being a leader is something that sets an individual apart from a crowd. The qualities and characteristics of a leader gives them a degree of power over others. Knowing how to use such power is what becomes important. Leadership and power can easily be taken advantage of. I have come across a particular situation within a camp I volunteer at that leadership has been abused.
French and Raven (1959) constructed the idea of the five bases of power. Reward, coercive, expert, referent, and legitimate are considered to be the bases of power that can help guide leadership. The first type of reward is the kind of power that has the capability of influencing another individual by in turn offering an enjoyable result. Coercive power is more negative with its influence due to reprimand. The next type of power is expert, which is influence by the idea of great knowledge or experience. Referent power is similar to expert power except instead of influence by knowledge, it is influence through approbation. Lastly, legitimate power is more literally with it’s influence through position within an organization. Each base individually can be seen as different types of leaders. Some more favorable than others. However, by combining some of these types of power, it can lead to a more favorable type of leadership.
The camp I volunteer at struggled to find a leader with an equal balance of these five bases of power. Because it is a children’s camp, it would not be beneficial to have a leader with that exhibit more coercive or legitimate power. All the volunteers work together as equals so there really is no legitimate power and we would not want to have a leader that is feared by the campers. Finding a balance of the remaining reward, expert, and referent power took time. As any other group, our camp volunteers went through developmental stages to find the right combination to make us all work together efficiently. Forming, storming, norming and performing all occurred in our group. Nothing can be perfect the first time or without putting effort into it. Teams function best when everyone contributes with their best.
Reference
PSU WC. (2014). PSYCH424: Lesson 6, Intergroup Relations. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su14/psych424/001/content/07_lesson/01_page.html
I’ve witnessed the unbalance of the 5 bases of power a lot in the military. The struggle is often with legitimate and expert. Often times a lower ranking officer is only an officer because they have a college degree prior to joining the military. They hold no experience on or off the field. Yet, because they are officers, they must be followed and respected by even the most senior enlisted member (enlisted meaning not an officer; Master Sergeant with years of experience, must follow an entry level officer’s command with only one year experience). Clearly no one leader is perfect. There is always room for improvement. But a balance must to be met in order to be a successful leader. Its good that your camp is able to come together, each compensating for the other’s possible lack of leadership trait.