I am sure everyone reading this can think of at least one leader or manager who has used their legitimate power as a base to influence you or their followers. Legitimate power is the power that a leader has because he or she occupies a particular role in an organization (Hughes, 1993). Most leaders and managers have this form of power because they occupy a particular role, but it doesn’t mean that it has to be used as a base for their influence. One thing a leader or manager has to watch out for when he or she is using legitimate power as a base to influence others is that the followers can also use legitimate power to influence the leader. They can do this by doing only exactly what is spelled out in their job descriptions and nothing more (Hughes, 1993). This could lead to a less productive team then if the leader or manager were to use another base of power for their influence.
I had a leader who did exactly what I described above. This leader or, as I like to call him, non-leader used his legitimate power as a base to influence me and my team. Unfortunately for everyone, we were less productive because we did not want to go above and beyond the call of duty for this leader. In addition to his legitimate power, he also used coercive power to influence us by trying to intimidate us and threaten our jobs if we did not do what he wanted. The tactics that he used were only pressure and legitimizing tactics, which really should only be used when rules are broken or resistance is anticipated (PSU, WC, 2016). According to our lesson commentary, “leaders should pay attention to how they are influencing others and to why they believe such methods are called for” (PSU, WC, 2016, p. 6). This is not to say that there isn’t a time and place to use both legitimizing and coercive tactics, but to only use those two can be detrimental to the group’s performance.
It is important for leaders like this leader to know that their power only gives them the capacity to influence others and the effectiveness of their influence will depend greatly on the influence tactics that they use (PSU, WC, 2016). If my leader worked to build a relationship with me and the other members of my team, he would be able to use referent power with tactics such as ingratiation and personal appeals which get people in a good mood and ask for favors (PSU, WC, 2016). These two tactics would have influenced me and my team to work harder for our leader and go above and beyond what our job descriptions stated. My leader could have also used reward power after he developed more of a relationship with us and found out what motivated us. The influence tactics of ingratiation, personal appeals, exchange, and others that are intended to build people up will lead to positive results as opposed to the pressure and legitimizing tactics that my leader was using (PSU, WC, 2016). These negative tactics put people down and are less effective than the tactics that build people up.
I concluded that my leader does not have a disability to build quality relationships with his followers, rather he is motivated by personal power. This is why he is selfish and out for his own needs rather than the needs of his others (PSU, WC, 2016). With some coaching and training, I think that he will be able to learn how to influence others using some of the other bases of power and influence tactics. According to Hughes (1993) using influence tactics to modify a follower’s behavior and attitudes while building up their self-esteem and self-confidence is not an easy task, rather it is something that a leader needs to work hard to master.
In conclusion, my leader was not really a leader. He was a manager in a position of power who used his position of power (legitimate power) and coercion (coercive power) to influence me and my team. A true leader would find a way to use all of the bases of power along with the appropriate influence tactics, depending on the situation, to change the behavior of his or her followers. Being in a position of legitimate power is a great thing because you can have the eyes and ears of many people, but it is most important that you act in a way that considers the emotions and feeling of others while you influence their behaviors and attitudes.
References:
Penn State World Campus (2016). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings. Lesson 7: Power and Influence. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/fa16/21681–13148/content/07_lesson/printlesson.html
Hughes, Richard, et al. (1993). Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. Homewood, IL. Irwin. 0256102783. Ch. 5. pp. 107-131. Retrieved from: http://alias.libraries.psu.edu/eresources/proxy/login?url=http://reserve.libraries.psu.edu/psych/485/48501.pdf