I was watching 60 minutes last night and was enthralled by the piece on Kim Jong-Un, the mysterious supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. I don’t know much about Kim, but in my little bit of research, it looks as though Kim was handed down power through appointment by his late father, but doesn’t seem to have the influence to go along with the power. Leading me to believe that power and influence are not one in the same, especially in this case. Just because one wields power, doesn’t mean that they have influence as well.
According to the text (2017), “Power is the capacity to cause change and influence is the degree of actual change in attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors”. (PSU WC, pg.1) The ways in which leaders change these values, attitudes, behaviors and beliefs is through the use of influence tactics. (PSU WC, 2017) As previously noted, Kim’s source of power was given to him by his father’s appointment, and he has not gotten it from his followers. He certainly has the capacity to cause change, and has done so by executing and removing many senior officials, and has even killed two of his top advisors, his uncle and his brother. (Biography.com, 2017)
This is a show of two bases of power- his legitimate power and his coercive power. The legitimate power is that which he was assigned as the authority figure of North Korea, and his coercive power is his ability to control others through fear. (PSU WC, 2017) Through these flexes of power, Kim has failed to change his peoples’ values and attitudes. They go along with his agenda for fear of the certainty of retaliation which ultimately could mean their death.
Kim’s motives seem to be based on a need for power. More importantly his need for personalized power. He has such a penchant for power that he created his own time zone citing he was “throwing off a hated vestige of colonial domination” (Sang-Hun, 2015) by the Japanese Imperialists. Kim has a high need for personalized power and is the epitome of everything that it embodies such as selfishness, impulsive behavior, and an uninhibited lack of self-control. (PSU WC 2017) Rather than use inspirational appeals for influence tactics and create enthusiasm, he uses legitimizing and pressure tactics. He uses his position of authority and threats to carry out his influence. (PSU WC, 2017)
Kim Jong-Un doesn’t have referent-influential power, but rather has coercive power with little influence at all. There are a couple things his iron fist style can teach us about leadership. What not to do when trying to motivate and influence, and just because one has power, doesn’t necessarily mean he has influence. The two terms are definitely not synonymous.
Thank you for clearing that up Kim Jong-Un.
Biography.com Editors. (2017). Kim Jong-un Biography retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/kim-jong-un-21125351
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2017). PSYCH 485: Lesson 6: Contingency and Path Theories. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1834746/modules/items/21755148
Sang-Hun, C. (2015). North Korea to Move 30 Minutes Backward to Create Its Own Time Zone retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/world/asia/north-korea-time-zone.html?_r=0
I totally agree with your post. Just because you “power does not mean that you have influence”, Kim has legitimate power, such is described in the lesson as a type leader that has this power because he or she is in a “role”. As you mentioned, he got the leadership “role” from his father. But one thing to keep in mind is that just because he got the role does not mean he also got the followers that his dad once had. As you mentioned, influence is the degree of actual change in attitudes, values, beliefs etc. If his dad’s once followers, do not now believe in Kim’s ways of doing things, beliefs or values etc. then he will be unable to change or affect the followers like his dad once had. If I am not mistaken, I think I recently read that there was a movie done about this “leader” and it was not praising him at all. Sounds to me, this man needs a lot to improve. Talking about that, do you think that he can change his ways and become a successful leader and actually be influential? Or do you think he is far too into it to change his ways?
From what I gather Kim has legitimate power. He holds a very important title as the leader of his country (Richard, 1993). Kim influences his people through demands that are backed up by his legitimate power. He only has authority because of his position that was appointed by his father (Richard, 1993). Good leaders know that in order to effectively lead they need more than legitimate power something that Kim is yet to discover (Richard, 1993). However, having legitimate power does not equate to good leadership (Richard, 1993). As you mentioned Kim also uses coercive power along with his legitimate power. You also mentioned that he resorts to using legitimizing and pressure tactics, which can be deemed hard tactics (Richard, 1993). He relies heavily on these tactics, which are detrimental to the way we see others (Richard, 1993). Leaders that are more authoritarian tend to not recognize their followers good work (Richard, 1993). Which in turn causes leaders to continue their use of hard tactics (Richard, 1993). Even when good results are produced they aren’t recognized (Richard, 1993). This turns into a vicious cycle of not recognizing good work followed by using hard tactics over an over again (Richard, 1993).
Works Cited
Richard, H. (1993). Power and Influence. In H. Richard, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (p. 24). Homewood: Irwin.