According to Bass (1981 as cited in Hinkin & Schriesheim, 1990), power can be defined as “the inferred potential of one person (the agent) to cause another person (the target) to act in accordance with the agent’s wishes” (p.222). As such, power is considered to be a communicative function of the leader and the followers coupled with the complexity of any given situation (Hughes et al., 1993). In other words, both the leader and the followers have some capacity to influence each other’s behavior and attitudes; a notion that emphasizes the role of power as the antecedent of leadership development as well as its wide acceptance. Interestingly, while in his early observations, Lewin (1941 as cited in Bruins, 1999) argued that power implied the possibility of inducing force on another person, in the later years, Gardner (1986 as cited in Hughes et al., 1993) suggested that “power does not need to be exercised in order to have its effect […]” (p.108). Therefore, we can view the power not only as a construct that is highly dependent on perceptions but also as one that is often communicated by non-verbal signs and symbols.
As Hughes et al. (1993) point out, power can sometimes be communicated via relatively trivial expressions in personal appearance (e.g. individual’s height or clothing choice) or environmental factors (e.g. the location of one’s office). However, oftentimes the most immediate source of legitimate power comes from the individual’s assigned role within an organization that happens to carry a certain title, While such power usually implies a certain level of authority, “holding a position and being a leader are not synonymous” (Hughes et al., 1993, p.116). In fact, my current position allowed me to witness an interesting example of a new leader stepping in about two years ago. The individual in question was doomed from the beginning as he was coming in to a very tightly-knit group of people, where one of the subordinates was already well respected and thus exhibited a great degree of referent power (Hughes et al., 1993). According to French and Raven’s (1959 as cited in Hughes et al., 1993) classification, referent power arises due to the “strength of the relationship between the leader and the followers” (p.114). In this example, the subordinate did serve as an informal leader and was not only intellectually and behaviorally but also physically quite different from the assigned leader. Not surprisingly, the incoming leader faced an immediate wall of resentment and mistrust, which was based on the mere fact of him not fitting the existing model of leadership. To compensate for this lack of power, the assigned leader initially relied heavily on the reward and coercive powers that can be described as “the agent’s ability to bestow on the target positive and negative outcomes, respectively” (Bruins, 1999, p. 9).
Unfortunately, as research suggests using rewards or punishments can only obtain public compliance without any privately held beliefs, attitudes, of values being meaningfully changed (Bruins, 1999, p.9). While the very legitimacy of my new supervisor’s role increased the private obligation to accept his leadership, the pervasiveness of the accepted informal leader’s influence was hard to overstate. In many ways, factors ranging from the new leader’s physical appearance to his unrelated experience to the current job greatly jeopardized his followers’ ability to identify with him. Furthermore, his lack of immediate experience in the given field served as yet another blow to his image via diminished expert power, normally assigned to those who exhibit “relative expertise in particular areas” (Hughes et al., 1993, p. 113). Yet, it was this individual’s ability to consider the knowledge and experience of others that allowed him to gain more respect as time went by. As Hughes et al., (1993) observe, due to their immediate roles within the organization some followers inherently possess more expert power than leaders. Therefore, it is crucial for any incoming leader to be able to communicate and learn from their own followers while trying to improve upon their own expertise. I would argue that exhibiting such open-mindedness as an initial behavior in one’s leadership development not only seeks to establish positive relationships with the followers by acknowledging their experience, but also allows the leader to reach a much-needed level of referent power. Put differently, by reaching out to the followers for advice and knowledge transfer a leader can build connections necessary to be accepted and ultimately respected by others.
Even my limited exposure to real-life leadership situations highlights the fact that leadership development is a dynamic and multi-faceted process that might not have clear cut courses of action. At the same time, my intuition followed by research-based observations suggests that the best leaders are often utilizing different sources of power as the key influencers of followers’ commitment and motivation (Hughes et al., 1993). Therefore, we can view leadership emergence as an opportunity for the individuals to mediate the effects of initial perceptions by utilizing a wide variety of communicative tools that would in turn enhance the relationships between the leaders and their followers. Drawing from this argument, we can conclude that leadership is indeed a complex construct built upon the interrelations between the leader, the followers, and the situation.
References
Bruins, J. (1999). Social power and influence tactics: A theoretical introduction. Journal of social issues, 55(1), 7-14.
Hinkin, T. R., & Schriesheim, C. A. (1990). Relationships between subordinate perceptions of supervisor influence tactics and attributed bases of supervisory power. Human Relations, 43(3), 221-237.
Hughes, R. et al. (1993). Power and influence. Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience (pp. 107-131). Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.
Ronald Michael Gray says
This is a strong post that truly emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the leader, the follower and the circumstance. I feel although Hughes et al. mentions this multiple times in the chapter reading, I do not feel that the authors stress this point as strongly as I would have preferred nor did I feel that they offered examples that would help us to better understand this concept. Your example of a leader changing departments and relying initially on rewards and coercion as their primary power during their takeover sheds some very interesting light on the application of power and influence. In many ways it seems that leaders such as this rely more on a trial and error methodology for sourcing the type of power and influence required rather than understanding the entire concept. For instance offering rewards can be useful, but not understanding your subordinates and not knowing if such rewards would offer a widespread acceptance can make this type of power a moot point. From personal experience as well as our reading assignment I know that rewards are rarely equal across the various groups in an organization and also that they do not have the same influence for each individual (Hughes, Richard et al., 1993, p. 117). Understanding the importance of the relationship between leader, follower and circumstance affords leaders with the best opportunity to fine tune their selection of power and influence tactics to give them the best opportunity for success. To rely on trial and error could place a leader in a predicament for which they inevitably could not succeed and spiral the entire group into dysfunction. Teaching organizational leaders the fundamental political skills and enabling them to recognize which power and influence perspective would be most appropriate and effective would lead to an improved core of leaders and a satisfied workforce (The Ken Blanchard Companies, 2016).
Works Cited
Hughes, Richard et al. (1993). Power and Influence. Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. Homewood, IL.: Irwin.
The Ken Blanchard Companies. (2016). Blanchard International. Retrieved from Leader Power and Its Impact: https://www.blanchardnederland.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Leadership-and-Power-Perspectives-MK0820.pdf