4-1Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill/Irwin

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Power and Influence

“The true leader must submerge himself in the fountain of the people.”

~V.I. Lenin

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Some important distinctions

• Power has been defined as the capacity to produce effects on others, or the potential to influence others.

• Followers or situational characteristics may diminish or enhance a leader’s potential to influence followers.

• Power does not need to be exercised in order to have its effect.

• Power is attributed to others on the basis and frequency of influence tactics they use and on their outcomes.

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Power, Influence and Influence Tactics

• Influence: Defined as the change in a target agent’s attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors as the result of influence tactics.

• Influence tactics: Refer to one person’s actual behaviors designed to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs, values, or behaviors.

• Followers can wield power and influence over leaders as well as over each other.

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Measuring Power and Influence

• Influence can be measured by the behaviors or attitudes manifested by followers as a result of leader’s influence tactics.

• Leaders can cause fairly substantial changes in subordinates’ attitudes and behaviors.

• The amount of power followers have in work situations can also vary dramatically.

– Sometimes, particular followers may exert relatively more influence than the leader does.

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Measuring Power and Influence (continued)

• Individuals with a relatively large amount of power may successfully employ a wider variety of influence tactics.

• Followers often can use a wider variety of influence tactics than the leader.

– This is because the formal leader is not always the person who possesses the most power in a leadership situation.

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Symbols of Leader Power

• Furniture, office arrangements and type of office

• Prominently displayed symbols

• Appearances of title and authority

• Choice of clothing

• Presence or absence of crisis

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Sources of Leader Power in the Leader-Follower-Situation Framework

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Expert Power

• Expert power: Power of knowledge.

• Some people are able to influence others through their relative expertise in particular areas.

• If different followers have considerably greater amounts of expert power, the leader may be unable to influence them using expert power alone.

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Referent Power

• Referent power: Refers to the potential influence one has due to the strength of the relationship between the leader and the followers.

• Referent power often takes time to develop.

• The stronger the relationship, the more influence leaders and followers exert over each other.

• Followers with relatively more referent power than their peers are often spokespersons for their units.

– They generally have more latitude to deviate from work-unit norms.

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Legitimate Power

• Legitimate power: Depends on a person’s organizational role.

• Legitimate power allows exertion of influence through requests or demands deemed appropriate by virtue of role and position.

– Holding a position and being a leader are not synonymous.

• Effective leaders often intuitively realize they need more than legitimate power to be successful.

• It is also possible for followers to use their legitimate power to influence leaders.

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Reward Power

• Reward power: Involves the potential to influence others due to one’s control over desired resources.

• The potential to influence others through reward power is a joint function of the leader, the followers, and the situation.

• An overemphasis on rewards for performance can lead to resentment and feelings by workers of being manipulated.

• Extrinsic rewards may not have the same effects on behavior as intrinsic rewards.

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Cautions About Reward Power

• Leaders can enhance their ability to influence others based on reward power if they:

– Determine what rewards are available.

– Determine what rewards are valued by their subordinates.

– Establish clear policies for the equitable and consistent administration of rewards for good performance.

• Followers may exercise reward power over leaders by:

– Controlling administration of scarce resources.

– Modifying their level of effort.

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Coercive Power

• Coercive power: the potential to influence others through the administration of negative sanctions or the removal of positive events.

• Reliance on this power has inherent limitations and drawbacks.

• One of the most common forms of coercion is a superior’s temperamental outbursts.

• Followers can also use this power to influence their leader’s behavior.

– More likely to use this power when a relatively high amount of referent power exists among co-workers.

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Concluding thoughts about French and Raven’s Power Taxonomy

• Leaders can usually exert more power during a crisis than during periods of relative calm.

– During a crisis, followers may be more eager to receive direction and control from leaders.

• Research indicates that reliance on referent and expert power led to employees who were:

– More motivated

– More satisfied

– Were absent less

– Performed better

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Four Generalizations About Power and Influence

• Effective leaders typically take advantage of all their sources of power.

• Leaders in well-functioning organizations are open to being influenced by their subordinates.

• Leaders vary in the extent to which they share power with subordinates.

• Effective leaders generally work to increase their various power bases or become more willing to use their coercive power.

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Leader Motives

• People vary in their motivation to influence or control others.

• Two different ways of expressing the need for power:

– Personalized power

– Socialized power

• Thematic Apperception Tests have been used to assess the need for power.

– It is a projective personality test.

• Need for power is found to be positively related to various leadership effectiveness criteria.

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Leader Motives (continued)

• Leaders who are relatively uninhibited in their need for power will use power impulsively.

• Leaders with a high need for power but low activity inhibition may be successful in the short term, but create hazards for the long-term.

• Some followers have a high need for power too.

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Motivation to Manage

• Individuals vary in their motivation to manage in terms of six composites:– Maintaining good relationships with authority

figures.

– Wanting to compete for recognition and advancement.

– Being active and assertive.

– Wanting to exercise influence over subordinates.

– Being visibly different from followers.

– Being willing to do routine administrative tasks.

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Miner’s Sentence Completion Scale

• Findings concerning both the need for power and the motivation to manage have several implications:

– Not all individuals like being leaders.

– A high need for power or motivation to manage does not guarantee leadership success.

– In order to be successful in the long term, leaders may have to have both:

• A high need for socialized power.

• A high level of activity inhibition.

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Types of Influence Tactics

• Influence Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) assesses nine types of influence tactics:

– Rational persuasion

– Inspirational appeals

– Consultation

– Ingratiation

– Personal appeals

– Exchange

– Coalition tactics

– Pressure tactics

– Legitimizing tactics

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Influence Tactics and Power

• A strong relationship exists between relative power and types of influence tactics used.

• Hard tactics are typically used when:

– An influencer has the upper hand.

– Resistance is anticipated.

– When a person’s behavior violates important norms.

• Soft tactics are typically used when:

– They are at a disadvantage.

– They expect resistance.

– They will personally benefit if the attempt is successful.

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Influence Tactics and Power (continued)

• Rational tactics are typically used when:

– Parties are relatively equal in power.

– Resistance is not anticipated.

– Benefits are organizational as well as personal.

• Leaders with high referent power generally do not use legitimizing or pressure tactics.

• Leaders with only coercive or legitimate power may use only coalition, legitimizing, or pressure tactics.

• Using influence tactics can be thought of as a social skill.

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A Concluding Thought about Influence Tactics

• Research indicates that though hard tactics are effective, it also changes the way we see others.

• An implicit lesson for leaders is of being conscious of the type of influence tactic to use and its effects.

– It is suggested that leaders pay attention to why they believe particular influence tactics are called for.

• Influence efforts intended to build others up more frequently lead to positive outcomes rather than vice versa.

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Summary

• By reflecting on their different bases of power, leaders may better understand how they can affect followers and even expand their power.

• Leaders can improve their effectiveness by finding ways to enhance their idiosyncratic credit.

• Leaders should discourage in-group and out-group rivalries to develop in the work unit.

• The exercise of power occurs primarily through the influence tactics leaders and followers use.

• Leadership practitioners should always consider why they are using a particular influence attempt before they actually use it.