Reference no: EM133091331

Sources of Power Authorities and partisans both have many potential sources of power. A number of social scientists (Baldridge, 1971; French and Raven, 1959; Kanter, 1977; Mann, 1986; Pfeffer, 1981, 1992; Russ, 1994) have tried to identify the various wellsprings of power. The list includes:

• Position power (authority). Positions confer certain levels of legitimate authority. Professors assign grades; judges settle disputes. Positions also place incumbents in more or less powerful locations in communications and power networks. It is as helpful to be in the right unit as it is to hold the right job. A lofty title in a backwater department may not carry much weight, but junior members of a powerful unit may have substantial clout (Pfeffer, 1992).
• Control of rewards. The ability to deliver jobs, money, political support, or other rewards brings power. Political bosses and tribal chiefs, among others, cement their power base by delivering services and jobs to loyal supporters (Mihalopoulos and Kimberly, 2006).
• Coercive power. Coercive power rests on the ability to constrain, block, interfere, or punish. A union's ability to walk out, students' capacity to sit in, and an army's ability to clamp down exemplify coercive power. A chilling example is the rise of suicide attacks in recent decades from about three a year worldwide in the 1980s to about one a day in 2016 (Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, 2016). They were only about 3 percent of terror incidents but accounted for almost half the fatalities (Pape, 2006, p. 4).
• Information and expertise. Power flows to those with the information and know-how to solve important problems. It flows to marketing experts in consumer products industries, to the faculty in elite universities, and to political consultants who help politicians get elected.
• Reputation. Reputation builds on expertise. In almost any field, people develop records of accomplishment based on their prior performance. Opportunities and influence flow to people with strong reputations, like the Hollywood superstars whose presence in a film sells tickets. Boivie, Graffin, and Gentry (2016) found that the reputation of the analyst, the CEO, and the firm all influenced how a firm's stock price changed in response to a buy or sell recommendation from a Wall Street analyst.
• Alliances and networks. Getting things done in an organization involves working through a complex network of individuals and groups. Friends and allies make things a lot easier. Kotter (1982) found that a key difference between more and less successful senior managers was attentiveness to building and cultivating ties with friends and allies. Managers who spent too little time building networks had much more difficulty getting things done.
• Access and control of agendas. Organizations and political systems typically give some individuals and groups more access than others to decision arenas. When decisions are made, the interests of those with "a seat at the table" are well represented, while the concerns of absentees are often distorted or ignored (Lukes, 1974; Brown, 1986). Access often comes at a price. Shani and Westphal (2016) found that journalists who wrote negative stories about a firm's leadership soon found that CEOs from other firms stopped taking their calls. Because the journalists needed access to do their jobs, they tilted toward more flattering articles about corporate leaders.
• Framing. Control of meaning and symbols is what Mann (1986, 2013) refers to as ideological power. "Establishing the framework within which issues will be viewed and decided is often tantamount to determining the result" (Pfeffer, 1992, p. 203). Elites and opinion leaders often have substantial ability to shape meaning and articulate myths that express identity, beliefs, and values. Viewed positively, this fosters meaning and hope. Viewed cynically, elites can convince others to accept and support things not in their best interests (Brown, 1986; Lakoff, 2004). Lakoff argued that Republican electoral success in 2000 and 2004 owed much to skill in framing issues-recasting, for example, the "estate tax" (which sounds like a tax on the rich) into the "death tax" (which sounds like adding insult to injury).
• Personal power. Individuals who are attractive and socially adept-because of charisma, energy, stamina, political smarts, gift of gab, vision, or other characteristics-are imbued with power independent of other sources. French and Raven (1959) used the term referent power to describe influence that comes when people like you or want to be like you. John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan expanded their influence because they brought levels of charm, humor, and ease that Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush lacked.

Questions:

Select two of the nine sources of political power listed in the reading and discuss how you have seen these sources of power demonstrated in the workplace. Note: Do NOT define or explain the sources of power.