Prepared by:

Ever Jean Javillo Instructor:

& Wilhelmina Esquivel
Frankie Manatiga Master in
management
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 Power
Most important and unyielding
condition of management.

Ability to influence and produce a

desired effect on other individuals
without having one's own behavior
modified in any undesired way by other
individuals.

Having no limits, except those

imposed by the situation.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, defined power

as control over organizational
resources.
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 Unfortunately, power can lead to exhibitionism. A
supervisor, for instance, can use power just to show that
power exists by perhaps unfairly punishing an employee.
This is an abuse of power and can easily be
counterproductive in the workplace. Nonetheless front-line
supervisors must have power and use it properly in order to
maintain organizational policies, procedures and
regulations. Without power, there can be no authority
and without authority there can be no discipline.
Finally without power, we would find it hard augmenting
productivity. Clearly, supervisors must recognize that power
can get things done.

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Power 7
SEVEN BASES OF POWER
1. 1.
Coercive Power
Coercive Power 4. Information Power

2. Affiliation Power 5. Expert Power

6. Referent Power
3. Legitimate Power

7. Reward Power

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1. Coercive Power

Supervisor clearly has

the ability to enforce
policies and procedures.

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2. Affiliation Power

Employees perceive supervisors have the right

affiliations or connections with influential
individuals to get things done more effectively
within the organization.

Press here

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3. Legitimate Power

Employees perceive that supervisors

have the right to make decisions
based solely on their title and
status.

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4. Information Power

Supervisor has access

to or at least
possesses useful
information.

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5. Expert Power

There is a popular perception among

employees that the supervisor should
have an adroit understanding of all
facets of the operations within his or her
area of responsibility. Subordinates, who
view their supervisor to be an expert, will be
more apt to be highly motivated and
therefore be very productive.

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6. Referent Power

This comes from the employee's perception

that the supervisor possesses positive
personality characteristics which
results in an effective supervisor-
subordinate relationship. Smart
supervisors, who know how to use referent
power, can create an atmosphere to
motivate workers to improve productivity.

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7. Reward Power

This comes from the

employee's perception that
the supervisor has the
ability to provide certain
rewards to those deserving
individuals.

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CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION

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 It's important for supervisors to recognize that
there are different power bases available.
Subconsciously we use most of them without ever
knowing or giving it another thought. As a matter of
fact, in the course of a business day, we can probably
use three or
four bases in different situations and never be aware
that we're doing it.

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 Now, we can be much more cognizant of them
which will only make us more effective front-line
supervisors of the people we manage. In turn, by
using power bases properly we can expect
improved quality of
work and improved productivity because the
power we have will be better utilized now. Finally,
power is perceived, we have power only when we
make others really believe we have power.

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 POWER IN ORGANIZATION

POWER IN ORGANIZATION

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Essentially, a manager needs to get
things done. In order to do this, a
manager needs to mobilize resources.
In order to mobilize resources, a
manager needs power.

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 Whenever an individual in an
organization starts out to accomplish
something, an informal power audit is a
very effective way to shape the required
action planning.

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By assessing where your personal power comes from,
and comparing it to the needs of your objective,
you are beginning to treat power as a resource over
which you have a degree of control. Rather than
accepting that ability to mobilize resources is
limited by your position in the hierarchy, you will
begin to see your formal rank as just one of the
sources of the power and energy you need to
accomplish your results.

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POWER AND AUTHORITY

POWER AND AUTHORITY

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The basic idea is that we have power over someone else
to the extent that we can get that person to do
something that otherwise they would not want to do.
That is, we can get someone to act in a way that they
consider to be contrary to their interests.

The most obvious source of power is control over

something of value to someone else. For example, an
important source of power for some managers is
control over bonuses, influence over promotion
decisions, and so on.

control
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Dahl’s definition of power implies that there is some
conflict of interest involved in power use.

So, power is more likely to be

used when there is
disagreement about goals.

Authority is a special form of power,

special in the sense that it implies
voluntary acquiescence on the part of
subordinates who recognize the
legitimate right of their superior to give
orders.
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It is important to know Weber’s contribution to our
understanding of authority. Weber identified three
forms of authority:

Traditional
Charismatic
Rational/legal

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Traditional authority is vested in someone by
virtue of tradition and custom. The most obvious
examples are royalty. They are considered to be able to
give orders (and have them obeyed) purely by virtue of
their “station in life,” and not as a result of any abilities
they might have.

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Charismatic authority is vested in someone by
virtue of their personality. A religious leader, for
example, might generate strong feelings of loyalty
and commitment among his or her followers. To
some extent, this is based on followers’ assessment
of the person’s abilities, so it might be thought to be
more “rational” than traditional authority. The
authority rests purely with the individual concerned.

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Rational/legal authority is that which Weber
associated with bureaucratic organizations. It
is vested in the holder of an office. An important
source of the legitimacy of the authority comes
from the way in which a person is selected for
office. For example, the legitimacy of the Prime
Minister derives from the democratic process by
which he or she is selected.

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CONTROL

CONTROL

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Control
Control is also sometimes used in a more general
sense, as in the expression “co-ordination and
control,” to mean general ability to direct and
organize the efforts of the workforce. Different
types of control have been identified:

1. Simple control

2. Technical control

3. Bureaucratic control

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Simple control

refers to control by straightforward direct

supervision. It is the sort of control you might
expect to find in a small factory. It is often
associated with the first factories of the industrial
revolution, and the ability to exercise such control
is thought by many to be a big advantage of the
factory system. Such control obviously implies the
use of power by supervisors.

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Technical control
refers to control that is imposed by the
technology used in a factory. For example, the
pace at which people must work on a production
line is determined in part by the speed at which
the line runs. The use of power here is more subtle,
but is nevertheless clearly in the hands of the
managers that control the technology.

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Bureaucratic Control

Bureaucratic control refers to control by means

of formal rules and regulations. Bureaucratic
organizations typically have large books of
rules which specify things like hours of work,
entitlement to time off under various
circumstances (e.g., annual leave, compassionate
leave, maternity leave, etc.), grievance
procedures, and so on.

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 POWER
VERSUS
AUTHORITY

Power vs. Authority

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POWER
Power is the ability to get things
done by others. The principle of
power is to punish and reward.
Power can exist with or without
authority

For instance an armed robber has power

but no authority. Steven Lukes states that
there are three dimensions of power,
decision, non decision making and
manipulating desires. 32
AUTHORITY
 

Authority is the power to

enforce law and take
command, and to
expect obedience from
those without
authority.
Authority can exist with or
without power, for example a
teacher has authority over the
pupils but no real power.
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Authority is basically the right to do
something whereas power is the ability to
do it or get it done, it can be said that
authority is a form of legitimate power.
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Power vs. Authority

Power: The ability to force Authority: The skill of

or coerce someone to do getting people to
your will, even if they willingly do your will
would choose not to, because of your personal
because of your position influence.
or your might...

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... Authority cannot be bought or sold, given or taken
away. Authority is about who you are as a person, your
character, and the influence you've built with people [it
is one's expression of one's self, which is treated
thoroughly by Warren Bennis in
On Becoming a Leader. ... power erodes relationships.
You can get a few seasons out of power, even
accomplish some things, but over time power can be
very damaging to relationships. ... there are times when
we must exercise power ... in firing a bad employee [for
example - but] we had to resort to power because our
authority had broken down [Watts Humphrey also
acknowledges the risks of power]."
Needless to say, good Leadership leads by authority and
not by power.
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“Anyone can become angry - that is
easy, but to be angry with the right
person at the right time, and for the
right purpose and in the right way -
that is not within everyone's power
and that is not easy.”
- Aristotle

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“Power is when you have every justification to
kill someone, and then you don't”.
- Oskar Shindler

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How to cite this article:

1. Title: Seven power bases and how to effectively use them.

Source: Supervision, Oct95, Vol. 56 Issue 10, p14, 3p, 2bw
Author(s): Bielous, Gary

 
2. Power In Organizations: A Way of Thinking About What
You’ve Got, and How to Use It
Version 2.0, 2001
Roelf Woldring, © Workplace Competence International
Limited, Hillsburgh, Ontario, Canada

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 y o u
a n k
Th n g! !
s t en i
for l i

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