Various sources of power were first introduced in an organised way by French and Raven (1959) which are legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent powers. Hersey and Blanchard (1982) further expanded it with additional two bases: connection and information. Till todays powers are separated into two groups which are personal power that stems from personal characteristics (expertise, personal attraction, effort and legitimacy) and position power obtained from the nature of one’s position (centrality, flexibility, visibility and relevance) (Whetten & Cameron, 2011).
From the team setting provided, the six roles can be divided into two groups; surgeon, general practitioner and radiographer in one (high-ranking) and theater nurse, ward nurse and ward clerk in another group (low-ranking). Generally high-ranking personnel have more authority (formal power) than lower-ranking personnel (Mechanic, 1962). As such sources of power for surgeon, general practitioner and radiographer are mainly coming from the personal power group; their professional qualification background-expertise power, effort power where they have to be responsible on patients’ condition and expectations from others, plus legitimate power that they possess to save lives which is congruent with health care system objectives.
Oppositely, the lower-ranking group (theater nurse, ward nurse and ward clerk) obtains much of its power in the form of positional power. The group’s broad network of both vertically and horizontally in tasks and interpersonal relationships provides great centrality power by having access to information. Furthermore, the famous Doctor-Nurse Game by Stein (1967) shows that flexibility and visibility are another two main sources of power resulting from the dependency of high-ranking on low-ranking groups. These two powers are well illustrated when nurse provides recommendation or