Influencing Group Communication In companies there are always going to be managers, and no two managers are the same. They each have their own leadership style, and their own way of getting things done. One thing that managers all have in common is that they hold some form of power over the people underneath them. Last week these forms of power, the 5 power bases, were introduced and discussed. These bases of power are referring to the way in which managers, or leaders, use to influence the people underneath them to get their work done. The 5 bases of power are divided into Formal which includes coercive, reward and legitimate power, while the other is Personal power, expert and referent. The first power, reward, means exactly what it states. It is reliant on the ability of the manager or leader to be able to reward the employees. In some businesses managers set up incentive programs to get their employees to perform better, or to each achieve better sales numbers. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the reward has to be monetary or even tangible. Most companies already use this base of power when they incorporate things like Employee of the Month, or boards that show who outstanding employees are for that month, or quarter. I know that this base of power would be highly effective in my company because the people at my company are highly competitive and they would love to have the chance to be spotlighted. With coercive power managers use the exact opposite of reward. They get their employees to do their work and stick to company procedures with threats of some kind of punishments. For example, companies that are incredibly strict use this in the forms of write ups. After a certain amount of write ups a manager can fire an employee without further notice. This isn’t as effective to me because it creates a tense environment where employees become tense, or dread