...n one of the few in-depth treatments of power in conflict situations, Hubert M. Blalock begins by acknowledging something most of us know but rarely state: "The concept of power is both exceedingly slippery to pin down and yet indispensable in enabling one to analyze...."[1] Having defined power, as in physics, as having both potential and kinetic forms, he opts for the latter usage alone in his text. That is, he acknowledges power as both the capacity of an individual or group to accomplish something, and the actual doing of something, but he limits his discussion to "actions actually accomplished." Additional insights into understanding power are offered by Beyond Intractability project participants. This has two advantages. First, it dovetails with how most of us think about power most of the time. Second, it is easier to quantify. It is much easier to measure something that has occurred than something that is a possibility. An actual occurrence is a fact that can be checked. There may be disagreement on the sources of its occurrence, but the argument about its occurrence is likely to be short-lived if adequate facts can be brought to bear. If one side has won in a disagreement (in that it has gotten the other to do something it wanted), we have prima facie evidence that the first is more powerful -- or at least has exerted more power -- than the second. Since concerns of relative power are important in conflicts, it is helpful to have a clear picture of who has...
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...How much position and personnel power do leaders need to be effective? Power has been the subject of much research. The purpose of this essay is to establish how much power leaders need to be effective. Although effective leaders rely more on personal power than on position power, some position is important in order to get the job done. The amount and type of power required depends on the situation, whether the influence is upward, downward or lateral, whether goal congruence exists, the size and make-up of the group as well as the targeted outcome (compliance or commitment). Too much position power should be avoided as it can lead to abuse of the power and hence negative outcomes, yet too little position power will limit a leader from being effective. Also research has found complex interrelations between power bases. Effective leaders need a moderate amount of position power to make decisions, implement changes and punish ongoing belligerent behaviour and they need fairly high level personal power to create relationships, trust and respect and persuade target persons of the benefits of undertaking a task or project and therefore obtain commitment rather than simple compliance. While effective leaders have great skills in influencing target persons, they must also be receptive to influence from others. Leadership is about influencing people to achieve the objectives and goals of the organisation, tasks or projects. Effective leaders influence subordinates to carry out their...
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...Power Jedidiah Houser Harding University Abstract This paper is on the topic of Power. The paper starts with an overview of my observations about power and establishes the uses of legitimate, reward, expert, referent, and coercive power. This paper uses examples and observations from my life as well as from selected sources of reading to define the types of power discussed. In reading this you should obtain a base understanding of the above listed powers and their shaping ability, characteristics and uses as found in our daily lives as well as in the workplace. Power Power What a word. Its meanings, uses, connotations, actions, repercussions, influence, and voids can be seen or at least rationalized into every aspect of our psychology, our being, our planet, our solar system, our universe. How far does power go? Is it simply in a state of yin and yang in every facet of our lives, only to become more influential when we choose to be aware of it and harness its potential? How do we perceive, understand and use power? How do we measure others use of power and the impact it has in our lives? Power in all its forms, shape, sizes and degrees can be observed affecting and influencing us since the day we were born. Everyone’s first experience was with the power of gravity, gravity kicks in and plop there we are. From that point on we are all exposed to a multitude of degrees and forms of power, shaping and molding us all along the way. For me personally, I remember very...
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...Influence is the essence of leadership. To be effective as a leader, it is necessary to influence people to carry out requests, support proposals, and implement decisions. Power- The concept of "power" is useful for understanding how people are able to influence each other in organizations. Power involves the capacity of one party (the "agent") to influence another party (the "target"). Authority involves the rights, obligations, and duties associated with particular positions in an organization or social system. A leader with direct authority over a target person has the right to make requests consistent with this authority, and the target person has the duty to obey. Outcomes of Influence Attempts One useful basis for evaluating the success of an influence attempt is whether the immediate outcome is what the agent intended. Commitment -The term commitment describes an outcome in which the target person internally agrees with a decision or request from the agent and makes a great effort to carry out the request or implement the decision effectively. Compliance- The term compliance describes an outcome in which the target is willing to do what the agent asks but will make only a minimal effort. Resistance- The term resistance describes an outcome in which the target person is opposed to the proposal or request, and actively tries to avoid carrying it out. Influence Processes The explanation for the influence of one person on another involves the motives and perceptions...
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... 6 October 2014 Power Every day people see “power” around themselves. When they go to work or school, when they walk into their classrooms, auditoriums, or offices, the first that they encounter is power. Power is everywhere. Power permeates every piece of the Earth. Power is on the radio and television, in your heart and thoughts. The definition of power is controversial because power is a loose concept that includes material and mental aspects. Commonly, people believe that power is connections, a successful career, and money. As a matter of fact, it is correct. Knowing “right people”, in most of cases, eventually leads to quick getting up the career ladder. It goes without saying that the higher position you take the more money you make, and money is a factor in many things that happen. People who have money also have certainty and confidence in their present and future life. Indeed, families with money can afford living in safe and nice neighborhoods without having to worry about being robbed or killed every day. Besides, they can meet the expenses of education, thus they have bigger chances of getting in prestigious universities even than people who has ever had only “A”. Also, the rich can see all the beauty of the world because there are no financial issues that would interfere with their traveling and visiting any place of our planet. All these factors give them distinct control over their lives and, as a result, power. Mental power, by some believes, is even...
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...Social Power and Dimensions of Power An essential part of management is influencing others to do their jobs well and achieve the organization goal. The influence of a manager depends on a variety of factors, and power is one of the factors that managers must know about it. Managers need to know different types of power that influence others to manage an organization. Power is crucial in the development of managers’ self confidence and willingness to support subordinates. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the major types of power that managers need to know, and to define the bases for classifying power in an organization such as that presented by John French and Bertram Raven. The authors have identified five distinct bases of power that will be elaborated on: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent. Social Power The processes of power are pervasive, complex, and disguised in our society. Power can be defined in social science and politics as the ability to influence an individual’s behavior. Power is the ability to exercise influence (French and Raven, 1960). It is a tool that can lead to either positive or negative outcomes in an organization. In social psychology, it is usually defined in relational terms, and is called social power. Social power is defined as a capacity to modify others’ positions by providing resources or managing consequences. Recourse can be both material such as food, money, and economic opportunity and social such as knowledge...
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...The Controversial Affects of Power Power is one of the most important factors that affects a person decision's making and how they view their ideals. Thus, power has long been debated whether it corrupts people or emphasizes pre-existing personality traits and moral values. Power can be categorized into socialized and personalized power, with one leading to the other which is called mutualized power. (Source E) However, the lure of personalized power usually dominates an individual's mind even if they initially sought to emphasize socialized power since power can overwhelm a person's mind with thoughts of greed and selfishness. The same principle applies to how power affects a person's moral identity, it overwhelms the person's mind with these...
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...Referent Power Information Expertise Expert Power Any individual person who has an expertise that is highly valued possesses expert power. Experts have power even though their status might be regarded as being low. An person may have expert knowledge about technical, administrative, or personal matters. The harder it becomes to replace an expert; the higher becomes the degree of expert power that they possess. Expert power is occasionally called information power and is frequently a personal trait of the individual. A personal assistant for example, who has lower status in the organisation may also possess a degree of high expert power because they have extensive knowledge of how the business operates such as knowing where everything is located or are able to deal with difficult situations. Lewicki et al. (1985:249) states that people and countries will act sensibly when they have used up all other available possibilities. In any negotiation situation, expert power is the most standard type of power that is applied. Expert power consists of the persuasive nature of the information itself. It pertains to the amassing of information and how it is presented and is used with the intent of changing of how a counter party views the issues. It is the contention of Lewicki et al. (1985:251) that expert power is a unique kind of information power. Information power can be applied by any individual who has studied and prepared their position prior to the start of a negotiation...
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...Sources of Power by Roberta D. Harris An Assignment Submitted to the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Economics in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course of Management 5670 Webster University 2013 Abstract One of the highest concerns about power is its effects on those who use it. The more people use power, the more they tend to notice situations in terms of power relationships, the more they are motivated to use power for their own personal end result. This risk in this use of power is stated in the statement “Power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lynch, 1985) Plato was convinced that power would continue to corrupt unless philosophers became rulers and rulers were philosophers. The five bases of power defined by French and Raven denote the classical reason why one person influences others as well as the foundation for most research on power. Recently, other sources of power have been defined, explaining other sources of influence. I discussed the five indicators for accessing power and identified the five sources of social power which includes reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power and expert power. (Frenche & Raven, 1968) Additionally, I discussed other sources of power such as information power, persuasiveness, charisma, and social versus personal power. Keywords: power, indicators, reward, coercive, legitimate, referent,...
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...Molly Wilder Professor Barros FYS: Revised essay 1 October 5, 2011 Silence is Power It was a beautiful Sunday morning and the entire church of St. Louis in Batesville, Indiana, was full. There was nothing unusual about the Catholic mass that day—the congregation was alive, music echoed triumphantly, and the sermon was enthusiastic and thought provoking for all. Everything went as it typically does until the end when it was time for the weekly announcements. Instead of news about an upcoming fish fry or a congratulations message for a recently baptized newborn baby in the parish, one of our priests, Father Stephen, came out of the vestibule to the podium. He had recently been “demoted” in his role at the parish, but no one would have expected the extent to which his bitter words would be revealed to the congregation. Father Stephen stood at the podium on the altar while giving his speech of resignation from the parish. It was clear that he was frustrated and annoyed at his recent demotion, and he portrayed this dissatisfaction through a harsh speech. The purpose of this essay is to examine the discourse of the priest’s speech. I will discuss its passionate nature and its brevity--how the speaker conceals information from the listeners and what this means. We will use this evidence to argue how silence demonstrates more power than the actual power the priest possesses. * 1 2 3 1 2 3 “Over the past 25 years of my Priestly ordination and service, I have never...
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...Experience Zhiguo Li Indiana University South Bend Abstract Power abuse happens a lot in our society. As the most powerful members in a family, parents always make the choice for kids or impose their thought to kids. In Rodriguez early life, he had a very bad experience for being a dark skin Mexican. His mother would get angry and yell at him if he doesn’t take care of his skin. His mother also tried to prevent him from either labor or lower class out of her purpose. Rodriguez experience showed Broody’s theory are well seen even in family. People who have power usually don’t realize the power they have and abuse it for their own purpose. After analysis what happened to Rodriguez, it alarming people that be aware of the others power and always think about it instead of fully trust to avoid being a victim of power abuse. Key terms: Power abuse, Experience, Purpose. People come to the world as a baby with no experience and knowledge. As they growing up, they will be told a lot from their parents, teachers, friends, or experts in a specific field. Parents tell them what to do, teachers teach them which is right, and friends tell them what is good for them. In Broody’s theory, power abuse happens in medical area. Experts use their medical knowledge give patient advice, but sometimes it’s not necessary, sometimes just because it’s good for physician themselves. Broody, the writer of “The Social Power of Expert Healers” talked about Opal case and the Bakers case to explain...
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...Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 49, No. 4 , 1993. pp. 227-251 The Bases of Power: Origins and Recent Developments Bertram H. Raven University of California, Los Angeles The history and background of the analysis of the basis of power is examined, beginning with its origins in the works of Kurt Lewin and his followers at the Research Center for Group Dynamics, particularly the early research by John R. P. French. The original French and Raven (1959) bases of power model posited six bases of power: reward, coercion, legitimate, expert, referent, and informational (or persuasion; Raven, 1965). Since then, as the result of considerable research, the model has gone through signiJicant developments. A more comprehensive model is presented here that reviews the following: various motivations of the influencing agent; an assessment of available power bases in terms of potential effectiveness, time perspective, personal preferences, values and norms; consideration of other strategies such as manipulation; utilization of various preparatory and stage-setting devices to strengthen olte’s power resources; implementation of the power strategies; assessment of effectiveness of influence attempt and its positive andl or negative aftereffects; use of various ameliorative devices; and review, reconsideration, and another round of influence strategies. The overall model is examined in terms of its applicability to various settings including hospital infection control, patient compliance...
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...Does Disciplinary Power enforce good or bad behaviour from students in York University Accommodation? Introduction When looking at Foucault’s concept of disciplinary power, we looked at our own expectations compared with our actual experiences of living in university run accommodation. With most students coming to university, it is the first time that they will live on ‘their own’, without the rules and restrictions that they had when living at home with their parents, therefore a degree of freedom and independence was expected. However, we noticed that our actions were restricted by the rules imposed on us due to the acceptance of the university run accommodation. From our own experiences, we witnessed students displaying bad behavioural characteristics through resistance. This led our group to investigate the impact that the rules have on students’ behaviours and the universities use of disciplinary power to ‘control’ students’ behaviour. We also wanted to determine from the student’s perspective, the impact these controls had on their behaviour. Methodology There has been a lot of research conducted to study the behaviours of students and their resistance to authority, however they were not written in the students’ perspective. By investigating the behaviours of students from their perspective, it allows us to have a more accurate account of their experiences and the impact that the university’s restrictions has on them. It also enables us to determine why students either...
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...After watching the tutorials at the end of our lecture, I have found that there are more types of power then I thought of previously. Some of these seem to be effective, while others seem to be less effective. The ones that I find to be the most effective are Referent and Expert powers, I think it is much benefit in a hardworking approach to power, such as with the referent form of power. You can ensure that things get done in an easy and fair manner. Also with the expert form of power, you ensure that you are also on top of the situation, regardless of the surrounding factors, such as people or other stresses. I would like to believe that I have these types of power, but more commonly in my job, I use legitimate power. In most of the time at work I have to be the one to tell all my fellow employees what to do and how to meet our boss demands, therefore meeting our deadline of work is the most important part. Overall I am seen as the authoritative type of management but my boss is more uses of the coercive form of power, which I think is probably the least effective type. It almost makes me want to perform at a lower level when being treated in that way. When he does use this form of power, there are times where I do use some expert power by not responding in a negative way to his coercive attitude. Being aware of these types of power can able to help me identify which types of method I should use when I am the regarding situations, and it also helps me with my leadership skills...
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...Bases of Power There are five bases of power in the given organization. The first base of power is reward power. Reward power is defined as being the opposite of coercive power and that “people comply with the wishes or directives of another because doing so produces positive benefits” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, pg. 471.) Employee 1 in the scenario wants to receive the bonus that he/she will be granted upon the successful completion of his/her annual evaluation. To ensure his/her tasks are finished and that they are correct, Employee 1 oftentimes works over his/her scheduled 40 hour work week by working late and on weekends at the encouragement of the marketing manager. The marketing manager often reminds the Employee 1 and his/her peers of the yearly bonus. The employee complying with the wishes of the marketing manager for he/she to work late so he/she will receive a good performance evaluation, thus resulting in the receipt of the desired bonus is an example of Employee 1 being affected by reward power. The marketing manager uses the second base of power, which is legitimate power. Legitimate power is defined as “the formal authority to control and use organizational resources” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, pg. 472.) The marketing manager being the person responsible for the evaluation of the employees, thus affecting whether or not Employee 1 receives the bonus he/she really wants is a demonstration of this power. The distribution of a bonus to an employee is an example of...
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