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Essay on Bases of power
“The five bases of power were proposed by the social psychologists French and Raven, in a now-classic study (1959). They developed a scheme of five categories of power which reflected the different bases or resources that power holders rely upon. Two additional bases (informational and connectional) were later added.” (Joyce, 1998) Three of these, legitimate, reward and coercive powers, are used by managers. As leaders, chief officers use the additional two power bases, referent power and expert power.
Legitimate Power
Legitimate Power refers to power of bosses because of their relative positions or the formal workplace structure. Legitimate power is identical with authority, and depends upon the belief of individuals in the right of senior people to hold their positions, and their consequent willingness to accept the power holder.
A manufacturing supervisor, for instance, instructs an
employee to discontinue working on a product and then to scrap it from the order because it is irreparable. The reason, he states, is that it would cost more to try to repair it than it's worth. This certainly is the supervisor's right to make that decision because it's his responsibility to see that good money isn't just being thrown away. Oftentimes, however, rank will not influence certain "I-am-not-convinced you're-right" employees. These employees continually challenge the supervisor's judgment on every issue and, at times, cause unnecessary department interruptions. When this occurs, supervisors are strongly advised to use coercive power to direct the individual to simply follow instructions and continue. Working or suffer the consequences. Unfortunately, sometimes-disciplinary action is the only way to correct the situation.
Referent Power
Referent Power means the power or ability of bosses to influence employees’ feelings about themselves or their emotions in relation to their work. It's based on the charisma of the power holder. Here the person under power desires to identify with these personal qualities, and gains satisfaction from being an accepted follower..............
