Centrality of Power in Organization

As per definition Power is assume that it is something that is possessed by group or a person and their effects can be seen through actions. In paper written by Robert French and Bertram Raven (1968), they described five types of social power. They follow that assumption person A has a power over person B when A can have control over some outcomes that B wants.

Reward power:

Reward power is conveyed by giving some time to reward which is formal or informal for one’s work. Reward may include raise, bonuses, and extra holidays. But on the other hand if the receiver didn’t get the reward what he wishes for his work, then this reward power has no effect on one’s work and next time that work will not be accomplished as decided.

Coercive power:

It is a power which is used by superior or the one who is having power to threaten the one working under them. It is conveyed to people through fear of losing job, demotion, layoff or relocation. Generally this power is common nowadays as it is used by each and every company to get good work out of their employee and sometimes it turns out to be worst for a company too.

Referent power:

If employee feels like he is respected and being trusted of what he is doing, this situation describes the referent power. In such situation manager and employee have good relations, where manager respect his employees and trust him with his given work. This is a great power which one can use to build trust and respectful work environment. It is really helpful to avoid conflicts between manager and employees, and one can see result in the efficiency of employees work. There is one quote it say that “Don’t go for the best company, go for the best boss”.

Expert power:

It can be achieved by gaining knowledge, skills and experiences. As one gets to gain knowledge in one particular area and feels like he is able to lead it with his knowledge and skills that calls the expert power. It can be used to guide people and gather other people to work for our goals. For example project leader should have experienced and skills to tackle various problem during execution and running of various project, for becoming successful he must have expert power to drive the team through the project and make it a success.

Legitimate power:

This power comes from having a high position in an organization or a company. According to me it like a hereditary tradition. In every company those who gets a high level position will ultimately have legitimate power over the other people due to tradition of the company structure. The one having legitimate power also have various authorities over company structure and work. He has authority to make decisions.

I have experience almost all the powers mentioned above.I am attaching a link of a good video about power in organization.