Week 8: Centrality of Power
As we see in Scrubs: My life in four cameras, your boss will always have legitimate power over you. In hire/fire situations, the supervisor will have control over the situation regardless of how well he knows you. Even though Dr. Cox did not want to fire anyone, when he had to for budget cuts, he did not know the cafeteria workers well enough to make the decision on his own. So, he had the power based on his higher level position to fire one of them without truly having a good basis for making his decisions.
The culture of the organization clearly does not respect the cafeteria workers or view them as equals. They know about them because the Janitor snooped through personnel files rather than any of the three trying to get to know them on a personal level. This shows that the culture in the hospital is extremely hierarchical and people are not respectful to those people in other levels.
We will always be controlled by the power controlling our economic stability. As we all need to make money to take care of our basic needs, we will always be controlled by the people and organizations that have the ability to impact that paycheck. Yet, when we meet our basic needs, we also focus on our need to be accepted, to be loved, and to reach our fullest potential. Thus, we can be highly impacted by reward power, coercive power, referent power, and expert power.
Yet, I see all of these forms of power in my last boss. When I taught swimming lessons and life-guarded at my hometown YMCA, I was influenced by all five forms of power. My boss had years of experience in teaching swimming lessons, so I was constantly trying to learn from her expertise and to mimic what she did with the children that was successful. I followed closely in her footsteps because I was impressed by her which is an example of expert power. Similarly, I was willing to do as she asked because I wanted to be like her, which is an example of reverent power. Yet, my boss had the power to punish me and place me on the 5:30 am shift or take away my shifts if she so desired which is an example of coercive power because I had to do what she asked to keep my desired shifts. Lastly, my boss also gave out informal awards at our bimonthly meetings which was her way of exercising reward power.
While to an extent, my last boss exhibited all the types of power, I think the most notable in our interactions were expert and reward power. I think that the culture created by organizations and individuals typically aligns with one or two forms of power. Most leadership styles align with certain areas over others. I think it is less common and slightly erratic to display all types of power concurrently. The culture typically follows a certain ideology which follows some forms of power more than others.
