DISCUSSION QUESTION

Week 6: Power and Leadership Dynamics View Full Description

This week's lesson discussed some of the types of power that leaders yield, and the difference between transformational and transactional leadership. Consider and comment on the following questions: Must be a total of at least 300 or more words. Please use a reference.

1. Our school has a very large military student demographic. Consider the dynamic of legitimate power at work in the military. Do you think that legitimate power is a less-deserved or less-earnest power than some of the others discussed in the lesson? Is the predominance of legitimate power necessary to a military hierarchy? Why or why not?

2. On the subject of transformational leadership, how do you think followers can strike a healthy balance between credulity (in being manipulated by the charisma of a talented orator), and cynicism (in being overly-skeptical about the sincerity of a leader's words and actions)?

MGMT618 | LESSON 6

POWER AND LEADERSHIP STYLES

INTRODUCTION

Lesson Six will introduce some of the types of power wielded by leaders, as well as the dichotomy between transactional and transformational leadership.

Various Types of Power

So far we’ve discussed some qualities loosely associated with successful leaders (Lesson Two supra) and some behavioral theories that attempt to explain leadership success (Lesson Four supra). However, another very important concept with respect to leadership is that of power derivation. Although leaders obviously vary in the degree of power that they wield, researchers in the field of management have codified a taxonomy of different types of power which may be employed by different leaders and under different circumstances. As with most academic theories, there are many different versions of this taxonomy, and scholars don’t agree perfectly as to the details. The original postulate by French, Raven, and Cartwright (1959) included five types of power. Since then, the list has been expanded by others to six, seven, or even more, depending on who one talks to. For the purposes of our discussion, however, we will discuss just three of the most prominent types from the original model. It is worth noting beforehand that there is no tangible evidence to suggest that any one of these types of power is significantly more effective or valuable to a leader than any other. Instead, they each may be utilized with constructive finesse or destructive clumsiness, depending on the individual leader and the circumstances surrounding his or her leadership.

French, Raven, and Cartwright also included reward and coercive power---the ability to manipulate follower behavior through offering rewards or threatening punishments, respectively---in their original taxonomy. However, in addition to being types of power themselves, these concepts are also strategies that leaders of any type may use as a means to influence followers through the adoption of a transactional leadership paradigm, discussed below.

LEGITIMATE POWER

Legitimate power is the kind of power that is derived by virtue of the authority vested in one’s title within an organization. Perhaps the most intuitive example of a setting in which legitimate power is highly emphasized is the military. In the military, the degree of influence, command, and respect that an individual possesses is a direct reflection of that individual’s rank. Because military institutions (in the United States and elsewhere) commonly develop cultures where organizational hierarchy is placed front and center, ranks beget authority, and extraneous factors that might otherwise be involved are less relevant. As an example, a colonel is a colonel, and whether or not a colonel is popular, or attractive, or a likable person, is far less relevant to the authority of a colonel. This isn’t to say that these other factors don’t matter at all. However, they take a distant backseat to the title that one carries.

REFERENT POWER

Perhaps most juxtaposed to the idea of formal power is that of referent power. Referent power is the kind of power that a leader derives from the quality of the relationships that he or she develops with followers. Thus, this power is largely dependent on the personability of the leader. How well-liked is he? How supportive is he? When followers are in need, does he express concern and act caringly? Do followers respect him because of his character as a person, rather than the authority of his title? (Male pronoun used only out of convenience and conciseness). In this sense, the fact that a leader has a high degree of referent power says a lot more about the quality of such a leader’s character, than does a high degree of legitimate power.

EXPERT POWER

A third type of power is that of expert power. This power is derived by virtue of the expertise that one possesses in the field within which one works. Classic examples of expert power can be found in places such as law firms and hospitals. Attorneys wield a heavy degree of power and influence over paralegals and support staff because when it comes to the nature of the work being done (legal), they are presumed to know most and best. Likewise, doctors typically perform only the most complex and difficult tasks in the scope of patient care because their knowledge, skills, and training typically far exceed those of nurses and assistants. As with some of the general leader qualities discussed in Lesson One supra, expert power is something that can be faked, so long as a leader can convincingly mask ignorance.