w6re1

The Basis of Power and Influence [WLOs: 1, 2] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4]

Guided Response: Answer any questions your instructor has about your initial post, and respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings by Day 7. Each of your responses to your classmates should be at least 100 words in length. Discuss how you and your classmate view power and influence in the same or in different ways. Reflect on similarities and differences in the source of power you and your classmate have experienced in your organization.

You are encouraged to post your required replies early in the week to provide opportunities for interaction and further discourse within this forum. Continue to monitor the discussion forum through Day 7. Respond with robust dialogue to anyone who replies to your initial post.

Response 1

I have a tricky situation at work right now where I am trying to influence a team to set stretch goals without much success.  An upcoming organizational change will make me the team manager, but right now the team is not aware that will be happening, and I’ve been introduced as a peer with previous experience in their functional area. In my current situation, relying on referent and expert power is not producing the desired outcomes, but I am hopeful that adding legitimate, reward, and coercive power through placement in the management role will lessen the team’s resistance to my ideas.

Legitimate, reward, and coercive powers derive from a manager’s formal position in the organization. Legitimate power comes from the expectation that others will follow your direction, even if only out of follower feelings of obligation or duty (Orta, 2015). Also based on position power, reward and coercive powers derive from a manager’s ability to reward or punish their followers.  Becoming the formal manager of the team will confer position-related power to me, allowing me to make use of more hard influencing tactics, such as applying pressure, offering exchange, and legitimating my authority. Influencing through pressure and legitimating can be the least effective methods of influence while using an exchange to influence can be moderately effective (Falbe & Yukl, 1992). My approach will be to offer rewards in exchange for setting, not just meeting, stretch goals to alleviate the resistance I’ve encountered thus far.

To date, I’ve had to rely only on referent and expert power and soft influence tactics, such as rational persuasion and consultation.  Research has shown using a combination of soft tactics to be more effective than using a single soft tactic (Falbe &Yukl, 1992). Unfortunately, my expert power has been positioned in terms of technical knowledge and the team is discounting my decade of management experience within the company. This is impacting my ability to utilize rational persuasion to convince the team to accept stretch goals, as the team’s attitude is I should stick to “what I know”, i.e., the execution of functional tasks.  In this situation, my referent power comes mainly from my reputation as a great teammate who takes ownership and initiative. Leveraging this power and taking a consultative approach has helped me make some progress toward setting stretch goals for the team.

Combining hard tactics with rational persuasion has been shown to be more effective than using either alone (Falbe &Yukl, 1992), so I am hoping that when I can combine rational persuasion with exchange, I will get better outcomes. It will certainly help that in a week or so I will be able to draw from position-related power, in addition to the referent and expert power I currently hold.  

Falbe, C. M., & Yukl, G. (1992). Consequences for managers of using single influence tactics and combinations of tactics. Academy of Management Journal, 35(3), 638-652.

Orta, S. I. (2015). Dynamics of power in the workplace.  Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences, 6(3), 333–342. https://www.japss.org

Response 2

As Orta (2015) described, scholars have been researching and debating power as an influencing force that established itself within a company and it is one of the leadership characteristics for ages.  The five sources of power in any organization include legitimate, rewards, coercive, expert, and referent power. Legitimate power is the source of formal power, and it comes from a person’s formal right to issue directives which comes from the position they hold in a company (Kinicki & Williams, 2018). As an example, it would be the CEO who had the right to dictate the mission/vision for the company. Rewards power is a source of formal power, and it comes from a person's ability to issue rewards (Kinicki & Williams, 2018). An example would be a manager who gives an employee bonus for any hiring referral for the organization. Coercive power is a source of formal power, and it comes from a person’s ability to punish someone for noncompliance (Kinicki & Williams, 2018).  An example would be a manager who is putting an employee on a disciplinary action form due to an employee’s negative behavior or poor performance.  Expert power is a source of personal power, and it comes from a person’s experience or knowledge (Kinicki & Williams, 2018). An example would be an HR Benefits manager who has expertise in employee benefits. Referent power is a source of personal power, and it comes from a person’s being trusted or respected (Kinicki & Williams, 2018). An example would be a manager who is able to have followers due to his/her personal attraction like being very fair and objective.  

There are 9 types of influence tactics, and they include rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation ingratiation, personal appeals, exchange, coalition tactics, pressure, and legitimating tactics.  The source of power that a leader has affects the amount of influence the leader has. For example, if a leader is using referent power to delegate tasks and authority to their employees, he/she will use personal appeal (he/she is known for being a supportive figure and employees are drawn to the leader), inspiration appeal (he/she inspires employees with their way of working) and consultation influence (he/she always reaches out to employees to get their enthusiasm).  These are the “soft tactics” include rational persuasion, inspirations appeal, consolation, ingratiation, and personal appeal and are perceived to be friendlier and more effective (Kinicki & Williams, 2018). Those influence tactics are best aligned with reward, personal, expert, and referent power sources.   If a leader is using coercive power to get employees what he/she wants them to do, they would be having exchange (can make a promise for a favor), coalition tactics (getting other support by the persuasion of others), pressure (demanding compliance) or legitimating tactics( ruling by authority) influences. These are the “hard tactics” which are the tactics that are given by authority and include exchange, coalition, pressure, and legitimating are usually associated with coercive power and legitimate power when a person has authority to expect their follower to following their direction (Orta, 2015).

As far as my own experience, I have been able to rely on the expert power sources. Recently I have used my expert power when redesigning the organization I support.  Our company went through a transformation and as a result, we had to reorganize many functions.  One of those functions was the Services group.  Since I have experience in workforce planning and organizational development, I was able to use an expert power source and get the team to support my approach.  By using the expert power, my audience agreed with me and complied since I was the only one that had expertise in those fields (Orta, 2015).

 

Kinicki, A., & Williams, B. K. (2018). Management: A practical introduction (8th ed.). McGraw Hill.

Orta, S. I. (2015). Dynamics of power in the workplace. Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences, 6(3), 333–342.  https://www.japss.org/ (Links to an external site.)