CASE STUDY-2

The Smith Brothers: A low-key approach

to gaining and keeping organizational
power.
Question 1: What bases of personal power contribute to the Smith brothers’ success?

Smith brothers were described by people who know them as bright and hard working. They
attribute the Smith’s rise to power more to their interests than to any powerful desire for power.
They don’t show ego and working with them resulted a lot of loyalty as mentioned by a retired
General Motors (GM) executive who worked with them.

The bases of personal power displayed about the Smith brothers are:

1. Expert Power

 Smith brothers exhibited the quality of a “businessman” from childhood. They had
interest in Monopoly game in which they were buying and selling hotels and houses.
(Ref. they loved to play board games, specially Monopoly. 2nd para, 3rd
line)

 Smith brothers had “Core Self Evaluation” quality. They knew what they want to do in
future.
(Ref. And Smiths themselves were aware of this interest from childhood
on “We like business”. 2nd para, 5th line)

 Smith brothers exhibits the “Conscientiousness” personality type. They were organized
and responsible towards their organization and employees.
(Ref. The fact that they were “Organization oriented” rather than “my own
career oriented”. 4th Para, 1st line)

(Ref. They were team players with genuine concern for the people they
work with and their companies. 4th Para, 3rd line)
  Smith brothers show “Extraversion” personality type. They were socially very active.
People who know them as bright, hard-working and unassuming.
(Ref. Although they attended different schools, the Smith brothers were
both described by people who know them as bright, hard-working and
unassuming. 2nd Para, 1st line)

 Smith brothers had “Ethical leadership” quality in them. Employees were satisfied with
their leadership. They knew that an organization grows with its employees only.
(Ref. Most top executives strongly prefer to gather power from their
personal characteristics- their charisma, expertise, personality-rather than
their positions. The Smith brothers seems to understand this lesson very
well. 4th Para, 4th line)

(Ref. They were team players with genuine concern for the people they
work with and their companies. 4th Para, 3rd line).

 Smith brothers were “Authentic leaders”. They knew what they are and they believe and
act on values. They created the power by honest relationship with the people they work
with.
(Ref. And Smiths themselves were aware of this interest from childhood on
“We like business. We grew up in a business-oriented family.”. 2 nd para, 5th
line).

(Ref. Most top executives strongly prefer to gather power from their
personal characteristics- their charisma, expertise, personality-rather than
their positions. The Smith brothers seems to understand this lesson very
well. 4th Para, 4th line)

2. Referent Power

 Smith Brothers exhibit the quality to influence people by their charismatic leadership
quality. They were admired and liked by the people.
 (Ref. So it doesn’t appear that the Smiths gained their power through
organizational politics. They seemed to acquire it naturally because
other people liked, trusted and respected them. 3rd Para, 7th line)

(Ref. “They are great guys to work around and as a result, generate a lot
of loyalty.” Said by an executive who worked with both of them. 3rd
Para, 3rd line)

----(By Sneha Jaiswal)

Question 2: Is their low-key, unassuming approach the best for obtaining and keeping
power?

Yes, Smith Brother’s thinking of “organization oriented” rather than “my own career-oriented”
have played an important role in their rise to power.

Most top executives strongly prefer to gather power from their personal characteristics- their
charisma, expertise, personality-rather than their positions. The Smith brothers seems to
understand this lesson very well.

Bases of power in organization:

1. Legitimate Power (Positional power)

Smith brothers had this power but they never used it for the personal growth. They were very
loyal towards their organization and employees. They were true team players with genuine
concern about their employees. This made their employees to trust them.

2. Coercive power (by fear of negative results)

Smith brothers were socially very active and very friendly by nature. They knew that an
organization grows with its employees only. So, there is no point of coercive power.
3. Reward Power (by incentives or bonuses)

Smith brothers had the power to give incentives and bonuses to the employees to motivate them.
We don’t have any incident which shows this but the way employees were admiring their bosses,
we can say that the motivational factors like bonuses and incentives were there in the
organization to boost the employees.

3. Expert power (special skills)

Smith brothers inherited the quality of a “businessman” from childhood. They had interest in
Monopoly game in which they were buying and selling hotels and houses. In one of their
statement they said, “We like business”. We grew up in a business-oriented family. They had all
the qualities of an expert businessman who was concerned about their employees. This made
their employees to trust and admire them.

4. Referent power (power by respect and admiration)

Smith brothers had charismatic leadership quality. They exhibit the quality to influence people
by their way of working in team. They were true team players. They were admired and liked by
the people and their employees. This motivated their employees to work more efficiently.

----(By Sneha
Jaiswal)

Question 3: If you studied the Smith brothers’ family background closely, do you think you
could identify specific factors that play a role in their successful rise to corporate power?

There were quite a few actions that possibly were forms of influence which helped the
brothers growing up and leading them to success.
 ● The brothers grew up in a business-oriented family which help them develop the right
vales and helped them share a similar kind of belief when it came down running a
business. This is a form of inspiration appeals.

● Old friends and acquaintances stated that even as children, the brothers showed
tremendous interest in business form playing board games. In Monopoly, for example,
how they stacked hotels, houses, one mechanic of the game. This is a form of rational
persuasion as this power usually comes from someone who is an expert in their field and
is based on using logic and evidence.

● Mr. Hoglund a retired GM executive stated that the brothers don’t show any kind of ego
whatsoever and are great people to work with. This indicates that the brothers had good
moral values and showed openness at work. Open people are more likely to be effective
leaders. These are certain traits people tend to learn from their parents and also from their
experiences.

It is stated that the smith brothers were very “organization oriented “. They were considered as
true team players with genuine concern for the people they worked with as well as their
companies. Growing up in a business-oriented family helped them understand that the road to
power in an organization does not have to follow a route dictated by selfish self-interest.
Conscientiousness is very important to overall organizational success and the smith brothers had
this trait in them which helped them enhance both their performance and leadership skills.

----(By Esha Aprajit)

Question 4: Find examples of contemporary leaders from politics and business and study
their sources of power. How did it help them in attaining the position they are in today?
Legitimate Power- This is the power given to a person on the basis of position or role. This is
also known as positional power. Example – Senior manager gives work to his employees. Other
individuals have to agree to the requests or orders given by them whether they like it or not. By
increasing some other types of power like expert power and referent power also leads to increase
in legitimate power. This power is held by the person legitimately. For eg: CEO of a company
holds legitimate power.

Expert Power- In this power, people can do better things in a particular area because it is their
area of expertise. This is the power in which in an individual is respected because of his talent,
knowledge, skills and abilities. This power is independent of the hierarchy of an organisation.
Expert power also paves way for an individual to gain legitimate power. The person may become
a very important part of the company or organisation because of showcase of expert power and
this might also lead to promotions. The people with expert power is highly valued by other
people and their opinions, ideas and decisions are held in high regard by the people.

Coercive Power- This is the power used by people to threaten others. This power is used by
higher authorities to enforce strict deadlines and punishable actions in the workplace and to scare
employees. Coercive power mainly works through fear, and people are forced to do those acts
that they voluntarily would not choose to do. These actions might include demotion and firing.
This power is necessary to keep employees under discipline and if management is good, they do
not have to often use this power, it is just that employees are aware of it. If used in an effective
way, this power will make them challenge constantly which will lead to improve their
performance.

Referent Power- Referent power is the resultant of the personality of a person. This power is the
ability to influence others because they respect and admire you. This power is often called
charisma—the ability to attract others and win their admiration. This power depends on the
relationship that an individual form with other employees, senior managers and others.
Reward Power- This power is the ability to grant rewards to individuals who have performed
well such as an increase in salary, perks, or an attractive job assignment. This also includes
bonuses, praise, recognition, and promotion. This power if used fairly can be highly motivating
for employees to work to the best of their abilities and increase the performance of the
organisation. However, if the rewards are given out unfairly and favoritism is used, this will
demotivate the employees and will affects the significance of reward power negatively.

Donald Trump

Legitimate Power- He has this power because of the authority that is granted to him under the
Constitution being the president of USA. He is a man with great political skills and has the
ability to influence others with his various other skills which strengthens his hold of legitimate
power. He has taken various decisions like travel ban and his decisions also led to various
consequences like US- CHINA trade war. This power can be severely reduced by the actions
of the opposite parties. Use of this power must be carefully used otherwise he may lose it.

Expert Power- He has great political skills and also has skills of a good businessman. He is also
a good negotiator. His skills also lead to increase in his legitimate power. He also said that his
skills (expert power) will help him to make “America Great Again” and because of his expert
power, American people believed him because he was highly respected and trusted by people.
He is a very hardworking man and he once said “If you are interested in balancing work and
pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead, make your work more pleasurable”

Coercive Power- He has an excellent coercive power. He is an abnormal person; belittling

others is a hobby. People are afraid of him. They fear that they will lend themselves into
problems if they act against him. Many people comply with him because they are afraid of him.
He can also target specific people and companies. He uses this power to achieve his ends. He
uses various coercive tactics.
Degradation and Belittling: He defeated his opponents by insulting the men and women he ran
against.

Monopolization of perception: He conveyed his messages with strong conviction and self-
righteousness all with distorting and manipulative facts that were almost lies but he was believed
by the people.

Referent Power- He also has this power. His election was mainly based on the referent power.
People knew him, his background and he also has a personality that helps him to attract people.
His communications skills, managerial skills, skill to manipulate things and political skills
helped him to win the admiration of people. This power helped him gain huge amount of
supporters which led him to win presidential elections. His Referent Power combined with
Expert Power became “frightening” for all opposite parties. He once said “You have to think
anyway so why not think big”

Jeff Bezos

Legitimate Power- He has this power because of his position that he holds in his organization.
Being, the CEO of Amazon, he has all the authority to take all the decisions regarding his
business. He takes advices of various experts but final decision in taking decisions is his. He also
makes positive use of his legitimate power by handling all the responsibilities effectively and by
taking the proper care of all activities of the organization. He knows how to make proper use of
his power. He was TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999 and was ranked the
second-best CEO in the world.

Expert Power- He has an excellent expert power. Managing such a huge business is something
that he can do better than most of the people because of his good management skills. He also has
an excellent knowledge in his field and has great mind for new ideas and is more aware of the
happenings in the industrial world than many other people which helps him to have leverage
over them. He has a mind full of new ideas and eagerness to learn new things. He once said
“Shouldn’t we look around this corner naturally to advance the idea beyond what we are
thinking just now to really change the shape of what we have built”.

Coercive Power- This power is necessary to keep employees under discipline and to make sure
that they meet the deadlines. So, he has to make use of coercive power. Because of his good
management skills, display of this power on employees is less as they are aware of existence of
this power. So, under his management this power mainly plays role in maintaining discipline. He
is very strict with his employees and scores very low on humility – 5.4% .

Referent Power- According to him, his capability of running a huge business as Amazon and
making it the one of the biggest businesses in the world made the general public, his employees
and his customers respect him and admire his success. Also, his positive persona and optimism
made him likeable among people. “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each
other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful”.

----(By Naini Mittal)

Warren Buffett

Expert Power- He has an excellent expert power. Managing such a huge business and
establishing a monopoly is something that he can do better than most of the people because of
his expert powers. He was risk seeking and innovative in every aspect of life and is an expert in
doing so. He has tried out every mean to promote his business and investments.

Coercive Power- This power is necessary to keep employees under discipline and to make sure
that they meet the deadlines and keep the productivity high. So, he has to make use of coercive
power. Buffett has delegated his managers and focused mostly on the people who stand out from
the group by his or her performance in the company. He
has put his trust in his employees to take care of his business however Buffet sometimes uses this
power by firing some of the non-performing employees.

Reward Power- This power played an important role in sustaining his business. It is where he
used to motivate his employees by offering raises, promotions, and awards. Buffett had
investigated various ways to motivate his employees, Motivated staff mostly cares about the
business and can co-operate with the leader to make things better.

Informational Power- It is where a person possesses needed or wanted information. This is a

short-term power that doesn't necessarily influence or build credibility. Buffet was working in
about 53 different companies. His boundary of knowledge was very much explored as compared
to other typical leaders.

References:

https://agilevietnam.com/2013/01/03/six-sources-of-power/

https://iedunote.com/power

https://www.businessalligators.com/donald-trump-personality-traits/

https://www.businessalligators.com/jeff-bezos-personality-traits/

http://www.centerforworklife.com/leadership-qualities-jeff-bezos/

----(By Esha Aprajit)