 Introduction:

eadership is often defined as “The sensitive use of power to achieve group goals”.

L Experts and researchers of organizational behaviour have found that power is a very
little discussed topic in the workplace (Prof. Ass. Dr. Adem Zogjani, 2014). Power
is a tool which is used in everyday organizations, and it has also been said to the extent that
organizations would not exist without power relations. To get things done, leaders need power. All
leaders have power – some more abundantly than others – but it is the way the power is exercised
that determines whether or not the leader is successful.
Power provides a plethora of opportunities but it depends on how the power is used. Some
leaders fail to use the power, while some cannot enjoy the benefits of power to its fullest. Others
abuse it or use it illegally or unethically while exploiting the gift of power. Only few can use the
power wisely and skilfully. The sole medium an efficient leader can express his/her power is
through establishing a line of authority and then protecting that authority. Power manifests itself
through mediums such as communication, delegation of assignments, and especially in decision
making.

 Defining Power:
ower can be defined as “the ability to marshal human, informational, or material

P resources to get something done” (Rees, 2008). According to Pfeffer (1982), “power
is the capability of one social actor to overcome resistance in achieving a desired
object”. Weber states that “the probability that a person can carry out his/her own will despite
resistance”. An influential definition of power given by R. Dahl says, “‘A’ has power over ‘B’ to
the extent that he can get ‘B’ to do something ‘B’ would not otherwise do”. The definition by Dahl
aptly sums up the use and importance of power in any organization. Power becomes an
indisputable factor in every organization. As a part of the organizational life, one can neither ignore
it nor exploit it. It is a universal and significant aspect which must be appreciated by the employees,
managers and employers. One must possess a certain awareness and competency in behaviour so
as to use the power judiciously.

 Sources of power:

P
ower involves the potential to influence others. One might also say that power equals
influence. Sources of power refer to how the power holder gets his/her power base.
An understanding of sources of power is essential to understand how power gets
operationalized. The main sources of power are the formal position of the leader and the
personality characteristics of the leader. When one goes into detail, the following sources of power
can be identified:
1. Position
2. Personal Characteristics
3. Expertise
4. Opportunity to control information
5. Power from providing resources
 6. Power from coping with uncertainty
7. Being irreplaceable
Generally, the power attached to a position is more potent than the person who occupies
the position. For instance the power of the position of the President of the United States remains
powerful no matter the person who occupies it. This remains true for any government official or
corporate president. Such kind of power is known as role power. Role power is, generally accepted
without question. People, however, do not react well to leaders who abuse power. Role power
should be analysed and understood well. For its effective use, it should be recognized and neither
over played nor under played.
Each individual, whether or not in a leadership role, possesses a certain personality power.
At time, people use this power to influence others. Leaders with a positive attitude, a pleasant
voice, and a strong identity, generally have the most impact. Charisma is often associated with
personality power. In fact, charisma has been defined as “a special quality of leadership that
captures the popular imagination and inspires unswerving allegiance and devotion”. Such
personality power becomes vital in role positions which are weak in power. However, if a powerful
personality occupies a power position, the leadership outcomes would be outstanding.
When a leader has special skills and knowledge to back up the leadership role he/she
occupies an additional source of power is, which in general terms is known as ‘expertise’ and also
known as knowledge power. People have a tendency to develop liking towards the leaders who
know the answers. People with expertise are looked up to by their sub-ordinate resulting in more
authority than they would otherwise possess.
When talking about power, one must never forget that DEPENDENCY IS THE KEY TO
POWER. The power dependence theory states that power is inherent in any social relationship in
which one person is dependent on the other. Dependency increases when the things in control are
perceived to be important. However it must be taken care that what is important is situational and
varies with time and perception. So an efficient leader should be able to identify the importance of
the things in control and should also change with time. A leader should be aware of the fact that
for a resource to be perceived as scarce is the key to create dependency. Also the presence of
substitutes weakens the power and thus resulting in weak authority. The more the resource has no
viable substitute, the more power and control over that substance can be provided. Thus non-
substitutability is essential for creating dependency.

 Bases of power:

B
ases of power refer to what the power-holder controls that enables him/her to
manipulate the behaviour of others. Bases of power are the factors that give people
the capacity to influence others successfully. It is an inevitable fact of
organizational life that some individuals can boast of a greater capacity to influence people
successfully than others. Within organizations, the distribution of power is typically unequal. John
R. P. French and Bertram Raven (1959) have suggested five bases of social power;
 1. Reward power: Power based on the ability of the power holder to reward another, that
is, to give something valued by the other.
2. Coercive power: Power based on the ability of the power holder to punish the other,
that is, to give something that is negatively perceived by the other.
3. Legitimate power: Power based on the fact that everyone believes that the power holder
has legitimate right to exert influence and that the power receiver has a legitimate
obligation to accept the influences.
4. Referent Power: Power based on the power receiver having an identification with
(attraction to or feeling of oneness with) the power holder.
5. Expert Power: Power based on the power holder possessing expert knowledge or
expertise that is needed by the other. Informational power is a form of expert power
where the power holder possesses important facts or information needed by the other.
To these different sources of power, different reactions or responses can be
expected from those on whom the power is to be exercised.
Bases Response
Coercion Resistance
Reward Compliance
Legitimate Compliance
Expert Commitment
Referent Commitment

1. Reward Power: Control over the resources valued by the followers

- Individuals with the capacity to control the rewards the followers will receive are said
to be have reward power over the followers. Subordinates often comply with their
supervisors’ wishes in the hopes of receiving the valuable rewards that the supervisors
control.
- It is often seen that managers with inability to control resources feel that they are being
undervalued by the organization and complain about powerlessness. This explains that
having resources at disposal and using them wisely are two different things.
- One should note that to use the reward power, the followers must value that reward.
Therefore to be effective, the presentation of rewards must be closely tied with the
manifestation of desired behaviour from the followers.
- While exercising reward power, a leader must keep in mind that it is essential that the
rewards should be distributed in a fair and equitable way and should be performance
linked.
2. Coercive power: Controlling punishments
- While controlling the resources, leaders also often control the punishments other
receive which is commonly known as coercive power.
- These punishments may include pay cuts, demotions and suspension without pay,
formal reprimands, and undesirable work assignments.
 - There may be undesirable side effects of using coercive power on followers. If the
leader is too harsh and uses coercive power indiscriminately, his subordinates may
group together to protest against him/her.
- A manager must keep in mind that the use of coercive power may have adverse effects
on the relationship of the subordinate with the leader. Therefore it is suggested that the
use of coercive power should be avoided as far as possible.
- If coercive power is used in a hostile or manipulative way, it is likely to cause
resistance.
- However, despite the side effects, the capacity to administer punishment represents an
important source of power in organizations.
3. Legitimate power: Power vested in organizational authority
- Legitimate power is the recognized right of the individuals to exercise authority over
others because of their position in an organizational hierarchy.
- This power is vested in the position of the person within the organizational set up.
- Usually legitimate power is derived from an individual’s formal rank or position and
organizational members are likely to accept the attempts to influence their behaviour
because one has a higher position.
- However, leaders will only have authority over the aspects of other’s behaviours that
fall under their accepted areas of organizational responsibility. The subordinate can
reject any illegitimate, undue demand from the leader or the boss.
- While using legitimate power, the leader should keep in mind that certain behavioural
traits are considered desirable in the exercise of legitimate power. For instance
politeness in the issue of order, being courteous when dealing with people, in particular
those who are older and confidence and calmness in dealing with subordinates who are
nervous or anxious about the situation.
4. Referent power: Power based on charisma
- Individuals who are liked and respected by others can get them to alter their actions in
accordance with their directives – a type of influence known as referent power.
- Senior managers who possess desirable qualities and good reputation may find that
they have power over younger managers who identify with them and wish to emulate
them.
- While practicing the referent power base, a manager must keep in mind that this power
requires subordinates to identify with the leader. If the subordinates have the same
background, education and training, they will identify with the leaders as leaders
remind them of themselves.
- Another way of referent power is through the process of role modelling, where
subordinate emulate the behaviour of the leader.
5. Expert power: Power based on skills and knowledge
- To the extent that the subordinate recognizes the superiors’ advanced skills or
knowledge and follows his orders because he realizes that the superior knows what is
best, the superior is said to have expert power.
 - Expert power can be a very successful way of influencing others in an organization.
- To gain advantage with expert power, one has to prove one’s competency in the
organization with records of successes.
- While using the expert power base, the leader has to project that he/she possesses the
expertise desired by subordinates.
- Managers using expert power take pains to update their knowledge of issues in their
areas of responsibility and are sensitive to the concerns of the subordinates.

 Defining Influence

T
he concept of influence refers to the attempts whether successful or not to affect
another in desired fashion. Influence does not rest on status, centrality within an
organization, or other external bases. It is broader in scope than the concept of
power which rather focused. Influence involves efforts by one person or group to change the
attitudes or actions of another person or group, through less formal means such as persuasion,
flattery or repeated requests. It is an approach individuals adopt when they have to ‘do it alone’
i.e. proceed on the basis of their own eloquence, wit and interpersonal skills.

 Influence Tactics

I
n an empirical study of how managerial employees influence others and the conditions
under which one tactic is more suitable than other, Kipnis, Schmidt and Wilkinson
concluded that the following seven tactics could be identified:

1. Assertiveness: This would entail setting a deadline for others to comply with a request,
ordering others to do what they were asked to do, emphasizing the importance of
complying with the request, and repeatedly reminding others of their obligation to
perform.
2. Friendliness: This is designed to make the person favourably disposed to comply with
the request. It can comprise of flatter, exaggerating the importance of compliance,
acting in a humble and friendly way etc.
3. Reason: This amounts to using facts and information in a logical way so that the request
for action is seen to be detailed and well prepared. The rationale for the request is given
together with a statement of what is required of the person.
4. Sanctions: This amounts to the use of coercive power, whereby organizational demands
rewards and punishments are activated.
5. Higher authority – This consists of efforts to secure support from people further up the
organizational hierarchy and could be exemplified by securing the informal support of
superiors and others in higher position.
6. Bargaining: This could amount to exchanging favours and benefits through a process
of negotiation. Also, the person seeking the favour may remind the other person of the
benefits that the former has bestowed on him/her in the past.
 7. Coalition: This consist of getting help from others in the organization by building up
alliances with the subordinates and co-workers. There is strength in numbers which is
which is evident when employees join trade unions. Coalitions are likely to be formed
where interdependency exists between organizational units and where broad based
support is necessary for the implementation of the decisions.

Apart from these, three more tactics for asserting influence have been observed in
organizational behaviour, which are as follows:

1. Ingratiation: This involves ‘over-humble’ behaviour where the person who exercises
this technique maintains a low profile and states himself unimportant. While doing so
the person on whom the tactic is utilised is portrayed to be more important.
2. Blocking: The technique of blocking involves actions which show engaging in a work
slowdown, discontinuing to work with the target person etc.
3. Symbol Management: Use of physical and emotional symbols to communicate and
encourage desired behaviour through expressing symbols is known as symbol
management.
 Situational influences

T
here are three variables which affect the influence strategies which are as
follows:

1. Manager’s relative power: Managers who control valuable resources or who

occupy a position of dominance use a greater variety of tactics when compare to
manager with less power. However the former shows an inclination to use assertiveness
more often than the latter. Assertiveness and direct strategies come into play generally
where there is refusal or a reluctance to comply with the request.

2. Manager’s objective for wanting to use influence: Managers attempt to match tactics to
objectives in their dealings with both superiors and subordinates. When the objectives are
to derive benefits from the superiors, there tends to be reliance on friendliness or
ingratiation. By contrast, if the objectives are to get a superiors to accept new ideas, the
most likely tactic is to use reason.
3. Manager’s expectation of the target person’s willingness to comply: The degree of
influencing either superiors or subordinates in the past is strong determinant of the tactic
to be used currently. Where managers have been successful in exerting influence, they are
likely to use simple requests to obtain compliance. By contrast, where the success rate is
low, they are tempted to use the tactics of assertiveness and sanctions.