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 Chapter 5

Power

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 Learning Objectives

• Define power, its consequences, and its cultural

roots
• Apply the different sources of individual and team
power to achieve goals
• Explain the sources and process of power abuse,
corruption, and destructive leadership and how to
prevent them
• Analyze the changes in use of power and the
development of empowerment, and explain their
consequences for leadership
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 The Leadership
Question

Power is essential to leadership. Can also

be abused? How can leaders use power to
get things done without becoming autocratic
or abusive?

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 Definitions

• Power: the ability of one person to

influence others and exercise control
over them
• Influence: the power to affect the
course of an action
• Authority: the power vested in a
position

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Impact of Power on Power
Holder

NEGATIVE
Want to acquire more
Oblivious to others’ needs
Cannot empathize
Addiction to power
Take credit
Negative stereotypes of others
Distance from
others

POSITIVE
Essential to leadership
Essential to organizations
More action oriented
More sensitive
Focus on rules
More generous

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Culture and Power

Power Uncertainty
distance avoidance

Organizational CLT: team

culture orientation

Group CLT:
culture participation

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 Distribution of Power and
Culture

• The more equal the power distribution in

an organization, the higher the
performance
• Culture strongly impacts the perception
and use of power
• In high-power distance culture,
expectations of power sharing are low

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Individual Sources of Power

• Legitimate power
• Reward power
• Coercive power
• Expert power
• Referent power

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 Potential Reactions to
Individual Sources of Power
Sources of power Potential reactions

Coercion
Resistance

Reward

Legitimacy
Compliance

Expertise

Referent
Commitment

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 Career Stages and Power

Late
CAREER PROGRESSION

All power
sources;
letting go
Legitimate gracefully
power;
appropriate
Personal use of power
credibility;
relationships;
expertise;
gaining power

Early

SOURCES POWER AND CHALLENGES

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 Influence Tactics

• Rational • Personal appeal

persuasion • Exchange
• Inspirational • Coalition building
appeal • Legitimate tactics
• Consultation • Pressure
• Ingratiation

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Sources of Power for Teams

• Coping with uncertainty

• Centrality
• Dependency
• Substitutability

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 Sources of Power for Top
Executives

• Legitimate power and position

• Distribution of resources
• Control of decision criteria
• Centrality in organizational structure
• Access

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 Power Abuse and
Corruption
• Abuse: taking advantage of one’s power for
personal gain; unethical, but not always illegal

• Corruption: abusing one’s power to benefit

oneself or another person; both illegal and
unethical

• Destructive or toxic leadership: leadership that

violates the interest of the organization and the
well-being of followers

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Causes of Abuse and Corruptions:
Leader Characteristics

• Inflated view of self

• Arrogant and controlling
• Rigid and inflexible
• Sense of entitlement
• Willing to use and exploit others
• Lack of empathy and caring for others
• Disinhibited, vicious, ruthless
• Overly concerned with power
• The Dark Triad
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Causes of Abuse and Corruption:
Follower Characteristics

• Fear
• Silence
• Agreement
• Compliance
• Inaction
• Flattery
• Submissiveness
• Anxiety
• Conformity
• Collusion

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Causes of Abuse and Corruption:
Organizational Factors

• Organizational culture
• Separation of leaders and followers
• Hiring practices based on personal
relationships rather than objective criteria
• Short-term-oriented reward system with limited
criteria
• Centralized organizational structure
• High uncertainty and chaos
• Highly unequal power distribution

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Power Abuse and
Corruption Cycle
Leader
characteristics

Follower Leader’s
compliance perceived
Organizational power
policies,
actions,
climate, and
culture
Abusive
Follower behavior and
flattery toxic
leadership

• Poor decisions • Low performance

• Low engagement • Ethical and legal
• Low satisfaction violations
• High turnover

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 Solutions to Corruption

• Clear message and consistency

• Accountability
• Reducing uncertainty
• Training for leaders and followers
• Protecting employees
• Open communication

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 Solutions to Corruption

• Leader involvement in day-to-day

activities
• Reducing follower dependence on
leader
• Empowerment
• Objective performance measures
• Involvement of outsiders
• Changing the organizational culture
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 Empowerment: Leadership
Factors

• Create a positive emotional atmosphere

• Set high performance standards
• Encourage initiative and responsibility
• Reward openly and personally
• Practice equity and collaboration
• Careful monitoring and measurement

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 Empowerment:
Organizational Factors

• Decentralize structure
• Select and train leaders and
employees appropriately
• Remove bureaucratic constraints
• Reward empowering behaviors
• Express confidence in subordinates
• Create fair and open organization
policies
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 The Leadership
Question Revisited
• Using power well is all about balance and
moderation. Leaders should use all sources of
power and influence available to them.
• Winning the hearts and minds is a long-term
solution, but sometimes you have to push to get
things done.
• The exercise of power must be aimed at achieving
organizational goals ethically.
• Leaders must demonstrate integrity and care for
followers as they take action to achieve goals.

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 What Do You Do?

You are comfortable with empowering your team

members and allowing much freedom, input, and
flexibility in how the work gets done, and you don’t
tend to “pull rank.” The majority of your team
members responds well and accept responsibility. A
couple of them, however, are taking advantage of
the situation and not pulling their weight. What do
you do?

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Leadership Challenge

 Understand the reasons for high salaries:

- Market competition
- High risk jobs
 Attracting talent
 Fairness is highly subjective
 Organizations in crisis need to attract
talent
 High salary differentials affect morale

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Leading Change:
Semler
• Open book management
• Share information and power
• Train employees to understand financial
information
• Sabbaticals to refresh
• High performance

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 Leadership in Action:
Zhang Xin
Sources of power Corruption factors
• Legitimate title • Entitlement
• Considerable • Narcissistic
personality
expertise
• Lack of accountability
• Bullying/intimidation
• Compliant followers
• Performance
• Centralization
• Reward and • Organization culture
punishment focused on
performance only

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Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.