PAHS 011:

POLITICAL SETTING IN ADMINISTRATION

LECTURE THREE:
POWER, AUTHORITY AND MORALITY

SAMPSON DANSO,
DEPT. OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
sdanso@ug.edu.gh/dansosampson@gmail.com
 OUTLINE
• What is power?
• Definitions of Power
• Dimensions of Power
• Sources of Power
• What is Authority?
• Types of Authority
• Power-Authority Relationship
• Power and Morality
• Revision Questions
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 WHAT IS POWER?
• The word ‘power’ is derived from a Latin word ‘potere’
or the French word ‘pouvoir’, both meaning ‘ability to’ or
to be able. From this, power can be conceived as the
capacity or ability to undertake an activity or perform a
task.
• Norton E. Long, a distinguished American political scientist
and former civil servant himself, argued that “the
lifeblood of administration is power.” This basically
meant that power is a prerequisite for administration to
exist.
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 WHAT IS POWER? (cont’d)
• Power is not a one-way street. While a manager has
power over her subordinates, they in turn can have
countervailing power over him/her. Countervailing
power refers to power that subordinates have over
their superiors.

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 DEFINITIONS OF POWER
• The ability to achieve a desired outcome, and an
exercise of control by one over another.
• It is the capacity of the person/group/institution to
affect/change/modify the behaviour of other
person/group/institution. In this sense it is the capacity to
influence the behaviour of others.
• It is “that non-divisible unit of energy which is capable of
causing a change in the actions of its victim in spite of the
victim’s opposition to the change” (Nnoli, 1985).

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 DEFINITIONS OF POWER (cont’d)
• It is “the probability that one actor within a social
relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will
despite resistance” (Weber, 1968).
• The potential of a person, team, or organization to
require others to do certain things (Hill and McShane,
2006).
• Power is the ‘ability or potential to influence decisions
and control resources’ (DuBrin, 2010).
• Power is “the ability to achieve a desired outcome
through whatever means” (Heywood, 2012).
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 DIMENSONS OF POWER
• Lukes (1974) conceives of power as a value-laden
concept which can viewed from three dimensions:
• Power as decision making:
– It is ability of a person to achieve compliance by
others who change how they behave as a result of the
power being exerted.
– It can be seen in systems of ruling elites, where few
people have significant power. The person who wins
and argument, gets the power to decide on what must
be done.
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 DIMENSIONS OF POWER (cont’d)
• Power as managing the agenda:
– According to him, you have real power if you can set
the agenda because you can decide on what will be
argued about thereby dictating the situation.
• Power as manipulating the wishes of others:
– It describes how power can covert manipulate others
to do something they might not actually do by
changing what they want.

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 BASES/SOURCES OF POWER
• The amount of power an individual has depends on the number
of bases he has available. Some individuals have only the
organizational bases of power to influence people whereas
others have both organizational and personal bases. These
people are in the enviable position of having many bases of
power at their disposal.
• The organizational bases of power are legitimate power,
reward power, coercive power and information power.
• The personal bases of power flow from the manager’s qualities
or attributes. The personal bases of power are referent power,
connection power and expert power.

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 SOURCES OF POWER (cont’d)
• Coercive Power is the power an official is charged with in
an organization to punish individuals who go contrary to
the organizational rules and practices. It is also the power
to force compliance by means of psychological, emotional,
or physical threat. In most organizations today, however,
coercion is limited to verbal reprimands, written
reprimands, disciplinary layoffs, fines, demotion, and
termination. (Griffin, 2012). Coercive power is dependent
on fear. The opposite of coercive power is reward power.

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 SOURCES OF POWER (cont’d)
• Reward Power is power based on the ability of the
leader to provide rewards for other people who
believe that compliance will lead to positive incentives
such as pay increase, promotion, or recognition.
• Expert Power is the power a leader poses due to
extent of knowledge he/she has. Expert power can be
exercised even when a person does not occupy a
formal leadership position (DuBrin, 2010).

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 SOURCES OF POWER (cont’d)
• Legitimate Power is the power an individual uses to
induce obedience because of the structural position
he/she holds. According to DuBrin (2010), it is the
easiest type of influence for most subordinates to
accept. Legitimate power is bounded by laws, formal
company rules, and established norms, as well as by
managers’ need to get subordinates to accept their
legitimacy. Laws limit what managers can do (Hill and
McShane, 2006).

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 SOURCES OF POWER (cont’d)
• Referent Power is power based on the leader’s personal
traits. It is dependent upon the extent to which
subordinates identify with, look up to, and wish to emulate
the leader. It is also the ability to control based on loyalty
to the leader and the group members’ desire to please
that person. According to Griffin (2012), it is based on
identification, imitation, loyalty or charisma.

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 SOURCES OF POWER (cont’d)
• Information Power is power based on the leader’s
possession of or access to information that is
perceived as valuable or vital by others.
• Connection Power is power based on the leader’s
‘connections’ with influential or important persons
inside or outside the organization.

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 AUTHORITY
• The term authority is derived from the Latin word
‘auctoritas’, which means agreement or approval (Brako
and Asah-Asante, 2014).
• For some, it means the right to rule. Authority is
legitimized power.
• Authority is also the right or the capacity or both to have
proposals or prescriptions or instructions accepted without
recourse to persuasion, bargaining, or force.
• Robert Dahl explains authority as legitimate exercise of
power.
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 AUTHORITY (cont’d)
• Robert Dahl explains authority as legitimate exercise of
power.
• P. H. Collin (2004) has defined it as the official power
given to someone to do something or the legal right to do
something.
• DuBrin (2010) defines it as the formal right to get people
to do things or the formal right to control resources.
• Magstadt (2011) defines it as the command of the
obedience of society’s members by a government.

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 TYPES OF AUTHORITY
• Max Weber enumerated three types of authority,
namely: traditional, charismatic and legal-
rational.
• Traditional Authority:
– It is rooted in long standing customs, practices, social
and political institutions. Deference and obedience is
owed because of the bloodline.
– It is mostly gained through inheritance as in the case
of dynasties, monarchies, or chieftaincy institutions.
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 TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY (cont’d)
• Merits:
– Ensures continuity in the administration of society
– Promotes political/administrative stability and
promotes rich culture of the people in question.
• Demerits:
– The mode of selection is described as undemocratic
– Discriminatory and it sometimes becomes difficult to
remove an errant leader from office since it is
succession.

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 CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY
• The word ‘charisma’ is of Christian origin and it refers to
divinely bestowed power. It is a form of “gift of grace”
which includes oratory, wisdom, hope, enthusiasm, interest,
affection or by means of all personal charm and influence.
• Charismatic authority is inherently short-lived unless the
authority figure can transfer his authority into a more
permanent office or institution. This process is called
“routinization of charisma.”
• Examples include Jesus Christ, J.F Kennedy, Kwame
Nkrumah, Rawlings, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King
Jr., Adolf Hitler and Nelson Mandela. 19
 CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY (cont’d)
• Merits:
– Persons who possess this authority most often command
large followers, making it easy to implement tough decision.
– They usually develop their communities quickly due to the
large support.
• Demerits:
– Charismatic leaders do not necessary translate into efficient
leaders.
– Charismatic authority wanes and finally, it may also lead to
abuse of authority.
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LEGAL-RATIONAL/BUREAUCRATIC
AUTHORITY
• Legal-rational authority is derived from set principles,
known aims and objectives, specified rules, regulation
and procedures.
• Simply put, legal authority is derived from the belief
in the rightness of the law.
• It is a type of authority that place emphasis on office
and functions and not personalities.

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LEGAL-RATIONAL/BUREAUCRATIC
AUTHORITY (cont’d)
• Merits:
– It checks the abuse of power
– Leaders are legally determined and promotes
confidence in administration.
• Demerits:
– Excessive bureaucracy slows down decision making
– Focuses on extensive specialization.

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POWER-AUTHORITY RELATIONSHIP
• The concepts of power and authority are sometimes used
interchangeably, a situation which blurs their real
meaning and implications.
• Regarding relationship between authority and power, it
is sufficient to say that when power is accepted by the
people over whom it is applied it transforms into
authority.
• Whereas power is the ability to influence the behavior
of others, authority is the right to do so.

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 POWER-AUTHORITY
RELATIONSHIP (cont’d)
• Power and authority are not mutually exclusive
concepts, thus each is dependent on the other for a
successful execution of responsibilities.
• The public administrator needs power to execute
policies. The most appropriate way however is when
the leader has both the right (authority) and ability
(power) to influence his/her followers to act in a
certain way.

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 POWER AND MORALITY
• Morality has been defined as a normative code of
conduct put forward by society, groups, or individuals
(Magee and Galinsky, 2008).
• Power has the tendency to affect people’s morals. As
followers of public administration, one is certain of the
critical nature of power and the tendency of those who
wield such power to abuse it.
• The concern is how one can guard against the dangers of
the abuse of power. All men exercise some power; the
difference is only a question of degree.
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 POWER AND MORALITY (cont’d)
• Power can only be exercised in the context of political,
economic, social, judicial and administrative circles.
Administrators for example wield a great deal of power
through decision making.
• Inherent in the exercise of power is the potential of
abuse. Hence, Lord Acton cautions that “power tends to
corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely;
great men are almost bad men even when they exercise
influence, not authority.”

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 POWER AND MORALITY (cont’d)
• Lord Acton’s caution here is that politicians or
administrators are nothing but representatives of their
people who must therefore at all times exercise these
powers in the interest of the common good and if
need be decentralize power.

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 REVISION QUESTIONS
1. Write short notes on the following:
a. Lukes’ three dimensions of power
b. Power and Authority relationships
2. Briefly explain the concept of Authority and examine
any two types of your choice.
3. State and explain any four sources of power.

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