Running Head: LEADERSHIP, POWER AND INFLUENCE
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Deree- The American College of Greece
Antonios Vandoros – 232106
Leadership - MG 4121A1 Level 6 Fall Semester 2019
Instructor: Dr. Kostas A. Levetas
Due Date: 31-10-2019
Leadership, Power and Influence
Athens, 2019
LEADERSHIP, POWER AND INFLUENCE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................3
Main Body .......................................................................................................................................................4
Case Study .......................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................................10
Appendix .......................................................................................................................................................11
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to delve into the correlation between leadership with
respect to power and influence. The analysis will be based on a business environment, both at
the legitimate (formal) and shadow (informal) network of an organization. Firstly, there will
be a literature review answering the main question of the project, i.e. “How is leadership linked
both with power and influence?” evaluated by leadership theories and related research results.
Moreover, there will be the examination of the leadership style of Al Capone and Elon Musk,
evaluated by the theories analyzed in the upper section. The closure of this passage will be the
synopsis of what said in the in the main body. In the final page of this project, it will be attached
the appendix which includes information about the leaders mentioned before.
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MAIN BODY
In the first place, we have to define some basic terms in respect the main question. The
most important term that has to be defined for this project is leadership, which is the art of
motivating a group of people towards achieving a common goal (Ward, 2019). There are
several forms of leadership in general, but in a business environment the most common yet
effective types are power leadership and influential leadership.
Power leadership emerges from the position that a person has in the hierarchical level
of an organization. The power increases as the managerial level increases, so this means that
this type of leadership is applied from upper to lower level employees. For example, the CEO
has more power than a random department manager.
Although, according to a research conducted by John French and Bertram Raven (Vliet,
2010), the power is divided in five forms. Firstly, there is coercive power. This form of power
is based on coercion and it is strongly associated with punishment. For example, if a certain
employee is asked to do an assignment, from his upper level manager, that is against his will
and he does not accept doing so, he will get penalized (ex. salary mitigation) for not being in
compliance with the new orders. Basically, this is the dark side of leadership and most of the
time leads to dissatisfaction and inefficiency. The second type of power is reward power. In
fact, this is the form of power that the whole employment industry is based on. Namely, an
employer is delegating a task that he either is not capable of doing or does not wish to do, to
someone more qualified or more willing, with the return of the adequate reward (for example
a fixed salary or a promotion). A leader should not be based on this source of power, due to its
major drawback. Specifically, a regularly giving reward is not as appealing as it was in the first
place, which leads to lack of efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction from the reward receiver,
thus it must be increased in order to be more motivating, which might not be in accordance
with the company’s budget. Additionally, the third kind of power is legitimate power, which
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is the one discussed in the beginning of this paragraph. This power is solely derived from
someone’s position in the organizational hierarchy. As always, there is a major benefit and a
major drawback with this kind of power. Analytically, the human nature has the tendency to
“run with the pack” and follow the leader only by its title without judging his leadership skills
but as soon as this title is vanished so does the power. In modern business, to obtain legitimate
power, someone must first obtain knowledge and expertise. These are the fundamentals of the
fourth form of power, which is called expert power. Generally, having the knowhow, of
achieving a common goal, is admired and respected by the followers. For that reason, a
qualified person is considered as a trusted leader, by the group, and they will follow his/hers
commands towards that goal. The last but not least form of power is referent power. The basic
component of this power is personal acceptance. Even though, it is unknown if personal
acceptance can be obtained by the interaction with the people of the group or it a gift a leader
has by birth, it is considered the major trait when it comes to leadership. Especially, a leader
that is treated by his followers with admiration and charm, is called charismatic leader, and can
influence other’s behavior towards becoming more effective, efficient, productive or focused
so that the team’s goal can be accomplished. This form of power is independent with the
hierarchical position of the leader and it is the most crucial element of influential leadership.
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As already stated, influential leadership is based on personal acceptance, which is a
positive consequence of a leader’s personal characteristics, and it finds application mostly in
the shadow network of an organization, namely when it comes to lead colleagues or higher
level managers.
In addition to that, according to David Kipnis and Stuart Schmidt, there are other tactics
a leader should use to influence people. Firstly, there is influencing via demonstrating data,
logic and using discussing. This tactic is called “reason”. Next off, there is “friendliness”.
This influential tactic uses flattery, goodwill and positive impression to increase personal
acceptance. Also, “coalition formation”, consists the third influential strategy. Specifically,
grouping and mobilizing people of the organization towards executing requests. Additionally,
exchanging favors with other people or generally using negotiation to persuade them to change.
This is the definition of the influential strategy called “bargaining”. Effective communication
is a crucial part in the influencing process and it is ranked as an influential tactic by the name
of “assertiveness”. Finally yet importantly, as analyzed in the upper section of this paper,
power in all of its forms can be used to influence others. This method goes by the name of
“appeal to authority”. (Vecchio, 2007)
These influential strategies, helped Kipnis and Schmidt develop a questionnaire, with
which, according to the answers given by the employees , i.e. which tactics they use more often,
they created three influence profiles/groups. Nominally, these profiles are “Shotguns”,
“Tacticians” and “Bystanders”. (Wilkinson, 1984)
The common characteristic, among “Shotguns” is that they do not accept “no” as an
answer. For that reason, they use every tactic in their disposal more than the average frequency
to influence other people. Further analysis to this profile, indicates lack of influential charisma,
namely having a lot of unfulfilled objectives when it comes to ‘sell their ideas’, lack of
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organization experience and having great expectations. In general, they do not use a specific
influential strategy to lead others, but they adjust their behavior to get what they want.
The group of people, who mostly rely on “reason” as an influential strategy is called
“Tacticians”. In that case, statistical analysis shows that this kind of employees possess
hierarchical power. As shown in the first part of this essay, people with organizational power
also possess knowledge and skills fact that allows them to demonstrate data and rational
arguments to convince other employees into change. Overall, these people are satisfied about
objective achievement and as already said have a lot of experience in organizations.
The final group of employees created by this questionnaire are “Bystanders”. The
results of the questionnaire which formed this group, is low usage in all six influential
strategies. There are three scenarios that an employee can be placed in that influential group.
The first one is that a “Bystander” occupies a very powerful position in the organizational
structure, such as that of the owner, which does not require to interfere with the decision
making process or generally to influence other workers. The second scenario, is that a
“Bystander” is a very low level employee, whose job description does not need to influence
other colleagues or, due to their position, they speculate that any attempt to affect others will
be fruitless. The last case scenario and the most possible one, is that a “Bystander” is an
employee that executes a routine job with minimal control and organizational impact.
Therefore, these people just watch the action without attempting to change it, which, not
surprisingly, leads to dissatisfaction and inefficiency.
It can be easily understood that, there is no obvious or correct influential strategy to
leader other people. However, a manager can identify which influential strategy will be more
effective after knowing all aspects of his/hers group member’s personalities.
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CASE STUDY
There are a lot of ways a person can be identified as a leader. Others might say, that
leader is someone with charisma, other say someone with a lot of knowledge and others might
say someone ethical. But no one can doubt that Alphonso Gabriel a.k.a Al Capone is among
them. To stay on point , Al Capone’s biography will be listed in the Appendix at the final pages
of this paper.
After taking control of the Give Points Gang, he used violence as the main mean to
conquer the bootlegging industry. He would pretty much force most bars to buy his beer by
telling them to buy it and if they didn't he would blow up their bar and then pay to fix it, forcing
them to buy his beer because they are in debt to him. According to the main body of this paper,
the power his used can be identified as coercive power. This strategy made him notorious in
the underworld and no one wanted to mess with him. Even though, his methods were not
characterized by ethical fragments, his biggest virtues was trust, devotion and loyalty. He
would kill anyone who tried to hurt any of his men or would kill any of his men who would
betray him. His leadership turned Five Points Gang into a mid-size corporation, with an
estimated annually profit of 105 million dollars at the time. One of Al Capone’s famous quotes
is “You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone”
which, in essence, summarizes his leadership style.. (Al Capone;s Leadership and Legacy, n.d.)
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Another well-known leader is Elon Musk (his biography is also found in the Appendix).
According to a new survey conducted by the site Hired , Elon Musk was identified as the most
inspirational leader in tech industry (Taylor, 2019). Musk, due to his erratic behavior (ex. edgy
posts on Twitter), finds lots of fans worldwide, fact that attracts investors for his companies
(SpaceX, Tesla). Practically, Elon Musk, mostly relies on his personal characteristics to
influence people and consequently attract customers and investors. As it comes to influential
strategy profile Elon Musk better matches both with a “tactician”, due to his expertise in a vast
variety of knowledge fields, and with a “bystander”, because of his high level position in the
organization hierarchy.
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CONCLUSION
To conclude, it is clear that leadership is strongly connected with both power and
influence. Which one has more effect on a group of people? Although science has not made a
clear distinction on the two forms of leadership yet, through the case studies presented in the
paper, it is realized that under certain circumstances, both can have a great impact and help a
leader to emerge. Overall, influence cooperates with power to make the best of leadership.
(Course Hero, n.d.)
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APPENDIX
Al Capone or Alphonso Gabriel, as his real name was, was born in the 17th of
January of 1899 in Brooklyn, New York, from poor immigrant parents. He took his widely
known nickname, Scarface, after a conflict with Frank Gallucio in the Harvard inn, the bar
that Al worked as a bodyguard in 1917 (A smile and a gun , 2015) . In 1920 during the height
of Prohibition, Capone’s multi-million dollar Chicago operation in bootlegging, prostitution
and gambling dominated the organized crime scene. Capone was responsible for many brutal
acts of violence, mainly against other gangsters. The most famous of these was the St.
Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, in which he ordered the assassination of seven rival
gangsters. Capone was never indicted for his illegal actions, such as killing, blackmailing etc.
but was finally brought to justice for income-tax evasion in 1931. After serving six-and-ahalf years, Capone was released. He died in 1947 in Miami. Capone’s life captured the public
imagination, and his gangster persona has been immortalized in the many movies (ex.
Scarface) and books inspired by his exploits.
Elon Reeve Musk was born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa from American
parents. He studied at Queens University in Canada in 1989, to avoid the mandatory military
services in South Africa. In 1992, he moved to America to study business in University of
Pennsylvania. At this point, he is considered to be a technology entrepreneur, investor,
and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer/designer of SpaceX, co-founder,
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CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc., co-founder of Neuralink, founder of The Boring
Company, co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI and co-founder of PayPal. In
December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People
and, as stated in the case study, in September 2019 he was claimed as the most inspirational
leader in tech industry. His net worth is estimated around $22.8 billion and is listed
by Forbes as the 40th-richest person in the world. (Editors, 2014)
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
“What is charismatic leadership” http://teamworkdefinition.com/charismaticleadership/
Describe The Relationship Between Influence And Power
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p34fv82/Describe-the-relationship-betweenInfluence-and-Power-Power-and-influence-both/
Kipnis, D., Schmidt, S. M., Swaffin-Smith, C., & Wilkinson, I. (1984). Organizational
Dynamics, 12(3), 58–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(84)90025-1
Robert P. Vecchio, (2007), Power, Politics and Influence,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpg85tk.12
Van Vliet, V. (2010). Five Forms of Power (French and Raven). Retrieved [insert date] from
ToolsHero: https://www.toolshero.com/leadership/five-forms-of-power-french-raven/
Al Capone’s Leadership And Legacy https://alcaponejna.weebly.com/leadership-andlegacy.html
A Smile and a Gun blog (17, June, 2015), “He F*cking Deserved It”: How Al Capone Got
His Famous Scars https://smileandgun.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/he-fckingdeserved-it-how-al-capone-got-his-famous-scars/?wref=tp
Carol Kinsey Goman, (21, May, 2017), 3 Crucial Skills For Leading Without Authority
(Forbes) https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2017/05/21/3-crucial-skillsfor-leading-without-authority/#b196dc34a809
Ward S., (13, March, 2019), Leadership Definition
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/leadership-definition-2948275
Bibliography.com Editors, (2, April, 2019), Elon Musk’s Bibliography
https://www.biography.com/business-figure/elon-musk
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Chris Taylor, (17, September, 2019), Elon Musk Is The Most Inspirational Leader In Tech,
New Survey Shows https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/17/elon-musk-named-the-mostinspirational-leader-in-tech.html