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Chapter
5
Power and Influence
“The true leader must submerge himself in
the fountain of the people.”
~V.I. Lenin
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, inc. All Rights Reserved
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Some Important Distinctions
• Power has been defined as the capacity
to produce effects on others, or the
potential to influence others.
• Followers or situational characteristics
may diminish or enhance a leader’s
potential to influence followers.
• Power does not need to be exercised in
order to have its effect.
• Power is attributed to others on the basis
and frequency of influence tactics they
use and on their outcomes.
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Power, Influence and Influence
Tactics
• Influence: Defined as the change in a
target agent’s attitudes, values, beliefs,
or behaviors as the result of influence
tactics.
• Influence tactics: Refer to one person’s
actual behaviors designed to change
another person’s attitudes, beliefs,
values, or behaviors.
• Followers can wield power and
influence over leaders as well as over
each other.
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Measuring Power and Influence
• Influence can be measured by the
behaviors or attitudes manifested by
followers as a result of leader’s influence
tactics.
• Leaders can cause fairly substantial
changes in subordinates’ attitudes and
behaviors.
• The amount of power followers have in work
situations can also vary dramatically.
– Sometimes, particular followers may exert
relatively more influence than the leader does.
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Measuring Power and Influence
(continued)
• Individuals with a relatively large
amount of power may successfully
employ a wider variety of influence
tactics.
• Followers often can use a wider variety
of influence tactics than the leader.
– This is because the formal leader is not
always the person who possesses the most
power in a leadership situation.
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Sources of Leader Power
• Furniture, office arrangements and
type of office
• Prominently displayed symbols
• Appearances of title and authority
• Choice of clothing
• Presence or absence of crisis
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Sources of Leader Power in the LeaderFollower-Situation Framework
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Expert Power
• Expert power: Power of knowledge.
• Some people are able to influence others
through their relative expertise in
particular areas.
• If different followers have considerably
greater amounts of expert power, the
leader may be unable to influence them
using expert power alone.
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Referent Power
• Referent power: Refers to the potential
influence one has due to the strength of the
relationship between the leader and the
followers.
• Referent power often takes time to develop.
• The stronger the relationship, the more
influence leaders and followers exert over
each other.
• Followers with relatively more referent power
than their peers are often spokespersons for
their units.
– They generally have more latitude to deviate
from work-unit norms.
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Legitimate Power
• Legitimate power: Depends on a person’s
organizational role.
• Legitimate power allows exertion of influence
through requests or demands deemed
appropriate by virtue of role and position.
– Holding a position and being a leader are
not synonymous.
• Effective leaders often intuitively realize they
need more than legitimate power to be
successful.
• It is also possible for followers to use their
legitimate power to influence leaders.
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Reward Power
• Reward power: Involves the potential to influence
others due to one’s control over desired
resources.
• The potential to influence others through reward
power is a joint function of the leader, the
followers, and the situation.
• An overemphasis on rewards for performance
can lead to resentment and feelings by workers
of being manipulated.
• Extrinsic rewards may not have the same effects
on behavior as intrinsic rewards.
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Cautions About Reward Power
• Leaders can enhance their ability to influence
others based on reward power if they:
– Determine what rewards are available.
– Determine what rewards are valued by their
subordinates.
– Establish clear policies for the equitable and
consistent administration of rewards for good
performance.
• Followers may exercise reward power over
leaders by:
– Controlling administration of scarce resources.
– Modifying their level of effort.
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Coercive Power
• Coercive power is the potential to influence
others through the administration of negative
sanctions or the removal of positive events.
• Reliance on this power has inherent limitations
and drawbacks.
• One of the most common forms of coercion is a
superior’s temperamental outbursts.
• Followers can also use this power to influence
their leader’s behavior.
– More likely to use this power when a relatively
high amount of referent power exists among coworkers.
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Concluding Thoughts about French
and Raven’s Power Taxonomy
• Leaders can usually exert more power
during a crisis than during periods of
relative calm.
– During a crisis, followers may be more eager
to receive direction and control from leaders.
• Research indicates that reliance on
referent and expert power led to
employees who were:
–
–
–
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More motivated
More satisfied
Were absent less
Performed better
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Four Generalizations about
Power and Influence
• Effective leaders typically take
advantage of all their sources of power.
• Leaders in well-functioning organizations
are open to being influenced by their
subordinates.
• Leaders vary in the extent to which they
share power with subordinates.
• Effective leaders generally work to
increase their various power bases or
become more willing to use their
coercive power.
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Leader Motives
• People vary in their motivation to influence or
control others.
• Two different ways of expressing the need for
power:
– Personalized power
– Socialized power
• Thematic Apperception Tests have been used
to assess the need for power.
– It is a projective personality test.
• Need for power is found to be positively
related to various leadership effectiveness
criteria.
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Leader Motives (continued)
• Leaders who are relatively uninhibited
in their need for power will use power
impulsively.
• Leaders with a high need for power but
low activity inhibition may be successful
in the short term, but create hazards for
the long-term.
• Some followers have a high need for
power too.
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Motivation to Manage
• Individuals vary in their motivation to
manage in terms of six composites:
– Maintaining good relationships with
authority figures.
– Wanting to compete for recognition and
advancement.
– Being active and assertive.
– Wanting to exercise influence over
subordinates.
– Being visibly different from followers.
– Being willing to do routine administrative
tasks.
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Miner’s Sentence Completion Scale
• Findings concerning both the need for power
and the motivation to manage have several
implications:
– Not all individuals like being leaders.
– A high need for power or motivation to
manage does not guarantee leadership
success.
– In order to be successful in the long term,
leaders may have to have both:
• A high need for socialized power.
• A high level of activity inhibition.
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Types of Influence Tactics
• Influence Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ)
assesses nine types of influence tactics:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Rational persuasion
Inspirational appeals
Consultation
Ingratiation
Personal appeals
Exchange
Coalition tactics
Pressure tactics
Legitimizing tactics
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Influence Tactics and Power
• A strong relationship exists between relative
power and types of influence tactics used.
• Hard tactics are typically used when:
– An influencer has the upper hand.
– Resistance is anticipated.
– When a person’s behavior violates important
norms.
• Soft tactics are typically used when:
– They are at a disadvantage.
– They expect resistance.
– They will personally benefit if the attempt is
successful.
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Influence Tactics and Power
(continued)
• Rational tactics are typically used when:
– Parties are relatively equal in power.
– Resistance is not anticipated.
– Benefits are organizational as well as personal.
• Leaders with high referent power generally do
not use legitimizing or pressure tactics.
• Leaders with only coercive or legitimate
power may use only coalition, legitimizing, or
pressure tactics.
• Using influence tactics can be thought of as a
social skill.
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A Concluding Thought about
Influence Tactics
• Research indicates that though hard tactics
are effective, it also changes the way we
see others.
• An implicit lesson for leaders is of being
conscious of the type of influence tactic to
use and its effects.
– It is suggested that leaders pay attention
to why they believe particular influence
tactics are called for.
• Influence efforts intended to build others
up more frequently lead to positive
outcomes rather than vice versa.
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Summary
• By reflecting on their different bases of power,
leaders may better understand how they can
affect followers and even expand their power.
• Leaders can improve their effectiveness by
finding ways to enhance their idiosyncratic
credit.
• Leaders should discourage in-group and outgroup rivalries to develop in the work unit.
• The exercise of power occurs primarily
through the influence tactics leaders and
followers use.
• Leadership practitioners should always consider
why they are using a particular influence
attempt before they actually use it.
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