Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Values.
Leadership Traits; Leadership Behaviour; Contingency Theories of
Leadership; Leadership and Change.
Power
Power has been defined as the capacity to produce effects on others. The
term power may be used as the capacity of a person to exert influence over
others. If a person has power, it means he is able to influence the behaviour
of other individuals. Power represents the capacity, ability, etc. to influence
the behaviour of other people.
Characteristics of Power
The following are the characteristics of power:
Types of Power
1. Reward Power- This type of influence is created when the leader is able
to offer a reward to his followers for completing tasks/behaving in a certain
manner. It involves the potential to influence other due to one’s control over
desired resources. This can include the power to give bonuses and
promotions; to select people for special assignments or desirable activities;
to distribute desired resources like computers, offices or travel money and so
on.
3. Expert Power- As the title suggests a leader has expert power when the
followers believe that the leader has “expert” knowledge or skills that are
relevant to the job or tasks they have to complete. Often an experienced
member of the team or staff in an organization, can have expert power even
though they are not a supervisor or manager. If the subordinates view their
leaders as competent they would follow their leader. For example, we follow
doctor’s advice because of our faith in his knowledge and competence.
As can be seen each of the powers is created by the followers belief, if the
follower does not hold the requisite belief than then the leader is not able to
influence them.
Whether the follower’s beliefs are correct is irrelevant, the beliefs alone will
determine the type of power, a leader has over the follower.