Power in Organisations

The power and its utilization always has been a point of study, many of OD practitioner have been involved in the research of power, its sources, utilization and purpose, they have also identifies various kinds of power and its sources.

If we explain Power in one sentence, it is: “Power is the intentional influence over the believes emotions and behavior of the people”.

Potential Power: is the capacity of doing so.

Kinetic Power:  is the Act of doing so.

One person exerts power over another to the degree he is able to exact compliances as desired (Siu 1979)

Power is the ability of those who posses power to bring about the outcomes they desire (Salancik and Pfeiffer, 1971)

Some examples of social power: Influences, Leadership, Persuasion, Selling Forcing and causing.

Two Faces of Power:

1.    Positive

2.    Negative

Theories about the sources of Power:

Emerson’s, “Power Dependency Theory” this theory states a social relationship between two parties, resources (commodities, goals and rewards) that are controlled by one party and desired by other party.

French and ravens “The Bases of Social Power” John RP French and Bertram Raven have suggested five sources of social power which are:

1.    Reward Power

2.    Coercive Power

3.    Legitimate Power

4.    Referent Power

5.    Expert Power

Strategic Contingency Model by Salancik and Pfeiffer: This model asserts that the power in organization accrues to organizational subunits that are most important for coping with and solving the most critical problems of the organizations. The Critical problems are generally “Uncertainties” posed by the environment.

Once Power is gained, it is used by subunits, indeed used by all who have it to enhance their own survival through control of score critical resources.

Mintz-berg’s “Genesis of Power” Organization behavior is the power game in which various players called influencers seek to control of organizations’ decisions and actions.

There is Five Basis of Power as per Mintz Berg:

1.    Control of Resources

2.    Control of Technical skill

3.    Control of a body of knowledge

4.    Legal prerogatives

5.    Access to those who have power based on the first forth basis.