A Quick Review of POWER
- Expert power is based on B’s perception of A’s competence. It is the
ability to administer to another person information, knowledge, or expertise.
- Referent power is base on B’s identification with or liking of member A. It
is the ability to administer to another person feelings of personal acceptance or
approval.
- Reward power depends on A’s ability to provide rewards for B. It is the
ability to administer to another person things he/she desires or to remove or decrease
things he/she does not desire.
- Coercive power is based on B’s perception that A can provide penalties for
not complying with A. It is the ability to administer to another person things her/she
does not desire or to remove or decrease things he/she does desire.
- Legitimate power is base on the internalization of common norms or values. It is
the ability to administer to another person feelings of obligation or responsibility.
My Supervisor Can . . .
POWER: THE TRAPS OF TRAPPINGS
Action as power
Of all the nonsense being spread around about power today (and it seems
as if we’re) positively fixated on it-what with everything from "power
breakfasts" to "power suits"), perhaps the most pernicious is the notion
that power is a state of being rather than energy, status rather than dynamism, a seat
rather than a vehicle.
Knowledge as power
Take, for example, the widely accepted notion that "knowledge is
power." According to Webster’s knowledge is defined as "a clear and
certain perception of something." Thought, on the other hand, is "the act
or process of thinking" and thinking is "to form an idea, to conceive . .
.; to opine; to believe; to intend . . ." Power isn’t knowledge, it’s what
you do with knowledge. Knowledge confers potential, but that’s all. Think. Have an
opinion and state it. Have an idea and share it. Propose a project and do it. Use your
knowledge or lose your power. Use your knowledge and increase your power. I guess
that’s what "use it or lose it" really means.
Position as power
When JFK was asked why he wanted to be President, he replied,
"Because that’s where the power is." He knew that a position of power is
not a station of arrival but rather a point of departure. Position gives opportunity. If
the person who holds it doesn’t capitalize on it, he soon loses both the opportunity
and the position. Anyone who thinks "I’ve arrived" has no idea what to do
with power. He (or she) won’t be there long.
Perception as power
According to many power brokers, if you are perceived as powerful, you
are powerful. The philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, agrees. He is reported to have said
"The reputation of power is power." Yes, but perception has long been recognized
as an intimate interaction between the perceiver and the perceived. What and who you
perceive to be powerful may say more about you (the perceiver) than them (the perceived).
Psychologists have conducted experiments from the 1940s onward to explore this idea. At
that time, the emphasis placed on the characteristics of the perceiver came to be called
the "New Look" movement. In one such study, poor boys and rich boys were asked
to adjust a circle until it was the same size as a quarter. On average, the poor boys made
a circle much larger than did the rich boys, suggesting that a quarter was more important
to them. Quite possibly, what you lack affects what you believe to be important. It can
distort perceptions. It seems to me that what you think you lack could distort perception
just as much. The distorted perceptions, at least insofar as "power" is
concerned, could cripple you. As one famous WWII journalist, Elmer Davis, said: "The
first and greatest commandment of power is, "Don’t let them scare you."
Women and power
Robert Mueller reports that he asked a Burmese man why women, after
centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He replied that there were many
unexploded landmines since the war. Today, there still are many unexploded mines in the
field of leadership, but if we let them paralyze us, power-the ability to do
something-will elude us. Leadership is action, not position. But when position and action
coalesce, great changes are made. Even the weak can find power in unity. Unity, however,
demands loyalty. Loyalty is the one thing a leader can not do without. And it’s the
one-and only-thing women (and most nurses are women) lack in their struggle to gain power.
Loyalty, of course, must go two ways. It magnifies its effects and gives it consistency
and continuity.
No power books or power lunches or power workshops or power techniques;
no positions or degrees or associations; no amount of talking or contrived meetings or
fancy office furniture makes one powerful. The trappings of power don’t make one
powerful. Knowledge and judgment and courage can and will. Action does. And loyalty makes
it stick.
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