Leadership theories, methods, and situational application

Leadership

Robbins & Judge (2007) define power as the influence of one party over another to make the person or person act according to the wishes of the party holding the power. Power is directly related to dependency, which entails the relationship created by a resource that one party has and the other requires.

The five bases of power described by Robbins & Judge (2007) can be applied to the Corporation A scenarios. These bases of power are divided into two main categories: formal power and personal power, where formal power includes coercive, reward, and legitimate power, and personal power includes the elements of expert and referent power.

Because corporation A is focused upon creating a team environment throughout the organization, there is a marked lack of coercive power, which is based upon fear. It appears that the formal power relationships in the company is based upon reward rather than fear. To encourage employees to perform, a reward system is in place. The company's managers exercise the power of reward by offering bonuses to employees who work harder and perform better than others. This reward is considered valuable by employees.

An example of perceived value is Employee 1, a long-term employee at Corporation A's marketing department. He is submitting to the power of reward in order to gain a bonus he perceives as valuable in terms of what it can provide him with. The value he perceives is not so much the money itself as the well-deserved holiday that he looks forward to. He will not be able to afford this holiday without the bonus. The marketing manager exercises the power of reward by using regular reminders of the annual bonus to encourage employees to work beyond their required working week.

The issue of dependency is mutual in the case of Employee 1. Employee 1 depends upon the bonus, and therefore provides what the employer requires of him to obtain this bonus. The marketing manager in turns needs employees to be committed to their work beyond the basic call of duty, and therefore encourages longer working hours. Both the employee and the manager need something from each other, and they therefore provide this in order to obtain a mutual relationship of benefit.

In the case of Employee 2, the employee himself is using a basis of personal power, and specifically expert power to obtain what he wants. Employee 2 is the only certified public accountant in Corporation A's accounting department. Because he is the only one in the company with this specific skill set, the accounting manager has a relatively high level of dependency in relation to his skills. This gives Employee 2 the power to negotiate a four-day work week with the accounting manager. He is also the only person allowed to do this, precisely because he could use his expert power to obtain this. He is the only one who can prepare the company's financial statements.

The relationship between Employee 2 and the accounting manager is one where the manager experiences a greater degree of dependency, because of the employee's expert power. Hence the manager is as it were obliged to comply with Employee 2's requirement in order to ensure that the employee provides the necessary services to the company. On the other hand, were the manager to appoint an additional certified public accountant, the expert power of Employee 2 would be considerably diminished, especially once the new employee becomes well versed in his work. This would provide a stronger basis of formal power to the accounting manager, and Employee 2 in turn would be obliged to work a normal week, like all the other employees in the department.

Employee 3 also exercised personal power, and specifically the element of referent power, in terms of her personal traits. Because of the employee's personality, others are naturally drawn to her and feels positive towards her. Her power lies in her subtle manipulation of relationships with other people. This is clear in the way in which the sales pitch scenario was conducted. At the beginning, nobody was sure whether the idea would fit Corporation A's culture. Employee 3 however used her personal power to convince them not only of the idea, but also to make her the team leader.

Clearly, these decisions were not based upon rational thought or even formal power. Instead, they were simply based upon the way in which the employee was able to manipulate the reactions of her fellow employees and managers. She was able to raise excitement for her idea, which was used as the basis for accepting the idea and appointing her as leader.