Bases of Power and Influencing Others Assignment
Throughout the case study, “Relief of General MacArthur,” General MacArthur displays legitimate, coercive, referent, and informational power. General MacArthur worked his way up to becoming a general, therefore displaying legitimacy. He has referent power because he is considered a “military hero and politically powerful,” and he demonstrated coercive power in that he led in a defensive approach. The President would restrict him, yet he would ignore the restrictions and go forward with his plan. General MacArthur, towards the end of the case study, exemplified informational power when he continuously met with the press and used information to criticize President Truman. President Truman, on the other hand, displayed legitimate power, referent power, and coercive power. President Truman also worked his way to becoming the President. The American people had to cast a vote for him to be elected making this both legitimate and referent. He displayed coercive power when he reprimanded General MacArthur by restricting his authority.
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General MacArthur’s referent and legitimate power were successful in that he was a popular and admired leader; and President Truman kept him around for the Korean War, even though he planned on replacing him.
His coercive and informational power, however, were not as effective. His coercive power and defensive approach made it challenging to connect with his civilian leadership, which caused many disagreements between the two. His informational power was the deciding factor for President Truman to relieve General MacArthur for insubordination. President Truman’s legitimate power and referent power were effective in that his subordinates respected him, and most of the time supported his decisions. He coercive power was effective in the end when he relieved General
MacArthur. The relief demonstrates a lack of power and influence on MacArthur’s side. He lacked developmental influence and never took into consideration President Truman’s opinion. Instead he was defensive and controlling. I think if he would have been more open to Truman’s ideas and opinions, and used his expert power, then the outcome would have been better for him. For Truman, the relief demonstrated him growing as an expert and using a defensive approach. He developed expert power because he finally realized how MacArthur was, in a sense, hurting his team and therefore made the right decision to relieve him. I think if President Truman did not worry so much about his popularity and people disliking him, he would of replaced MacArthur when he originally planned. If he stuck with his plan, he would have bypassed all these complications with General MacArthur during the war. After reading this case study I have learned that informational power can be very damaging to not only your reputation, but to another individual’s. I realized that you have to use your information wisely or else, like MacArthur, it will come back to haunt you. I also learned that the developmental approach is very significant to having a successful collaboration. General MacArthur and President Truman tried to collaborate, but MacArthur was more defensive and not open to Truman’s opinions, which developed a shaky and challenging relationship. The developmental approach is a two sided approach and allows you to receive feedback as well as give feedback. I believe if you have a strong developmental influence, you will be a more successful leader than one that uses the defensive approach all the time. President Truman’s action taught me that there is a time and place for coercive power. Coercive power can be damaging to an organization. It can cause demotivation in accomplishing a mission, but sometimes it is necessary to get a point of discipline across.
The lesson to be learned from all this: the deciding factor in diplomacy should be more based on what one thinks will happen as opposed to could happen. While a little idealistic, MacArthur certainly knew what he was talking about when it came to warfare, and America would have won the Cold War sooner if MacArthur?s mindset were accepted.
The most important phase that Neustadt argues about the presidency and presidents is the persuasion power. He writes that the president cannot simply command “do this, do that”, as we all know “nothing will happen”. Different branches of the government have different constituencies and different interests. To make things happen, the president must use his bargaining skill to persuade others. Neustadt, to back his view gives a historical prove in which president Truman,
Truman’s accomplishments in his domestic policy were impressive, considering the hardships the nation was experiencing as World War II came to an end, and the resistance of Congress (which was greatly made up of Republicans and conservatives) to liberalism. The president was able to pas...
Power is earned, not given. There are many different types of power that people can earn. Power becomes a problem when it is not questioned or tested. Therefore, the one with the power would have total control over anything or anyone they wanted, or they would feel that way. People with power feel invincible when it is not questioned. Throughout history it has been proven that this creates a problem. For example, Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal is similar to the scandal with Father Flynn in Doubt. Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley, exemplifies an underlying message that unquestioned faith leads to abuse of power. Specifically, shown in Father Flynn’s reputation, cover up, and resignation, which all correlate to Richard Nixon’s Watergate Scandal.
Peter Weir represents power in many ways in The Truman Show, but all stand by the definition of power as “the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way.” One of the
Power is addressed in the book as something that Americans do not take seriously. The use of this power is not shown so much as who is in power. I will use three examples of this. Bubbah Offenhouse was in charge of making everyone aware of what to do in case of fallout. However, he chose not to even hand out information on this because he didn’t want to think about it.
General Douglas Macarthur was one of the most well known military figures in the history of the United States. He gave his farewell speech to congress on 19th April 1951 and went into retirement after 52 years of service in the United States army. He was given the chance to address his final message to the US government. This analysis carefully examines his ethics, goals, strategies, strengths and weaknesses. The speech is very famous and highly popular among the American audience. Therefore, we will take into account all factors to critically evaluate the speech and find out what makes it important.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II, was close to not achieving commander status. If this had happened, a different person would have taken control over Operations Torch, Avalanche, and Overlord. Eisenhower, in fact, was the key component in the victory for the Allies. Had he not been assigned by George Marshall to a planning officer in Washington D.C., President Harry Truman might not have saw Eisenhower’s potential. Eisenhower’s past 30 years of military experience, his strong mental and social stature, and his ideas and tactics were all key factors for his triumphant victory in World War II.
Throughout Walker’s book, he focuses on President Truman’s choice of using the atomic bomb on Japan, Truman’s advisers who were General George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson agreed that the bomb was necessary. President Truman believed that the bomb was necessary to spare “the lives of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers” (4). The book points out that Truman never had a “categorical choice” (5) when choosing to use the...
Williams, Charles F. "War Powers: A New Chapter in a Continuing Debate." Social Education. April 2003: 128-133. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 07 May. 2014.
Political scientists have continually searched for methods that explain presidential power and success derived from using that power effectively. Five different approaches have been argued including the legal approach, presidential roles approach, Neustadtian approach, institutional approach, and presidential decision-making approach. The legal approach says that all power is derived from a legal authority (U.S. Constitution). The presidential roles approach contends that a president’s success is derived from balancing their role as head of state and head of government. The Neustadtian approach contends that “presidential power is the power to persuade“ (Neustadt, p. 11). The institutional approach contends that political climate and institutional relations are what determines presidential power. The last approach, decision-making, provides a more psychological outlook that delves into background, management styles, and psychological dispositions to determine where a president’s idea of power comes from. From all of these, it is essential to study one at a time in order to analyze the major components of each approach for major strengths and weaknesses.
...or his country and freedom sores past many others it led him into some trouble when he began speaking out against the government for not helping them and instead restricting how they could fight the war. MacArthur's words and actions he took against Harry Truman did not help him because he wanted to fight a full war to get a full victory and liberate all of Korea but Truman wanted to fight a restricted war and only liberate South Korea. The constant disputes between Truman and MacArthur ultimately led to Truman firing MacArthur. MacArthur's fate had already been cemented in history as an American hero and one of the greatest generals in military history, his tactics, moral and leadership were all driving factors that made him such a great general and he was always well respected by the men who served him because he was always right in the battle with them.
C. Wright Mills in his article “ The Structure of Power in American Society” writes that when considering the types of power that exist in modern society there are three main types which are authority, manipulation and coercion. Coercion can be seen as the “last resort” of enforcing power. On the other hand, authority is power that is derived from voluntary action and manipulation is power that is derived unbeknownst to the people who are under that power.
As one of the many uses of power, it is prominent and obvious that it is used with the aim of hurting or punishing an individual or a group of beings. With this particular intention, power has been evident to cause devastation in many. One evident example of such abuse of power is seen in Joy Kogawa’s Obasan. Upon the horrific Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, a temporary stamp was engraved on the faces of Japanese Canadians as a threat to the country. Based on a very prejudice basis, Japanese Canadians, mostly in Western Canada, were sent to work camps in which they were deprived of many rights. From this event in the novel, it is clear that injustice was served to the unworthy. The misuse of political power and make unjust decisions was evident in Kogawa’s Obasan. Another such example of the abuse of power is seen in Mistry’s A Fine Balance. In the novel, the power of the police force and the power of military were used in order to deprive many poor from their homes and ignorantly dump them into fruitless work camps. Just the same, use of political power is also dominant in the governments of North America and has been spotted to affect masses. For example, the decision of the U.S. government to introduce a bill, SOPA, has been obviously s...
Nye, Jr., Joseph S. “Hard and Soft Power in American Foreign Policy.” In Paradox of American Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 4-17. Print.