How Does Andy Dufresne Use Expert Power

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In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne is a successful banker who is wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for murdering his wife and a man that she was having an affair with and then sentenced to serve the rest of his life at Shawshank Prison. In the social environment of Shawshank Prison, structures of laws do not moderate social interaction. Referent and influential power hold no influence with the guards or the intimidating prisoners. Andy uses reward, coercive, and expert power to negotiate an unsafe situation and improve his standard of living in the oppressive prison. While tarring the roof of the prison, Andy overhears the Guard Captain Byron Hadley say that he will receive $35,000 in an inheritance due to his wealthy …show more content…

Andy uses expert power by helping the Captain Hadley by providing him with a legal service based off of his knowledge gained from working in the banking industry that Captain Hadley would have pay an attorney to perform. Initially, Captain Hadley was intimidated by Andy’s education. Hadley initially did not view Andy as an expert due to Andy being a convicted murderer and did not trust Andy’s advice on the subject. Andy resolved the situation by using the rational approach by telling Hadley he should check with the IRS and would offer to do his paperwork nearly free of charge. The rational approach is defined by the textbook as the use of logic, reason, and evidence to convince another person that cooperation in a task is worthwhile. Andy was able to provide the service for a much cheaper than he would have had to pay an attorney. Andy was a professional banker in life prior to being imprisoned. He used all of his experience gained from being a banking vice president to solve the tax related problems for Captain …show more content…

Captain Hadley uses reward power by giving three beers each to the prisoners who tarred the roof of the factory. The reward of beer was what Andy requested as payment for preparing the IRS forms to gift the $35,000 inheritance to Hadley’s wife to avoid paying taxes on the inheritance. Andy also used reward power in this scene. He rewarded Captain Hadley with a nearly free legal service. Judging by this scene, Captain Hadley seems to be a “glass half empty” type of person and also seems to be conservative with money. It was a reward for Captain Hadley to be able to save money and not have to go through an attorney to be able to keep his full inheritance tax

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