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The relationship of power and leadership
Connection between power and leadership
Connection between power and leadership
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Leadership and Power Perspective
Introduction
Influencing followers under particular instructions is an essential tool in leadership (Bacon, 2011). One can never be a good leader if he/she is unable to influence or manipulate people in all aspects. Influence of a leader is dependent on various aspects that include their personality and personalities of the subjects. Power is the other main factor that determines the influential leadership (Bacon, 2011). A powerful leader will always have an influence over the people he/she is leading. This study revolves around the aspects of leadership and power and the relationship between power and influence.
Power
Power in simple terms can be described as the ability to influence other people behaviors
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For someone to be a good leader, it is essential for him/her to be powerful over the other people (Flemes, 2010). Powerful leaders are always influential over the followers. The ability to manipulate or influence the followers helps the leader in running the organizations smoothly (Flemes, 2010). When a leader is more powerful over the people, he/she also able to give orders and be implemented with no resistance. Conversely, leadership gives people power. It is until one is given higher position for instance a managerial position that people consider him/her as powerful (Flemes, 2010). That is, for an organization to run smoothly, a leader must be there to control the people. Therefore, leadership gives people power to control others who are under their …show more content…
People get expert power from knowledge, skills and experiences that they have. When individuals gain experience and skills from certain areas, they become experts in those areas. Their expertise in the particular fields give them power over the other people and hence become leaders (Bertocci, 2009). The second personal power is the referent power that is gained from trust and respect. When people display good conduct, they become trusted and respected by others. This makes to be positioned in high classes in the society (Bertocci,
Leadership has been defined in different ways, a definitaion of leadership that would be most commonly accepted would be “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization…”(House et al., 1999, p. 184 as cited in Yukl, 2013, p. 19). After a comprehensive review of different leadership literature, Stogdill (1974, p. 259, as cited in Yukl, 2013, p. 18) concluded that “There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept." Leadership can be viewed from two different angles one is shared influence process and other as a specialized role. Researcher who view leadership as a specialized role consider attributes as a factor in selecting a designated leader. On the contrast, theorist who emphasises on influence process considers “Leadership” as a social process or a pattern of relationship.
The authors try to define who is a leader. They say “Leadership is a process of influence. Anytime you seek to influence the thinking, behaviour, or development of people in their personal or professional lives, you are taking on the role of a leader.” (pg. 5) You might be a parent, a teacher, a nurse, a pastor, a coach, or an adult child helping her aging parents. There are differences between being a “life leader” (such as a parent) and an “organizational leader” (a manager in a company). The author defines leadership as influence in a positive or negative direction.
According to the "Power and Leadership" essay written by Paula Braynion, "the first thing one encounters when trying to understand power is a difficulty in arriving at a concise definition, as there are many and varied definitions and perspectives seeking to explore and explain the concept." (Braynion, para 1) There are two main kinds of power to look at when figuring out how power and leadership relate. The first kind of power is formal power which is obtain by an individual from having a formal or privileged position in an organization's hierarchy, for example a VP or a CEO would have formal power over his or her employees. The second kind of power is known as informal power or influential power, this power is based on the ability to influence others rather than the ability to control rewards and punishment. Informal power is the result of peers and other employees choosing to follow an
McShane and von Glinow determine that the first three powers - legitimate, reward, and coercive power - are granted to persons through the organization or co-workers, whereas the two other powers – expert and referent power - depend on the “power holders own characteristics” (301). The first source of power that can be assigned to members of the organization is Legitimate Power, which is defined as an “agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behavior of others” (302). This source of power generally results from different roles in the organization (hierarchy). Like the manager can expect his or her employees to do what he or she requires. Another source of power that can be given to employees is Reward Power, which is defined as “the person’s ability to control the allocation of rewards valued by others and to remove negative sections” (302). Reward power offers incentives and is the opposite of the third source of power, which is Coercive Power. Coercive power is the last source of power that is assigned to people and involves “the ability to apply punishment” (303). The fourth source of power is Expert Power, which does not originate from the position but rather from within the person. Expert power is “the capacity to influence others by possessing knowledge or skills that others value” (303). For instance, an employee can develop expert power when gaining important knowledge for the organizations that others would also like to have. The fifth source of power that does not depend on the role or position of an employee, but on the person’s own characteristics is Referent Power, which is defined as “the capacity to influence others on the basis of an identification with and respect for the power holder” (303).
In order for a leader to be a leader he/she must begin with the assumption that you are the one who matters most. As a leader you have to possess that level of confidence in yourself that you are capable of leading yourself “before you can lead others”. And when you develop this belief then you are better able of affirmative influence “on others”.
Vecchio, R. (Ed.). (2007). Leadership: Understanding the dynamics of power and influence in organizations (2nd ed.). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Leadership is all about having the right amount of heart and determination to help make a difference in someone’s life. It takes certain qualities to be considered a good leader. A leader should want to help inspire others to make a change and to be the best that they can be. A true leader does not need to feel powerful, instead they empower those around them. Throughout my life I have come across various leaders who have made an impact on my life. It takes a very special person to inspire and touch people’s lives. Leadership is so much deeper than having power and bossing people around.
I find this to be very accurate, both in relation to my Leadership Assessment Quiz and Power Orientation test results as well as my own personal stance on leadership and power. Power is defined as “a person, group, or nation having great influence or control over others,” (Moore, 1996, p. 837), whereas leadership is seen as the ability of one who leads or inspires. The notable difference between the two, being “control” and “inspire.”
Competence and intelligence are prerequisites for handling power in a healthy leader. Leaders have a responsibility to recognize and develop their own power to coordinate and uphold the work of staff members. Motivation for power, or a need to have an impact on others, is highly desirable for people with management responsibilities. Leader who understand power, its bases and it responsibilities have an advantage for getting things did through others. In exerting power, leader never needs to separate their own ethical values and morals from a situation .
Leadership is defined as a process by which an individual influences others to obtain goals. There are three aspects that should be addressed when explaining leadership. One aspect is that leadership is a social influence process; leadership could not exist without a leader and one or more followers. Another leadership aspect is compliance; all of the leader’s directions must be complied with voluntarily. Compliance is what separates leadership from other influence-based formal authority. Finally, leadership results in the followers’ behavior, that is purposeful and goal-directed which must be in some organized setting (Leadership Theories and Studies, 2009).
Leadership is trait that is extremely important in any society. Leadership is known as the way people attempting to make a difference in a situation. However, I believe that it is better said to be a way of influencing others actions. Leadership is usually connected to a great leader that affected his or her followers in a dynamic way. Throughout the semester for my leadership class, I have expanded the knowledge in numerous ways. I now have fully understanding of the purpose and process of leadership to a society. Being a leader one must maintain an image of being the role model. I believe that this is leader should be who is someone who has the ability to influence, encourage, listen, and nurture. They are able to inspire, stimulate, persuade, shape, and have an effect on others.
There are two forms of power; formal and personal. Formal power is most commonly linked to positions in leadership and can influence the behavior of individuals through position, incentive, and maybe even punishment. Personal power
Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others. The most important aspect of power is dependence; a person’s power increases if someone is dependent on them, or if they have something the other needs. Some people have power that they don’t use or may not even know they have.
I have a lot of experience in many things from education, customer service so forth and to end with parenting, so I have several styles of influence, power and leadership and all of which I have used, just not in this order. To influence is the capacity of the power of a person’s things in which they may be compelling force or able to produce effects and actions. Power means the ability to act or the capability of doing to accomplish something, as in the lecture power is the ability to marshal resources. Leadership is the function or position to direct or guide a group or groups of people, or as the lecture states the process of inspiring and guiding others to participate. It is my personal opinion that with all these styles a person still needs self-management as discussed in this semester as well. You cannot have someone that may has influence, power and leadership, yet lacks self-awareness. How can they lead a pack? My previous jobs have many individuals that portrayed to be leaders whom pretended to have power that influenced us, however they lacked self-management, and all of the above.
Power is the capacity or the ability for one to influence the behaviors of others in any given organization. In a business setting, those in control of the organization will always give instructions and directives to those in lower ranks when running of the business. Power is always accompanied with authority, control or even commands. Leadership is the process where by a person influences others to achieve certain objective and goals of a business and then guides the firm in a way that makes it more unified and comprehensible. Leaders directly affect the performance of any firm and good leaders are born and not made. There are leadership styles and leadership theories which are very vital in leadership of the organizations for they affect its success. For the success of business to be achieved there needs to be a group of experts and consultants in leadership for they will effectively and efficiently run the business as expected.