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Distinguish between formal and informal power
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Power, Leadership, and Authority
Many organization have structures level of leadership. The person in leadership transforms the employees by inspiring them to follow the vision set by the organization. How do great leaders do this? By the use of power and authority. Leaders influence other with use of power. Authority gives the leader the right exert this power. Both leadership and authority is linked to power but in order to operate effectively; the use of power must be understood.
Sources of Power
Formal Power
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
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Every good leader has successful skills to accomplish a common goal within an organization. Although the term leader is often intertwined with the manager; a leader’s characteristics are rarely the same in responsibilities. Leaders are developed by the type of organizational cultured that they are derived in. Thus, bringing the skills to designed changes rather than only promote changes as often may be seen in managers. Leadership is then the support of employees by offering a clear concise understanding of an organization needs and therefore brings balance to the task and the relationship of the employees. So what is the purpose of the leadership? To serve others while transforming the company’s mission into actually obtainable goals while all the while overcoming situational …show more content…
Expert power influence others by the knowledge or expertise in a particular field. Leaders with this power possess skills to influence the group based on the knowledge which is considered valuable. The group views the leader as one they can trust for information to performed the task at an expert level. In most cases expert power may be held by those with degrees, however, a person with expert power may not hold leadership position within company. A good example of expert power is Informational Technicians or IT. Many IT’s hold certifications that are looked upon as an expertise in computer related task and functions. In most corporate organizations, a team or group of individuals may make-up what is refer to as helpdesk; which oversees the organizations network system. Although, they are expertise may be in computers there still remains one out of the group who may have a higher level of expertise base on professional experiences and/or education collectively. In other words, the expert power is gained by one’s knowledge in comparison to referent power which is gained mostly from approval or
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
A leadership theory is a clarification of some features of leadership; theories have practical importance as they are being used for better understanding, anticipating, and controlling successful leadership. Hence, the main principle of any theory is to inform practice(Lussier and Achua 2009). Leadership theories could be classified into eight main categories: Great man, trait, behavioral, contingency, Situational, Participative, Relationship , management (Cherry 2010).
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.
Leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization. Leadership is leading a group of people or company to reach a result or further and the organization. A leader is supposed to be an example of how all employees are expected to act and what they should be striving for. Good leaders also don’t use their position within a company to take advantage of the company and its employees. A good leader is supposed to be able to perform their job with high standards, efficiency, and honor. However, for every good leader, there are bad leaders and the worse the leader the more detrimental he or she becomes to employees and the company they run. Poor leadership skills can ultimately ruin a company 's chance of success. The attitude
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
The leadership is a privilege and it is such a privilege and an honor which will carry the tremendous responsibility which will inspire others to direct them to accomplish goals and vision of the organization. Leadership is about influencing the people, by producing direction, purpose and motivating in order to accomplish the mission, vision and improving the organization. The leadership philosophy is evolved based on the experiences, both positive and negative, in most of the initiatives and activities that we undertake. It is also one among the collaboration and teamwork within which the team members can utilize each other’s strengths to counter the weaknesses of the individuals. By observing, introspecting and experimenting we can developed a leadership paradigm which is inclusive, collaborative and proactive. We can develop the ability to recognize which will approach in order to reach the productive conclusion. The great leaders know their limitations and are capable at utilize their strengths and also the strengths of others to compensate.
To be an authentic leader one must discover their True North and the purpose of leadership. Leadership decides the success or failure of organizations. The chief cause of organizational failure for the last decade has been failed leadership. A leader’s
Usually, the belief is that the managers, administrators, presidents or even the supervisors, have the greatest source of power, because they are at the top of the ladder in the hierarchy of the organization. The reality is that they need
Leadership is a function of personal and professional qualities (retrospection), the conception of a vision, structure and satisfying a sense of collective purpose, and make sure carrying out, with strategy and culture as two situational or contextual factors (cannon,2004; gil,2006)
”Leadership involves the exhibition of style or behavior by managers or supervisors while dealing with subordinates; leadership is a critical determinant of the employees ' actions toward the achievement of the organizational goals” (Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-Haq, & Niazi, 2014). Leadership is a strength that initiates, inspires, and guides the cooperation and attitudes of others on the way to set vision. Leadership is influential and involves several styles of approaches that involve trust, accomplishment and focus to reach a projected result. Using and implementing the ideas of others motivates new thinking and gains the confidence to build the trust and encourage everyone to work to the same goals (Northouse,
Power is defined in the course study notes as the “ability of individuals or groups to get what they want despite the opposition”. Power is derived from a variety of sources including knowledge, experience and environmental uncertainties (Denhardt et al, 2001). It is also important to recognize that power is specific to each situation. Individuals or groups that may be entirely powerful in one situation may find themselves with little or no power in another. The county Registrar of Voters, who is my boss, is a perfect example. In running the local elections office, she can exercise the ultimate power. However, in a situation where she attempted to get the county selected for a desirable, statewide pilot project, she was powerless, completely at the mercy of the Secretary of State. Power is difficult to measure and even to recognize, yet it plays a major role in explaining authority. In organizations, power is most likely exercised in situations where “the stakes are high, resources are limited, and goals and processes are unclear” (Denhardt et al, 2001). The absence of power in organizations forces us to rely on soley hierarchical authority.
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.
Networking Power – Otherwise known as connection power, a leader uses his contacts as a source of power.
Many people associate leadership with a specific job title or form of power within an organization. However, through personal experience, I have concluded that leadership can come in many forms and position as well as from multiple sources of roles and job titles both with and without power. Based on the definition of leadership, anyone can be considered a leader as long as they have the ability to influence people to achieve a particular result or goal which benefits the organization or group as a whole. Individuals with a secure sense of self and understanding, acceptance of diversity within an organization tend to be the strongest leaders that not only make others want to follow, but they also encourage other leaders to gravitate to their
Leadership, without doubt, is a significantly important function of management. It helps to aggrandize efficiency and to fulfil an organization’s goals. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence, determination, courage and zeal. It is also defined as ability to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders should have the capability of developing future visions, and to drive the organizational members to want to attain the visions. This paper states my points in which I duly believe, justifies the importance of an outstanding leader in any organization.