Power In the Workplace
There’s going to be a lot of academia speak here (cause yeah, a lot of my work is based in academia paired with observation and experience) but the main takeaway of this power talk is to just recognize.
There are 4 power structures operating in your workplace -
Expert Power - The power of skills and information
Referent Power - The power to influence
Coercive Power - The power to punish
Reward Power - The power to grant rewards
Expert power is expressed when someone has more information or skills than another person. With expert power, a person is able to use the information to his/her advantage in order to both help and lead others, or to feel entitled and above other members of an organization.
Referent power is similar to expert power but referent power is the correlation between a leaders ability to influence a follower. If a mentor within an organization can truly lead and positively influence his/her employee, it will result in positive outcomes. However, if the employee does not trust, communicate, and respect his/her mentor, the legitimate power could be dismantled causing a disruption in the workplace.
Coercive power is when people are punished when they don’t complete a task or follow a guideline.
Reward power is a form of power that grants a prize or recognition after certain behaviors are performed or maintained. Many salaries and compensation structures are contingent on commission—the notion that if one works harder, they will be rewarded with more.
Do you work in a sales organization? Reward power.
Do you and your boss have a mentorship relationship? Referent power.
Are you measured at work based on OKRs? Coercive power.
Do you rely on other individuals knowledge to complete your work? Expert power.
If you are able to recognize the various structures of power that are in play at your workplace, you can better navigate the uncomfortable. I’m here to provide tools to do so.
References -
Abigail, R. A., & Cahn, D. D. (2012). Working with you Is killing me: Learning how to effectively handle workplace conflict. Workplace Communication for the 21st Century: Tools and Strategies that Impact the Bottom Line, 1, 289.
Finn, A. N. (2012). Teacher use of prosocial and antisocial power bases and students’ perceived instructor understanding and misunderstanding in the college classroom.
Tourish, D., Collinson, D., & Barker, J. R. (2009). Manufacturing conformity : Leadership through coercive persuasion in business organisations. Management, 12(5), 360-383.
Wilson, Jenna (2016). Thesis Defense (Unpublished). Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
