OB Assignment : ORGANIZATIONAL POSITION AND POWER
The important factor for managing the performance of an organization for managers is power. Power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others. Sometimes organizations have power but they don’t recognize it. To recognize the power it is required to identify the dependency of one person on another. Power is not something which is alone but it has relationships with organizational politics and social influence. Organizational politics uses power to influence society both within the organization and outside of the organization (Roy E. Belen 2008).
To understand the power in an organization and its management we can classify it into two categories which are position power and personal power. A brief introduction of these categories is given below:
Position power as it is clear by its name is associated with the position of the managers in the organization. Performance appraisal, formal rewards, discipline, job assignment, promotions, and merit increment give birth to position power. There are mainly three elements in position power which are reward power, coercion power, and legitimate power (Kristina G. Ricketts 2009).
Ability to deliver positive consequences and remove negative consequences in response to another behavior comes under reward power. It can also include ability to promote, provide formal recognition, influence financial rewards, and assign duties. And Coercion power is just opposite of reward power. It includes invoking financial sanctions, demotions, making assignments, holding people accountable for performance, and recommending disciplinary procedures. While legitimate power is the power of position of a manager in the organization. Legitimate power includes settings standards, establishing goals and objectives, and providing performance feedback (Paul Merchant 2012).
We can take armed forces as an example of legitimate power. In armed forces a soldier of senior rank who is commanding officer has an absolute control over the soldiers under his command. This command is because of legitimate power that he possesses because of his position. In the same example if at the time of war the commanding officer forces his soldiers to move forward without their will then we can consider it as use of coercion power. And reward power is giving promotion to the soldier who fought well in the war. We can apply these powers in a business organization in the similar manner (Training and development 2012).
On the other hand personal power has nothing to do with other people in the organization. It is based on the personal qualities and skills of the employees of organization. An effective personal power can result in commitment of the employee towards his or her job. Personal power comes from establishing integrity, truthfulness, sense of fair play, character, likability, competence, expertise, and the use of information.
Personal power also has three important elements which are expert power, referent power, and information power. Expert power is related to the expertise of the person. If the person has knowledge about his job and skills to complete that it means he or she is having the expert power. Origin of referent power is the respect, integrity and personality characteristic which a person finds for others. This power is based on honesty, fairness, acknowledgement, etc. And the information power is related to the access of the information which can make you able to take decisions (Buchanan & Badham 2008).
To explain the expert power we can take the example of an organization which deals in financial services. Obviously to provide solutions to their clients they need to have expertise. Within the organization we can find some people who are very expert in their work and have good knowledge of financial products and markets. We can find this expertise generally at the higher positions in the organization but it is not necessary that at lower positions expertise doesn’t exist. Referent power is the respect of lower level of employees for the expert person and information power is his ability to access financial market’s information easily (Training and development 2012).
Use of powers mentioned above gives many actions and feelings in result. These actions and feeling can be positive as well as negative. But every manager in an organization wants to use these powers in a manner so that it can result in a positive action. To ensure the positive outcome of these powers managers should know which power is appropriate for what type of situation. The possible response to the use of power can be categorized in three categories: Resistance, Compliance, and Commitment (Impact achievement n.d.).
Resistance response says that the followers don’t agree with the attempt to influence them and resist the use of power. This response generally comes against the use of coercive power. Compliance says that the followers accept the use of power but they do not show commitment for it. Legitimate and reward power usually result in compliance. The followers who accept the referent and expert power result with commitment. They have enthusiastic release of energy and talent to satisfy the request of leaders (Impact achievement n.d.).
Distribution of the power in the organizations is also a critical issue today. Generally we see that power in the organizations is concentrated within a few positions. Because of this there is a view in the mind of people that if the person is not having a formal title then he or she doesn’t have the power and it results in a resistance. According to many experts if the distribution of power is equivalent in an organization then the organization is more competent to the success.
There is also a misconception about power. The misconception says that some leaders in the organizations think that if they will once give away their power then it will reduce their control over situations. This completely false misconception resists the idea of empowerment. Sharing power with others doesn’t lessen the power of a leader; in fact it encourages individuals to take more responsibilities. It also improves the environment of the organization and organizational culture. Sharing power with other group members can create a synergy and it can improve the performance of the group as well as of the organization (Word press 2007).
So, at the end we can say that power is an essential skill required by every organization. If the managers of the organization are able to utilize their position and personal power, they can easily enhance the performance of the organization.
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