Power and Its Types in the Workplace

Subject: Management
Pages: 1
Words: 320
Reading time:
2 min
Study level: College

At the heart of the leadership of people is the influence, i.e., the psychological impact exerted on them to change behavior. The potential or actual possibility of influencing others is called power. Submission to power means that the subject conforms their behavior to the requirements of its bearer, regardless of their own opinion. Power means the ability to influence other people’s behavior to subordinate them to their will, and leadership is aimed at influencing people to subordinate them to the leader to achieve the organization’s goals.

The types of power of the head can be attributed to the influence based on coercion, that is, influence on people through fear, on encouragement means any reward expert power based on the head’s knowledge. There is also a reference power in which subordinates strive to be like a leader and a traditional one in which subordination is built on a hierarchical principle. Often, managers try to avoid building power on fear, as this can significantly reduce the performance of employees and bring some to a stressful state. Most often, traditional authority is practiced in organizations under a hierarchy, and subordination occurs following it.

The traditional authority also prevails in my workplace, at the same time, the manager is an expert, and sometimes employees obey orders based on knowledge. Some projects are given under the guidance of an incentive type of authority.

In order for the problem of power in the workplace to be solved, there are several strategies. For example, managers stop controlling the minor tasks assigned to subordinates (Stitham). In addition, the manager should know each employee and work with each in a separate team in which they will be equal to each other and will strive for mutual assistance. These recommendations will help solve the problem of power in the workplace. Which of the types of power would be in your opinion the most acceptable for you specifically, in your workplace?

Works Cited

Stitham, Kate. “Exploring Power Dynamics in the Workplace.Integrative Inquiry Consulting, 2019. Web.