Question

What are the five types of power according to French and Raven and what are the effects of these types of power?

Answer 1

Power is nothing but the ability by which a person do something or take action accordingly in order to influence the behavior of individual or individuals.

According to John French and Bertram Raven, there are five forms of power. They are:-

• Coercive Power – This is the power by which individual can force others to do something against their will. It is the power of dominance which focuses on compliance.
• Reward Power – This is the opposite of Coercive power where one person compensates others for the work done by them. The rewards can be bonuses, rise in the salary or other non-monetary benefits that can appeal the team members.
• Legitimate Power – This is the power by which the individual has the formal authority to take actions. This is the most common power that is exercised at workplace. This type of power is not permanent in nature and goes away as soon as the formal authority is given to someone else.
• Referent Power – This is the power by which the person attracts others with his charisma and fame. When people are liked by others, it gives them referent power. The person is often seen as a role model. Celebrities have referent power which attracts others.
• Expert Power – This is the power by which the individual use his skill and knowledge to attract others which can be useful for them. The people with this power are highly intelligent and perform different roles in the organization.

These are the primary form of powers that we tend to use frequently. The effects of these powers are as follows:-

Coercive Power –

• This type of power sometimes can turn into physical threat to others.
• This can create negative environment at work.
• Lack of competition and team work.
• May lead to dissatisfaction of job.
• Employees will try to meet the expectation of the leader and would not go extra mile to excel at work.
• Example of Coercive power is power of the boss over their junior staff which make them to punish the juniors if they are not meeting the deadlines.

Reward Power –

• This type of power create positive environment at workplace.
• People gets motivated to achieve the reward thus will go extra mile to meet and exceed the target.
• Increase in competition and team work.
• This can also help in improving the performance of the organization.
• Employees will have job satisfaction.
• Example is Reward power of management to promote an employee.

Legitimate Power –

• The team members or employees obey the individual with legitimate power as he is appointed for that role and has formal authority to reward or punish his members.
• It has the sense of responsibility towards the organization and thus guide, manage and support the team members in their job.
• It creates a positive environment at workplace.
• It focuses on meeting the organizational goal thus improving the performance of the organization.
• It motivates the employees to give highest level of performance.
• Example - Legitimate power of managers to assign tasks to his or her juniors.

Referent Power –

• Referent power helps in influencing others through the person’s abilities thus make them positive about things.
• It motivates others to be like the person who has referent.
• This power has lots of responsibility but can be lost easily because of certain circumstances.
• Example - The CEO connects with people and the organization by influencing them and employees admire, respect and trust him or her.

Expert Power –

• It helps in fulfilling organizational responsibilities.
• It helps in gaining trust and respect of others.
• It helps in encouraging others to give highest level of performance.
• Example - The employees of IT department has expert power of information technology.