Question

Write Five Stories using different relationship directions, sources of power and tactics. Please specifically state which of the powers, tactics and relationship examples you are using in each story. You cannot use the same power or tactic in more than one story. Make sure you have at least one story for each relationship direction. Vary your examples so over the five examples you use the five sources of power at least once, at least five different tactics, and all three relationship directions.

Relationship Direction: Upward, lateral or Downward

Power: Expert, Referent, Legitimate, Coercive and/or Reward

Tactic: Rational, Inspirational, Consultation, Ingratiation, Personal,

Exchange, Coalition, Legitimization, Pressure

Answer 1

Let's presume you're a well-paying lawyer at a law firm in Wall Street, for example. At the end of the day, you better have a complaint filed with the judge or your lawyer loses the right to file the claim, which is worth millions. Your word processing software fails, and you may have lost the case. The office of the court clerk leaves in less than an hour, not nearly much time for redrafting. You ask the assistant to see if she is capable to do something. All of a sudden, you find yourself at the whims of a clerk who assures you that if you follow her orders, you can retrieve the paper. In this case, the secretary is using Expert power and the relationship direction is Upwards as she is junior to you in the designation. The tactic used here is Consultation.

Laga Gaga is a representation of someone who has referent power, with 67 million followers on Twitter. Such people admire her and want to see what she's up to. Others also hope to be close to her. She has referential influence over her followers in this way. She is having referent power and the relationship direction is downwards. The tactic used here is Personal.

When President Donald Trump ordered for home quarantine of all citizens of America to avoid further cases of COVID-19, he used Legitimate Power. He has the authority to pull off such measures in case of emergency by the constitution and relationship direction is downwards. The tactic used here is the consultation as he must have talked to all other authorities before pulling off such measures.

Jill is Kelly's coworker who, unlike Kelly, struggled last quarter to reach her sales quota. Jack is fed up with Jill's failure to make profits, so he needs her to be moved or even discharged into another department. Jack does not have jurisdiction, however. He has the authority to recommend the transfer and/or firing of Jill to his supervisor, who is allowed to carry out the penalty. In this case, Coercive power is used. The relationship direction is Downward. The tactic used here is Pressure.

When Kelly meets her sales goal for the very first half of the organization's fiscal year, her boss Jack presents her with a $500 bonus check and sends an e-mail to her peers stating that Kelly has done a decent job. In this case, reward power is used. the tactic used is Inspirational. The relationship direction is Downward.