Power in the Workplace

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” —Abraham Lincoln.

As I contemplated today’s focus – ‘Power in the workplace.’ I revisited my favourite literature book – Animal Farm. “The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebelled against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals could be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.”

Regardless of your position at work, you wield some level of power – Your power is either accepted or given and could be used positively or negatively.

Social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven identified sources of leadership power. Here’s how they described them:

Coercive Power: with this power source, leaders use threats of penalty and reprimand to force persons to comply with their instructions. This source of power can be abused and can cause disengagement and low morale among the people it’s applied to.

Reward Power: this source is based on the idea that leaders can influence compliance with the promise of valuable rewards. For example, promotions, special assignments, raises. The source of this power weakens when the perceived reward value is small.

Legitimate Power: this source is based on the position leaders hold. Persons acknowledge that because of leaders’ position, they are within their authority to make certain requests. Prime Ministers, CEOs, Presidents, Pastors, provide legitimate power. This type of power could be unstable. People could be influenced by the position and not the person. Therefore, if you lose the title, you lose the influence.

Expert Power: This source of power comes from a person’s expertise. They are trusted and able to influence others based on their skill level, experience and competence. The source of power only lasts as long as the person who is considered the expert keeps getting good results.

Referent Power: This source of power could be found among the charismatics. It is based on being liked and respected and is obtained from a person’s perceived attractiveness and value.

Informational Power: “Information Power is the most transitory type of power. Once you give your information away, you give your power away. It’s different from other forms of power because it’s grounded in what you know about the content of a specific situation. Other forms of power are independent of the content.”

Career Guide in an article titled “Guide to the 6 types of power and ways to use them in the workplace”, shared the following steps to apply power positively in the workplace:

Evaluate your situation: evaluate the six types of power to identify the ones you have at play in the workplace. For example, you may have a colleague with one or two types of power whilst your manager may have four or five. Then, evaluate how much power you possess.

Understand the limits to your power, for example, you may possess expert power and referent power but may not be at the level in the organization to possess legitimate power and therefore, this could limit your overall power in the workplace.

Set a goal. Identify the goals that could be achieved by the sources of power you possess.

Identify strategies. Now, develop your strategies for using your power to achieve the goals that you have identified.

Share knowledge. You are in a position of influence when you possess expert and reference power. Share your knowledge to effect power change within your team.

“Power is the ability to make others act and behave a certain way.” Whether you are aware of it or not, the power dynamics is always at play in the workplace. You may have noticed that there are some junior employees who are able to influence decisions at all levels of management whilst there are some managers who have zilch influence, that’s because everyone possesses some form of power, and some people exploit their power. When power in the workplace is used negatively, regardless of the level, it contributes to frustration and ultimately disengagement.

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