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Power in an organization is manifested in various points with regard to the tasks delegated to both senior and junior employees. At times, power is influenced by personal attributes with respect to service delivery within an organization. Essentially, power is, therefore, the possession of leverage and authority over others in a given scenario. It is a tool that may end up positively or negatively on the organization depending on the manner in which it is used in an organization. In any given organization, there are five distinct sources of power, namely: coercive, legitimate, referent, reward as well as expert powers. As a matter of fact, power can be manifested in different manners within an organization depending on the individuals involved. Experience, expertise as well as personal attributes are significant determiners of the type of powers an employee has relative to co-workers within the same organization. Consequently, employees within the same job profile in an organization may have diverse levels of powers depending on various factors.
Legitimate power is discretely called positional power. Essentially, positional power is derived from position held by the person in the organization. Furthermore, job description may also require that junior employees answer to managers while at the same time giving managers the powers to assign and delegate task to the junior employees. However, acceptability of possession of legitimate power is grunted upon legitimacy in acquisition of the power within the organization. Such positions include the CEO positions in a private or public corporation (Robbins & Judge, 2012). From the given scenario, the marketing manager oversees the work of the junior staff including the employee one in addressing the marketing prospects of the company.
Furthermore, he introduces bonus, which encourages the junior employees to work extra hard and outside the pre-determined schedule of 40 hours per week, which increases the output per employee, and increases the propensity of the organization to realize its goals both in the short run and in the long run (Robbins & Judge, 2012). The manager also makes frequent reminding of the employees of the glaring reward for exemplary performance in terms of bonus rewards. Consequently, it ignites self determination to attain with a view to achieving personal goals such as the exclusive vocational treat of employee one via the bonus given on account of exemplary performance. Similarly, the accounting manager controls the working patterns of the employees under his jurisdiction. For instance, the manager organizes assents to the compressed four-day work program of the employee two and organizes the other employees to complement employee two in their absence.
Second in the bases of power is the expert power. This form of power is unique in the sense of knowledge and ability to perform certain organizational duties within the organization. The acquisition of special abilities or professional skills bestows expert powers to an individual thus enabling sound command of the organization business practices. Expertise power performs critical duties in an organization and, therefore, deemed very essential to the growth of the organization. Ideas and decisions made by personnel with expert powers are considered with high regards by fellow employees who consequently influence their actions and their outcomes in the organization. Expert power provides a pathway to other high-rated powers such as legitimate powers through performance-based promotions (Robbins & Judge, 2012).
From the given scenario, the employee two is well endowed with singularly professional skills in accountancy, which provides a clear distinction between him and fellow employees within the accounting department. Consequently, employee two is the only person with the skills and expertise in preparation of the companys financial statements as a distinctive holder of CPA, the employees has a higher bargaining power in the organization. In particular, employee two is able to convince the accounting manager for the isolated four days per week working schedule and accorded to him alone in the entire department. This is perhaps due to his singular indispensable role in the organization, which makes him sound enough to manipulate the course of decision making within the department. This also forms a base for future promotion in succession course of the department.
Thirdly, referent power refers to the power derived from exclusive interpersonal relationships cultivated by individuals with other people in the organization. People acquire referent powers from respect from colleagues and other personnel in an organization who, particularly, like their working course regardless of expertise and legitimacy. Essentially, referent powers are often derived from charismatic influences, which attract other employees through admiration and trusts from fellow colleagues and the entire human resource in the organization. Referent powers may also arise from personal connections that one may have with senior employees within the organizational hierarchy. Such perceptions of personal rapports generate referent powers on the individuals over their fellow employees (Robbins & Judge, 2012). From the given scenario, employee three possesses referent powers within the organization. The employee is capable of manipulating decisions of departmental sales organization with attractive ideas, which that the entire group accepted. The employees postulate constructive ideas in sales and undertakes extensive project analysis that the rest of the crew later absorbs with due acceptance. As a matter of fact, the ideological conviction that employee three possess generates a referent power, which subsequently accord him as an oversight authority in charge of the new project and, therefore, objectively acquires power over fellow employees.
On the other hand, coercive power basically entails the ability to influence colleagues through punishments, threats and sanctions. For instance, junior staff may be coerced to work extra hard and in odd hours with a view to meeting job deadlines in fear of disciplinary actions leveled against them by their senior staff. Therefore, coercive powers refer to personal abilities to punish or reprimand other employees in an organization (Robbins & Judge, 2012). For instance, the manager within the accounting department allowed the employee two for a short, compressed work schedule at the expense of the other junior staff who could work for the entire week due to their deficiency of power to resist such exploits. Accordingly, the employees are compelled to work under skewed framework of activities due to compulsion from the accounting manager in fear of any disciplinary action taken against them, in case of defiance, given that the employees are less indispensable to the department relative to employee two. This, therefore, makes them highly susceptible to coercion.
Finally in this context, reward power is often derived from personal ability to influence organizational determination of allocation of working incentives. Such incentive may include increase in salary, promotions as well as performance appraisals. Such powers influence employees performance through motivations, and can be important in improving organizational performance if well utilized. However, wrong application such as use of favoritism may significantly decline the performance of the employees and a subsequent organizational failure (Robbins & Judge, 2012). In particular, the marketing manager encourages worker to offer extra services in pursuit of bonuses. Failure to generate distinct and outstanding performance implies loss of rewards in form of bonuses. Consequently, such reward systems motivates employee one into working more often even across the weekend to increase his chances of reward. As earlier stated, this scenario may promote the performance of the organization if well executed.
In conclusion, power and dependency are highly inter-related. According to dependency with respect to power theory, there is a significant insight to bargaining strategies. Essentially, outcomes from a negotiation with power influence are partly determined by apparent power balance between involved entities. For instance, entity B response to influence of entity A is significantly influenced by the powers of party A. This implies that B compliance is determined by the extent to which B is dependent on A. On the other hand, between extreme dependence in terms of power where one party is highly dependent on the other, maximum compliance is expected (Robbins & Judge, 2012). For instance, the compliance of employees within the accountancy department other than the CPA holder is expected to shoot at maximum due to the level of dependence between the management within the department and the employees.
On the other hand, the employees way of operation in the sales department is expected to be less affected by decision made by authorities in the marketing department with respect to bonuses. In particular, the employees under the sales department are not expected to report to work in odd hours in pursuit of bonuses since there is a distinct separation of powers due to loose interdependence between marketing and sales department. Consequently, power is closely linked with dependency as it affects mutual adherence to rules and regulations set up in a given department, and may not directly influence other departments within the organization.