The French and Raven model of power is perhaps the best known management model.
The French and Raven model of power is perhaps the best known management model. According to these researchers, there are several possible power bases.
1. Legitimate power emanates from your position in the organization.
2. Reward power correlates with your ability to provide the rewards that followers want.
3. Coercive power refers to your ability to force people to do your will. “Do it my way or you’re fired.” This type of power is certainly out of step with today’s emphasis on empowerment and democratic workplace behavior.
4. Expert power arises from the perception that you have expertise in a given area and that you will help people out.’
5. Referent power is an emotional, personal power base where people seek your approval.
Leaders may have more than one type of power base or different power bases with different constituencies. Think of the many situations where you are a leader in terms of your ability to influence others. What type of power bases do you have in these situations?
Chapter 5 looks at leadership and values, especially ethical values. Values are simply gut-level belief systems that help us distinguish what is good vs. bad, normal vs. abnormal. Ones values start forming at an early age when family is the single most important programmer of values. Schools, churches, media, television, music, and peers quickly become other important value programmers. By the time we are 20, our values have pretty much formed our filter for how we see the world.
What about ethics? Ethical values have to do with a concept of morality, of good versus evil. Ethics is a big question in Corporate America today where scandal after scandal have left many believing that ‘business ethics” is an oxymoron. Leaders often represent to the outside world the key values of the organization.
Culture begins, obviously, with the founders of the organization. The founder’s vision
of what the organization should be like is very important. Later, as employees are added,
the founders hire people who reflect the same vision and carry it forward. Likewise, these
early employees hire others of similar vision. As new employees arrive, they are socialized
into the organization. Once inside an organization, employees learn culture especially
through the rites, rituals, stories, and reward systems that they observe.
