PERSONAL POWER

In reality, people can acquire the ability to influence others through two
ways; the external source and the internal source. The former comes from
a person’s position in the organization, while the latter comes from within
the individual him/herself; the knowledge and charisma that reside in him
or herself. As French and Raven have pointed out, personal power can only
be gained from the interpersonal relationship between leaders and
subordinates alone; no other external sources.

1. EXPERT POWER

Business scholars in general; perceive expert power as the ability to

influence others using each individual’s knowledge and competence in
their respective field of occupation. Those who believe that expert power
as a significant factor in an organization act in the notion that each
individual hold a particularly high level of knowledge or highly specialized
skill set; and that each individual can be awarded with greater authority
on the ground that they may bring greater contribution to the organization
as a whole, with the use of his or her knowledge mentioned earlier.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that only those in the upper ups can
make use of expert power. In fact, managers on all levels have their
respective set of knowledge, expertise or know-how in an organization; the
upper management dwells on mostly conceptual skills, the lower
management covers mostly on the front line or day-to-day operation while
the middle-level management has significantly greater communication
skills as the go-between for the organization. Not to mention, each
individual have the own respectively high level of knowledge of their
respective field of knowledge or department they are working for, hence,
knowledge defers greatly among individuals, and everyone is entitled the
chance to obtain expert power.

Keep in mind that expert power is not a static source of influence over
others; a person can build or generate more expert power, given that he
or she uses the right method on how to do so. Individuals of all levels in
the organization should first add more knowledge or expertise beyond
those that have been taught to them by the organization, such as taking
more elaborated classes about their working field, and go into training
camp or seminars to build to add more working skills. They then should
follow it by promoting and image of expertise to themselves to
subordinates, peers and superiors alike to make sure that they are fully
aware of the person’s expert performance. For example, if a person has
really contributed to a collective effort to the organization, he or she
should be assertive in telling everyone that he or she is responsible for
that mentioned contribution, and not just let other people take credit for it.
They then should maintain their credibility on the matter, by only asserting
authority overt subjects that they really know of, and avoid from doing so
for those that they don’t. They should also act confidently and decisively,
should any crisis arise to avoid confusion and moral lost to others.

They should also keep inform of themselves of the current development in

the organization and the outside world, to ensure their knowledge or
expertise remain relevant to the current situation. They should also
recognize their subordinates’ concerns, whatever they might be. This is
done to get a better understanding of whatever they are concerning or
uncertain about specifically, so that the best solution can be found in the
most appealing manner as possible. Finally, they should Avoid from
threatening the self-esteem of subordinates so that emotional biases
may not get in their way in contributing to the organization.

A study done on what teachers and students often use out of the five
French and Raven’s Bases of Power has shown very interesting results that
may be relevant to the whole discussion we’ve done earlier. According to
James C. McCroskey and Virginia P. Richmond, the two individuals who
were in charge of the study, data from the study were drawn from paired
samples from a total of 156 teachers and 2698 students from different
classes. They study pointed out that although both the teachers and the
students prefer using reward, referent and expert power in their daily
tasks, they claim of using more of them compared to the student,
according to their response, compared to the students. This, according to
the McCroskey and Richmond, shows that the teachers view themselves
more positively compared to how the students view themselves. Hence,
expert power, like the two other French and Raven’s five Bases of power
mentioned earlier, as a positive source of power. Hence, expert power, like
what we have pointed earlier, is a positive source of power, or at least has
a low tendency to be used in a negative manner.

2. REFERENT POWER

Referent power, on the other hand, can be defined as the ability to

influence others based on personal liking, charisma and reputation. In
general, referent power can be found in cases in which the general public
tries to imitate and emulate certain well-known individuals because they
either think highly of the person’s success, their personalities, believe in
their causes or see them as role models. Political leaders, professional
athletes and artists are examples of such individuals. Most people are
willing to do just about anything to have a connection with those
individuals; this is why they are often used to advertise or endorse
products or services in the market, in the hope that people would
purchase them out of mere loyalty alone.

Nevertheless, that concept is too broad to be used in the business

settings. The idea still sounds, but the “admirer” and the “admired” has
got to be changed to fit the bill. Therefore, in business, referent power
refers to the employees’ respect to the manager, and their need for
having a connection with, at the very least, or emulates the manager, as
the highest goal. The stronger the employees’ needs to identify
themselves with the manager, the stronger the manager’s referent power.
Referent power, in the manager’s point of view, is the individual’s inner
ability to evoke a desired response as a result of an interpersonal trust
relationship between the leader and the follower (Thomas. J.C., 2002).
Hence, it relies on the trust that the employees have towards a particular
manager. Referent power is fast becoming a relevant factor in today’s
business world, as “Workers today are increasingly less tolerant of bosses.
[They have] less desire to lead or manage, less desire to move up the
corporate hierarchy, and defer to authority. Additionally, they have a lower
respect for authority and greater desire for self-expression, personal
growth, and selffulfillment.
(Manz & Sims, 1995, p. 10).

Genuinely caring about others builds referent power. “Acquiring and

maintaining referent power requires more than flattery, favors, and charm;
ultimately it depends on the leader’s character and integrity” (Yukl, 2002,
p. 150). To obtain referent power, the mere right to command others to do
their task, reward them of their achievements or punish them for not
doing the job right coming from a person’s formal position in the
organization is not enough,nor does his or her knowledge or expertise in
the workplace. Managers must first lend their service to whoever in need
of it, and show that they are not doing it just to comply with what others
are expecting for them to do, but that they truly and sincerely are doing it
for the betterment of those around them. Very seldom people find
themselves admiring an athlete that outperform others just so he or she
can feed his or her pride with it, and go bragging to others about it.
Dictators such as Hitler, for example, always found themselves admired by
others even as people know the atrocities they had done while they were
still in power, because some men still believe in their cause.

A study done to examine the types of power prison inmates view officers
as using, the sources of those perceptions, and the effect of these
perception on inmates’ attitude towards the environment, by Amy J.
Stichman, could give us a clearer picture on how referent power works,
first hand. She had found that coercive power and referent power in prison
are inversely related. “A relationship in which a person sees another as an
enforcer or punisher can have a lack of trust or a decrease in the
‘attraction’ toward that individual” (French & Raven 1959, p. 158).
Hence, a fairer and more impartial enforcer would lead to a more referent-
powerful enforcer, as the respect that the inmates have towards a certain
enforcer working in the prison builds their referent power. Officers and
enforcers working in the prison can also gain referent power if the inmates
were to have a certain sence of admiration towards them. Treating each
inmates equally and not punish them for unjustified or unrational reasons
would help them in obtaining referent power from the prison inmates
greatly. Best of all, referent power in prison, just like both expert and
referent power in the outside world, can give the officers the power to
influence others in general, and the inmate specifically, to comply with
their instruction, without them having to do survailence on those inmates.
They don’t have too appear often in front of those inmates to get into
control. They will still do whatever the officers tell them to do, out of
respect the fair traetment the officers have served them in jail.