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The literature on
power is full of terms we are all familiar with but which are difficult to
define, including power itself. Power
can be defined simply and informally as the potential to get someone to do
something, usually that they don't want to do, and influence can be
defined as the ability to do so.
Types of power can be described in terms of how widely the power is
exercised.
|
Type of Power |
Examples |
| Personal |
feeling in control of yourself and your
environment; feeling good about yourself |
| Interpersonal |
one-on-one; getting someone to do something |
| Organizational |
how you interact with your environment; getting
things done |
from Vinnicombe, Susan and Nina L. Colwill (1995) The
Essence of Women in Management. London: Prentice Hall International.
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Exercise
Types of Power
- 1 |
Give us
some examples from your workplace or school
of these three different kinds of power as related to
management |
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Types of power also can be described in terms of how it is obtained.
|
Type of Power |
Obtained
By |
Examples From
Marketing |
| Legitimate |
Contract |
Mr. Submarine can require its
franchisees to use only one kind of bread dough because they
signed a contract agreeing to do this when they bought the
franchise |
| Coercive |
Force |
WalMart has strict requirements
for suppliers and can enforce them because of the huge size of
a WalMart order |
| Reward |
Giving something to encourage doing it |
A manufacturer in Vancouver gives its distributors a
discount of 5% on all orders they place before the manufacturer starts
their inventory count |
| Expert |
Having more experience |
A new distributor in New Brunswick
agrees to process orders in the same way as the two other
dealers do who have been working there successfully for 40 years |
| Referent |
Appealing to a common goal |
The V.P. in General Motors head
office convinces a dealer in Calgary to improve her service
because it will not only give GM a better reputation but improve
the dealer's profit |
| Information |
Knowing certain things |
The soft drink distributor looking
for a sale gets to the small-town grocery store early because he
knows that the manager is an early riser and is often in the
store by 7 a.m. and at his friendliest |
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Exercise
Types of Power
- 2 |
Give us
some examples from your workplace or school
of these six different kinds of power as related to
management |
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Power issues are rampant in all organizations. Sometimes they are
obvious, as when a boss tells an employee to finish typing a proposal by
noon or she's fired (Legitimate Power). Or a supervisor might tell the
clerk that if she types the proposal by noon she can have two hours for
lunch (Reward Power), or might prevail upon the clerk's goodwill to
convince her that if she gets the proposal done by noon, the whole
department will look good in the eyes of the big boss (Referent Power).
Often, power issues are subtle, as in the ways we introduce ourselves.
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Exercise
Subtle Power |
A man greets a woman from his department with these words,
"Hello Janet, I'm Mr. Smith; we're going to be working together on
this project." What kind of
power is Mr. Smith using and what is wrong with his
approach? What can a manager do who encounters this kind
of language in his/her work area? |
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| As to who opens the door for whom,
it's either who gets there first or who is carrying less. There
is a story of Napoleon Bonaparte who, when walking with a
society matron on the street, encountered servants carrying
heavy bundles. The society matron angrily ordered the servants
to make way for Napoleon, but he stepped aside to let them pass,
saying, "Respect the burden, Madame." |
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Anger
Being in a position of having someone have power over us,
especially if that person wields that power unfairly, can often lead to
anger, and one of the biggest problems that women have with issues of power
and anger is that
most of us have been raised to believe it is not nice to get angry. Hence,
when someone does something improper, abusive, harmful to us, we may just
smile and put up with it, but inside, the anger builds, and that is
tremendously unhealthy.
Some Things to Remember About
Anger
(from notes from a workshop I took through the
Atkinson Counselling Centre with Professor Nina Josefewitz)
| Acknowledge that you are angry and
that you are entitled to be angry |
| Recognize that others are entitled
to be angry too |
| Be sure you have a legitimate
position from which to fight |
Be sure the fight is worth it (see
Choose
Your Hill To Die On)
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Exercise
Choose Your Hill |
This is
one of the best pieces of advice I ever got from anyone,
anywhere. What does it mean for a woman in management or
striving to enter management to "choose your hill to
die on"? |
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| Avoid fighting personally or
unfairly or when you are tired, sleepy, hungry, drunk, or unstable |
| Listen to the other person and try
to at least understand their side |
| Recognize when you or someone near
you is just "letting off steam" |
| Don't collect grievances like a
squirrel collecting nuts for the winter; learn to let things go |
| Admit you are wrong when you
realize you are |
One of the ways to best deal with anger is to educate yourself on the
issues, and on the alternatives available to you. When we get too angry
to argue, it's partly because we don't have enough information to fight
with.
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Exercise
Anger |
Think of
a time when you had a work-related experience of being too angry to argue well
with someone who held power over you, and describe what specific knowledge might have helped if you could
have prepared for the discussion ahead of time. How
might a manager have helped? |
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