Chapter 3: Power and Leadership

Question 1

Power

Answer 1

defined as the capacity or the potential to influence others in relation to their beliefs, attitudes or activities

Question 2

The classical social theorists ______ (1818–1883) and ______ (1864–1920) provided the foundations for contemporary studies on power in organizations

Answer 2

Karl Marx

Max Weber

Question 3

For in Marx’s view, the making of history is

Answer 3

made not just in relation to the physical world but also through the struggles that some social groups engage against others in circumstances of domination

Question 4

Weber believed power was derived from:

Answer 4

was derived from the knowledge and expertise necessary to operate the means of production as much from ownership

Question 5

Weber power defintion

Answer 5

the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests’

Question 6

Two central elements were crucial to the system of domination:

Answer 6

1) the legitimacy of the organizational leader’s power, and the perception by followers that the leader’s authority was legitimate for those who were subject to it
2) the creation of an ‘administrative apparatus’ in which followers carry out the commands of the leader (meaning

Question 7

Power vs Authority

Answer 7

‘authority is the potentiality to influence based on a position, whereas power is the actual ability to influence based on a number of factors including organizational position’ in the hierarchy

Question 8

The treatment of ‘power’ as ‘authority’ can be traced to the early American mistranslation of the term _________ to mean institutionalized ‘authority’

Answer 8

‘Herrschaft’

Question 9

Power ‘over’

Answer 9

refers to the control of one agent over others

Question 10

Power ‘to’

Answer 10

the capacity to realize ends

Question 11

French and Raven (1960) ideas of power

Answer 11

This conceptualization of power likewise focuses on the potential ability of one individual to influence another within a certain social situation

This theory assumes that the particular ‘resource’ possessed by the individual that will have a utility in one situation, will have that usefulness in all situations. It also assumes perfect knowledge on the part of all concerned being able to judge correctly the utility of all resources in all situations

Question 12

French and Raven five bases of power

Answer 12

1) referent,
2) expert,
3) legitimate,
4) reward
5) coercive

4 +5 = most important

Question 13

Reward / coercive power example

Answer 13

An employer promising you a pay increase or promotion to act as he or she instructs or, in contrast, threatens demotion or redundancy, is using reward power and coercive power respectively

Question 14

Giddens (1984) notes regarding power

Answer 14

All individuals may ‘have power’, but in an organizational context, power is influenced and constrained by the distribution of different types of resource (allocative resources or authoritative resources)

Question 15

‘allocative resources’

Answer 15

refer to control over physical things such as monetary reward

Question 16

‘authoritative resources’

Answer 16

which involve control over management practices

Question 17

Example of ‘allocative resources’ and ‘authoritative resources’

Answer 17

an entrepreneur has the allocative resources of her capital, as well as authoritative resources granted by the legal system to establish her company and HR system in a way she feels is appropriate.

Question 18

French and Raven’s restrictions to power

Answer 18

treats power as an attribute and the property of an individual leader

Question 19

Stephen Lukes (1974) power ideas

Answer 19

treats power as a relational construct, and not solely the property of an individual.

power is a ‘three-dimensional’ phenomenon

Question 20

Stephen Lukes (1974) power is a ‘three-dimensional’ phenomenon

One dimensional view of power

Answer 20

The one-dimensional view of power focuses on the individual’s ability to enact commands in observable conflicts.

For example, if an employer changes his mind for transferring operations abroad in response to a strike by workers, it would be evidence that the workers had power.

Question 21

One-dimensional power dynamics focus

Answer 21

on the behaviour of leaders and followers in the making and enactment of decisions where there is a conflict of interest.

Question 22

The outcome of a decision is ____ and shows which side is ______

Answer 22

observable

‘powerful’

Question 23

Lukes’s explanation of a conflict of interest

Answer 23

Where, for example, conflict is just a matter of fine-tuning existing organizational structures and routines simply rooted in the contingencies of everyday organizational life

Question 24

A two-dimensional view of power

Answer 24

extends the analyses by examining the ability of social actors to control the agenda, which is a source of power overlooked in the pluralist model, one-dimensional perspective

Question 25

three-dimensional view of power

Answer 25

provides a ‘radical view’ of power. He argues that people sometimes act without coercion in ways that appear contrary to their self-interests. Lukes calls this the ‘manipulation of desires’

the social processes in which those with power induce the powerless to behave or believe as the former wish, without coercion. This is achieved by a complex infrastructure of persuasion or justification.

Question 26

Foucault’s theory of power

Answer 26

For him, power operates within all social institutions, at all levels of social interaction and through all individuals.

Power does not intrude from powerful individuals; it exudes from within. Followers are not the victims of others’ power; rather, they are both the perpetrators and the victims of the very power that constrains their behaviour

For example, an employee feels obligated to stay late at the office because her team leader is still there; even though she does not know whether late working will result in anything either positive or negative.

power is associated with the web of policies, practices and procedures found within organizations

Question 27

hegemony

Answer 27

which acknowledges the complexity and mixture of consensus and conflict, and hence power relations in a broad sense

In essence, it expresses the relationships of leadership and domination that produce a general sense of coordinated reality for most People

Question 28

hegemony expresses two types of power relations

Answer 28

1) describes a group’s domination over other groups

2) describes a group’s leadership

Question 29

Richard Sennett’s (2012) ‘social triangle’ concept

Answer 29

1) authority,
2) mutual respect
3) cooperation

remind us that human capability is different from other ‘resources’ because followers’ cooperation and commitment always have to be won and sustained by leaders and managers.

Question 30

The Greek philosopher Epictetus declared that

Answer 30

‘no one is afraid of Caesar himself, but is afraid of death, loss of property, prison, disenfranchisement … When we love and hate and fear these things, it needs must be that those who control them are masters over us’

Question 31

‘dark corners’ of organizational life that ‘stifle the individual’

Answer 31

The episodes of leader-coercive and bullying behaviours in workplaces

Bullying, harassment, any negatives to the work life

Those leader–follower interactions that include such behaviours clearly seek to humiliate and degrade the follower

Question 32

Bullying behaviour

Answer 32

Includes: verbal abuse, harassment, bullying, sexual innuendo, physical violence

Question 33

The academic debate around power in leadership is generally divided into two perspectives

Answer 33

1) The first is dominated by the way traditional leadership approaches (trait, style, contingency and new leadership) see power as a phenomenon within hierarchical structures and control systems of organization
2) The second focuses on the role of dispersed leadership theories and their emphasis on the promotion of empowerment through the transfer of leadership responsibilities to lower levels with post-bureaucratic organizations

Question 34

Orthodox Theories

Answer 34

So-called orthodox theories adhere to an understanding of the conventional structures and control models of organizations and identify the leader–follower relationship as being of central importance to leadership practice within that structure.

Question 35

Orthodox Theories Gordon 2002

Answer 35

identifies that this presents leaders with a dualistic position of privilege within organizations: they are considered to be superior to other followers, either through natural ability or particular attributes

Question 36

Limits to orthodox theories

Answer 36

As a consequence, these theories tend to be ‘limited to reflections of surface-level issues and occurrences

Question 37

Dispersed leadership theories

Answer 37

focus primarily on self-leadership and team-based leadership approaches

Unlike traditional theories, these approaches to work design espouse a sharing of power between leaders and followers.

However, this also assumes that power must be shared and that the process of sharing power will be unproblematic

Question 38

Self-leadership

Answer 38

sees employees take responsibility for their own work processes and direction

Question 39

Team leadership

Answer 39

Centres around autonomous work teams, which each have their own leader

Question 40

Fleming and Spicer four sites of organizational power that are relevant to thinking around leadership

Answer 40

1) power ‘in’ organizations (which relates directly to struggles around formal organizational boundaries and the exercise of managerial command structures)
2) power ‘through’ organizations (when the organization itself becomes a vehicle to further interests or goals)
3) power ‘over’ organizations (draws attention to how elites might compete to influence how an organization develops)
4) power ‘against’ the organization (deals with attempts to use extra-organizational spaces to engage in political activity and create change within the sector)

Question 41

Weberian social theory

Answer 41

bureaucratic organization is viewed as a ‘social tool’ and an expression of rational thought and action

Any follower in a large organization will encounter a complex flow of power down, up and across organization hierarchies

Question 42

Dyadic relationship

Answer 42

Leader-follower

Question 43

Power in leadership theory and management practice

Answer 43

2.1: Our perspective on power are non-management ideas, inspiring management-specific post facto explanation
Keep in mind that management involves application of ideas from reference disciplines

2. 2: Management implementation of leadership theory presumes:
   1) Natural or otherwise unquestionable hierarchy
   2) or dependency relations
   3) or at least communicative relations regarding acknowledged rules