First of all, ‘Power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others.’ plays a very
important role in the workplace always, which means that one has to do one’s best to influence others
as possible as they could.Therefore, so many people complain about the actual situation of their
workplace they belong to. Why makes that? It is the fake action one has to pretend to do to influence
others not of their own accords. However, they have to. Because there always exists the countervailing
power for them to confront.As the book says, ‘the capacity of a person, team, or organization to keep a
more powerful person or group in the exchange relationship.’ As for the special model in this chapter, I
think the dependence model reveals only the core features of power dynamics between people and
work units in organizations and we also need to learn about the specific sources of power and
contingencies that allow that power to be effectively applied as influence.
Secondly, to trace the sources of power in the organizations, we have to know a guy whose name was
John French and Bertrand Raven. Although variations of this list have been proposed over the years,
the original list remains surprisingly intact.6 Three sources of power—legitimate, re-ward, and
coercive—originate mostly (but not completely) from the power holder’s formal position or informal
role. In other words, the person is granted these sources of power formally by the organization or
informally by coworkers. Two other sources of power—expert and referent—originate mainly from the
power holder’s own characteristics; in other words, people carry these power bases around with them.
However, even personal sources of power are not completely within the person, because they depend
on how others perceive them. As the book says,’an agreement among organizational members that
people in certain roles can request certain behaviors of others.’And referent power, ‘the capacity to
influence others on the basis of an identification with and respect for the power holder.’
Thirdly, influence tactics are woven throughout the social fabric of all organizations, because influence
is an essential process through which people coordinate their effort and act in concert to achieve
organizational objectives. As for me ,I think I have learned that influence is central to the definition of
leadership. Influence operates down, across, and up the corporate hierarchy. Executives ensure that
subordinates complete required tasks. Employees influence coworkers to help them with their job
assignments. And as Global Connections 10.1 describes, upward influence tactics—better known as