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Organization Leadership is an extensive and limitless topic. While leading
organizations comes down to two basic questions “W here are you leading
it to?” and “How are you going to lead it?”, the answers to these are not
so simple, and there is no single best answer. Leadership, in essence, is
a complex undertaking of a number of different competencies, which
doesn’t only require the knowledge and understanding of these, but also
the right attitude, strong character, boundary–less vision and the
unprecedented willingness, on the part of the leaders , to follow through
with these competencies. There’s an old adage that “A group of Donkeys
led by a lion can defeat a group of lions led by a donkey” and it is proven
time and time again, that an effective leader is what it takes for an
organization to be successful.
There were a lot of compelling and thought provoking topics discussed
throughout this course, but the one that particularly caught my interest
was “Power”. After searching on the interne t what Power means, a lot of
interesting definitions show up. As per Dictionary.com power can be either
one of the following things
1. Ability to do or act
2. Capability of doing or accomplishing something.
3. Political or national strength
4. The possession of control or command over others
5. Legal ability, capacity, or authority
From all of these, a condensed definition in my mind for power is the
ability or strength, with which one can exercise control or get things done.
In 1959, French and Raven described five bases of power1:
1. Coercive – This comes from the belief that a person can punish
others for noncompliance.
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2. Reward – This results from one person‘s ability to compensate
another for compliance.
3. Legitimate – This comes from the belief that a person has the formal
right to make demands, and to expect others to be compliant and
obedient.
4. Expert – This is based on a person‘s high levels of skill and
knowledge.
5. Referent – This is the result of a person‘s perceived attractiveness,
worthiness and the right to others‘ respect.
The thing with Power is that it can be both used and abused. The saying
“Power Corrupts” holds true irrespective of the type of power it is. In this
paper, I am going to expand on the ideas of these five bases of power,
and provide my insight on each one of them.
Coercive Power
Coercive power is typically held by people higher up in position or
authority. This type of power gives people an ability to influence others
decisions, or to make others behave in a certain desirable way by
threatening to punish them and/or alter their privileges. Coercive power
can be categorized as the violent one among all other types of power, and
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse
– Edmund Burke2
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is formed on the element of fear. Coercive power can vary in its intensity,
but in some cases, it is necessary to get ideal outcomes, for e.g. using it
on employees or subordinates who do not respond well to any other types
of power.
Coercive power can cause damage and have detrimental effects. T he
power of coercion is usually short lived and the aftermath of using it could
be largely negative. There’s only a certain level of influence you can have
with coercive power, and after the threshold is reached by the people on
whom it has been exercised on, it can backfire. People will leave if they
feel mistreated, and you might be accused of bullying or abusing them.
