The Appropriate Use of Power in the Workplace - Organizational Behavior

This case study on Organizational Behavior discusses the appropriate use of power in the workplace. It explores the different forms of power, their impact on employees and the organization, and how power is perceived and felt. The study also includes a discussion on the relationship between power and behavior, and how power is used to coordinate and communicate expectations between managers and employees.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organizational Behavior
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Table of Contents
Case Study.......................................................................................................................................2
Case study questions with answers..................................................................................................4
References:......................................................................................................................................6

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The appropriate use of power in the workplace
Case Study
Before joining for his new assignment in his dream company named Oracle, Thomas kept
thinking regarding it the whole day after many years of hard work. Thomas has read many things
about Oracle and its management process. He has learnt that the company makes use of several
types of power with the employees in order to create a sense of leadership among its employees
and to motive them well along with complete designate authority and autonomy for exercising
their commands to achieve success. Apparently, there were several different companies that have
experienced a very bad scenario through making use of power within the organisation in an
unhealthy manner as it was resulting in the loss of their reputation in the market and among their
customers. Thomas wondered that is the use of power in the organisation a systematic use of
authority for delegating the work to the people after having a good understanding of the potential
and abilities of the every employee? He kept wondering is the use of power command the people
with an asset of guidelines which would give them a direction for performing the tasks that are
assigned to them for attaining the organisational objectives as according to the timelines. All
these things were making Thomas curious before the days of his joining in Oracle. Finally the
day has come and Thomas, on his very first day of the orientation was introduced to the senior
officials of the company, his team mates and co-workers with whom Thomas was supposed to
work along with the road map of the future growth of the company in context to its earlier
performances. Thomas was undoubtedly warmly welcome by each and everyone in his team and
was also later allocated with a challenging task as his very first assignment. Thomas was feeling
very proud that the team leader of his team was rated as the best professional expert in this
industry and that he is well aware of every small details of his expertise field by the
management. As the days were passing, Thomas got into the system of the organisation really
well and after spending five long months in the firm, Thomas started understanding the real
meaning of power to some extent. Although, all his works was done by him within the deadline
as well as the required parameters butt still, he was not able to understand his senior expectation
in a proper way and due to this fact even after 6 months of his work; Thomas was unable to
impress his senior with his presentations. This was making him difficult for confronting his
superior.
According to Taylor, power helps in creating a dynamic relationship of the company with
all its employees and aids in creating a relationship in between the leader and his followers that
is channelled by means of commitment, cooperation and communication (Taylor 2018). Thomas

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understood that power in the work could exist because of the structure of the organisation for
influencing the employees and the control behaviour. Power reflects the individual and
organisational beliefs as well as behaviour of the employees and the leaders working for them.
Right from the relationship of manager to the employee, the use of power is very complex and
crucial because of the interaction among the two drives to a smoother work flow in the firm. In
this relationship, interaction plays the role of a medium for commanding and transiting the power
in the workplace. As Thomas finally confronted with his colleagues in order to make his
performance better, he learnt many forms of power which are been used at the work place.
The different forms of power-
The power was divided in different forms within the company and that were of personal
power and social power (Colbert, Yee and George 2016). These bases assist in mobilising the
employee and the resources in order to attain targets within the company along with creating a
subordinate satisfaction and for achieving commitment from their part. Right from the legitimate
use of power at the manager’s end, it is the structure of the company which brings in the system
as it defines the roles and responsibilities of every employee. Then reward power, it defines the
ability of the manager for administering the individuals through giving them rewards and
recognition among his subordinates. It might be either formal or informal as it depends on the
decision and the policy of the company. Furthermore, the expert power, which is basically based
on the ability, knowledge and expertise for assessing the skills and job of the manager. Such kind
of power is known to be a good source of personal power. This reminded Thomas the title of star
performer and of employee of the month which is rated by his superior often at the end of every
month meetings. Again, in case of Referent Power, the definition of it describes that it is the
power that gives a sense of authority to the employees to rate their manager (Raven 2017). It
makes the manager of the company admirable by his subordinates and makes him a ideal for the
others. This power works on the base of admiration and is also independent to the hierarchical
position and title. Apparently, the expert power is again very closely related to the referent power
as the manager who use these power are mainly unbiased and they lost focus on the performance
and work ethics irrespective of the job title. Finally, the coercive power is used by the managers
for administering and controlling the subordinates and team members when they make any
mistake. It is basically done in the form of punishment like pay cuts, written letter, suspension
etc. All these power are exercised by the employees when their attitude and actions are
intolerable as per the rules and policies of the company. It is basically a way to demonstrating an
unacceptable attitude of the people in the organisation in an assertive way.
Thomas, after having a long discussion with his team mates could now to some extent
relate to the behaviour of this superior and could now understand the reason of him behind doing
so. With the same, it also makes him wonder why he was never been able to make it to the
category of star performer although he was giving is best to the work and is also meeting all his
timelines. He was now able to know every people working in different departments and due to
his friendly nature; he made friendship with other within a very short period of time. He heard

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many stories regarding people having a good command over their team members as because of
their sharp and good analytical skills they have often received appreciation for their work.
However, the only thing that was still not known to him was that of those powers that he learnt
about must have been derived from somewhere which has affected the people and the
organisation. Hence, Thomas decided to meet those acquaintances in order to have a good
understanding along with an honest intention so that he could know the things in better way from
the experts.
Oracle is popular among the young people as it is best known to be a company that
invites talent and brilliant minds to work for it across the nations. This makes the people who
work for it confident regarding their choices as well as they provide a greater commitment to
their assignments as well. As per the committed friends of Thomas, power was considered to be
an ability that is present in a relationship in state of consciousness and sub consciousness. They
provide Thomas with a clear insight on how power is felt and perceived through Invisible, Latent
and Manifest power. Invisible power is executed with proper judgement, reasoning and
awareness that kept in mind for every action that are performed by the team members. Secondly,
the Latent power is the power that is mainly inaction or is invisible. It takes on the form when the
wishes of an individual with more superior powers are being fulfilled and the other individual
resists him from taking any further actions because of complexities and fear. When a leader who
is popular for his performance and work is met by a member, who refrains from his way of doing
and administering the work and others, he does not take any action against him and try to keep
his fears intact as for the sake of his reputation and the position that he holds in the organisation.
At this time the leader seems to perform the latent powers. Lastly, the manifest power is known
as action power which requires the performance to be noticed (Luke 2018). It is a kind of power
that is visible when the seniority administers the policy reforms in any task in the workplace.
All these discussion made Thomas more aware of his response towards the actions of his
manager and the kind of power that he is running through in his team. There are not set
guidelines or standards which could define the appropriateness of the power relating to the
people and their behaviour. With the same, it is also to note that power is situational and
conditional to the environment which the leaders want to create at their work place (McCleskey
2014). The way, in which the company is able to define the roles of every employee to them, it
could never define the use of power in the same manner. John wishes if that was possible.
Case study questions with answers
1. How could be the behaviour of Thomas is be related to the power in the organisational
behaviour?

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- Power is one of the significant attributes of organisation behaviour and it is practiced in
the relationship of manager-employee by the managers as a medium for communicating
the expectation of the manager and to coordinate with him in order to achieve the task has
been assigned. According to this case study, Thomas is well aware of this fact that his
superior or senior is one of the best known professional expert in the industry who
possesses the knowledge of every small detailing of the task and therefore Thomas was
scared to go up to him. Although Thomas too was very sure of his performance as has a
good experience in this field, but the expert power that has been applied by his senior is
dominating by this credentials in this case study. The latent power of his is also
restraining him from inquiring about more information about the recognition practise and
monthly reward system prevailing in the organisation like that of the performer of the
week or star performer or thee employee of the month that use to be a regular practise
done by the team leaders for motivating the employees in order to perform better in the
workplace and to encourage them to work in a more productive manner.
2. What the different forms of power are as discussed in the case study?
- As according to the case study, power is a dominating tool that is practised by the seniors
to allocate the required resources in the correct direction. In a company there are different
kind of person with specific quality that needs to be nurtured in different way and power
is used by the manager for giving a shape to such tasks. There are mainly two kinds of
power and they are personal power and social power and they are further divided in the
Reward, Referent, Legitimate, Coercive and Expert powers. All these powers are sourced
separately by the managers in order to attain their different objective. Reward power is
the ability of the manager for administering the individuals through giving those rewards
and recognition among his subordinates. It might be either formal or informal as it
depends on the decision and the policy of the company. The referent power it is the
power that gives a sense of authority to the employees to rate their manager. It makes the
manager of the company admirable by his subordinates and makes him an ideal for the
others. Thirdly, the legitimate power is the structure of the company which brings in the
system as it defines the roles and responsibilities of every employee. The coercive power
is used by the managers for administering and controlling the subordinates and team
members when they make any mistake. It is basically done in the form of punishment like
pay cuts, written letter, suspension etc. Lastly, the expert power is very closely related to
the referent power as the manager who use these power are mainly unbiased and they lost
focus on the performance and work ethics irrespective of the job title.

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References:
Colbert, A., Yee, N. and George, G., 2016. The digital workforce and the workplace of the
future. Academy of Management Journal, 59(3), pp.731-739.
Luke, A., 2018. Genres of power: Literacy education and the production of capital. In Critical
Literacy, Schooling, and Social Justice (pp. 161-185).
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership
development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Raven, B.H., 2017. The comparative analysis of power and power preference. In Social power
and political influence (pp. 172-198).
Taylor, S.P., 2018. Organisational behaviour, leadership and change. International Journal of
Housing and Human Settlement Planning, 4(1), pp.21-36.