Power in Workplace

This essay discusses the different sources and categorization of power in the workplace. It also talks about the effects of power in an organization and illustrates examples of how power can be used for the betterment of an entire organization. The essay also explains the difference between hard and soft power and their consequences. The subject is Power in Workplace and the document type is an essay.

Running head: POWER IN WORKPLACE
Power in Workplace
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1POWER IN WORKPLACE
Power refers to the capacity that an individual has that helps him in influencing the
conduct of other people. Power acts as a compound social characteristic by taking recourse to
which an individual can force the action or the inaction of the other individuals that is
contrary to their needs along with desires. Power is derived from the ability of imposing
coercion and it helps in setting agenda in relation to future action (Maner & Mead, 2010).
The use of power in the workplace depends on the personality of the employees and his
position in the company. This essay discusses about the different sources of power. The essay
also talks about the different categorization of power and the effects of power in an
organization. The essay also illustrates examples that helps in revealing how power can be
used for the betterment of an entire organization.
According to French and Raven, power can be divided into that of five distinct forms
(Raven, 2017). There are various forms of power that has an effect on the leadership potential
of an individual. The five bases of power are coercive, expert, referent, legitimate and
reward. According to Hughes (1993), coercive power makes use of threat of the force that
can help an individual in gaining compliance from that of another person. Expert power is on
the basis of what an individual knows and experiences. An individual can demonstrate
expertise with the help of reputation, actions along with credentials. Referent power can be
said to be rooted within affiliations that an individual makes and the outcome of referent
power can be either positive or it can be negative. Legitimate power is derived from
appointed position of the authority which is undermined by that of the social norms. It has
been argued by Blau (2017) that the rewarding and the punishing of the subordinates is
thought of to be legitimate part of leadership role. Reward power is on the basis of right of
some individual that provides him with the opportunity of offering or denying the emotional
and the spiritual rewards to other people.

2POWER IN WORKPLACE
Power can be divided into two categories- hard and soft power. Joseph Nye who was
a pioneer in the arena of international politics has stated that hard power refers to the
capability of an individual in relation to coercion so that they would act in a manner they
would not otherwise have acted (Nye Jr, 2017). There are two sources in relation to hard
power within an organization. According to Shafritz, Ott and Jang (2015), tools pertaining to
hard power are bullying, hiring, bargaining along with firing. Soft power refers to the ability
of attracting instead of coercing. Soft power can help an individual in shaping the preferences
of other people by making use of appeal along with attraction. It has been argued by Jo and
Park (2016) that soft power is non-coercive and the currency pertaining to soft power can be
said to be culture along with the political values. Soft power has acted as a major force that
has been able to influence the public opinion. Hard and the soft power can be said to be
related as they are elements that helps individuals in achieving their purpose. It has an effect
on the behaviour of other people. It can also be said that hard along with soft power
reinforces and they interferes in relation to each other. All the leaders need certain amount of
soft power that can help them in achieving their objective.
The consequences of hard power can be seen in the fact that it can help in
implementing strategy within an organization. According to Hatch (2018), the reward
systems made use of by the leadership in an organization can help in the framing of
organizational strategy that can help an organization in achieving success. The leaders in an
organisation in the event of implementing hard power can intimidate and manipulate the
employees that can help an organization in achieving its aim. The effect of soft leadership can
be perceived in the fact that it can help the leader in articulating vision that can help the
employees in an organization. The emotional intelligence of soft leadership helps him in
channelling the personal passions that can help in attracting other people within an
organization.

3POWER IN WORKPLACE
The term “hard power” came up in the event of Joseph Nye coining the term soft
power that acts as a different form of the power within the foreign policy of a sovereign state.
The history of hard power bears testimony to the fact that it makes use of coercive
diplomacy, military action along with economic sanctions that helps a nation in establishing
its supremacy over the other nation (Ilgen, 2016). Hard power has been used in history for
changing the state of balance of the power. There are democratic states existing in North
America along with Western Europe that has succeeded in achieving the diplomatic
objectives by making use of attraction along with persuasion. There are countries like US,
UK, Canada along with Germany that has been able to promote influence by taking recourse
to language, education along with culture that signifies the using of soft power (Maner &
Mead, 2010). They do not depend on the traditional form pertaining to military hard power.
The idea of soft power has become popular after the Brexit vote as there were claims that
leaving Britain would damage the reputation of Britain.
Power is indicative of capacity which helps an individual in having an influence on
the conduct of the other people. Hard power is indicative of capability of individual by taking
recourse to which he coerces that changes the action of other individual. Soft power can make
an individual shape the preference of the other people by the usage of appeal. Soft power can
be said to be non-coercive and it helps in motivating other people in an organisation. Hard
power can help an individual in the implementation of strategy within an organization. A soft
leader is imbibed with a great amount of emotional intelligence that proves to be useful in
channelling personal passions that can attract employees in an organisation.

4POWER IN WORKPLACE
References
Blau, P. (2017). Exchange and power in social life. Routledge.
Hatch, M. J. (2018). Organization theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives.
Oxford university press.
Hughes, R. L. (1993). Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. Richard D. Irwin,
Inc., 1333 Burridge Parkway, Burridge, IL 60521.
Ilgen, T. L. (Ed.). (2016). Hard power, soft power and the future of transatlantic relations.
Routledge.
Jo, S. J., & Park, S. (2016). Critical review on power in organization: empowerment in
human resource development. European Journal of Training and Development, 40(6),
390-406.
Maner, J. K., & Mead, N. L. (2010). The essential tension between leadership and power:
When leaders sacrifice group goals for the sake of self-interest. Journal of personality
and social psychology, 99(3), 482.
Nye Jr, J. S. (2017). Soft power: the origins and political progress of a concept.
Raven, B. H. (2017). The comparative analysis of power and power preference. In Social
power and political influence (pp. 172-198). Routledge.
Shafritz, J. M., Ott, J. S., & Jang, Y. S. (2015). Classics of organization theory. Cengage
Learning.