Effective Use of Leader Power

Although all six types of power are potential means of influencing others, in actual usage they may engender somewhat different levels of subordinate motivation. Subordinates can react to a leader's direction with commitment, compliance, or resistance. With commitment, employees respond enthusiastically and exert a high level of effort toward organizational goals. With compliance, employees exert at least minimal efforts to complete directives but are likely to deliver average, rather than stellar, performance. With resistance, employees may appear to comply but actually do the absolute minimum, possibly even attempting to sabotage the attainment of organizational goals. For example, when Chicago scrap-metal czar Cyrus Tang bought the ailing McLouth Steel Products Corporation, he relied on legitimate and coercive power to gain worker cooperation. Workers reacted with production slowdowns and a wildcat strike that eventually led to the further deterioration of the company and its sale to employees.

Managers usually rely on several different types of power in order to be effective. When Jim Lynn was chosen to be chairman of the Aetna Life & Casualty Company, the firm had just been through the painful process of a competitive price-cutting program, had suffered write-offs from several ill-fated acquisitions in noninsurance areas, and was facing the lowest earnings in 9 years. At that point, Lynn, a 6-year veteran on Aetna's board of directors, a previous partner in two prestigious law firms, and a former Nixon administration cabinet member, had a reputation for being effective with both handling people and solving problems. In establishing himself at Aetna, he clearly had the legitimate power of his new chairman's position. However, he relied heavily on building referent power. According to one former Aetna senior vice president, Lynn went out of his way to "portray a peer relationship with everybody". He also used reward power to boost the morale of the heads of Aetna's three principal businesses, each with revenues of more than $3 billion, by awarding them the title of president in recognition of their major roles in the company.

II. Exercises.

1. Прочтите слова в разделе III и запомните их.

2. Переведите предложения, обращая внимание на подчеркнутые выражения:

Пример: The greater the price on the good, the greater the tax on the good.

Перевод: Чем выше цена на товар, тем больше налог на него.

1. The more we read, the more we know.

2. The greater a manager's control over valued rewards, the greater that manager's reward power.

3. The greater the freedom to punish others, the greater a manager's coercive power.

4. The greater the control over important information, the greater the information.

5. The more we work, the more we get.

3. Найдите в тексте предложения, где сказуемое выражено в страдательном залоге. Определите время. Переведите эти предложения на русский язык (см. грамматический справочник, стр. 70).

4. Переведите письменно текст на русский язык, пользуясь словарем.

5. Напишите развернутые ответы на следующие вопросы, исходя из содержания текста:

1. What are the sources of leader power?

2. What does legitimate power stem from?

3. What is reward power based on?

4. What does coercive power depend on?

5. What is expert power based on?

6. Дайте письменно определения к следующим терминам на английском языке:

• referent power

• information power

• power.

7. Напишите на английском языке, как Вы понимаете:

“How do leaders influence others?”