Free Custom «Power Bases» Essay Paper

Due the referent power he has on his fellow team members, employee 3 influenced the entire group to adopt his new sales idea, even though they were not sure if the idea would fit with the corporate culture. Additionally, the charisma and positivity in employee 3 provided him with the formal power as he is given the leadership of the project team despite his short tenure inexperience.

However, with power comes the dependency among the power holders and those without such powers in the organization. According to Robbins (2009) power is a function of dependency. That is to say that the real cause of power is the dependency among individuals in organizations. In the corporation A, the operations both in the Marketing department and the accounting department are just but a network of power and dependency relationships.

For the coercive power of the marketing management to be felt, the employee 1’s dependency on the end year bonus had to play a role in coercing him to working extra hard. The success of his vocation highly depends on his degree of loyalty to the company’s requirements of getting a reward of a larger bonus. On the side of the accounting manager, the dependency of the accounting department on the employee 2’s expertise results to the expert power of employee over the manger. The accounting manger therefore had to bow to this knowledge power by shortening his working hours so as not to lose his services.

 

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Finally the dependency of the sales team on the employee 3’s interpersonal skills, charisma and problem solving skills presents the referent power enjoyed by the employee 3. As such, the sales team and the project team must keep the respect and admiration for the employee 3 without which his power is not guaranteed. The dependency of this team on the interpersonal and problem solving skills coerced the team into entrusting employee 3 with the leadership of project team even though he had not been experienced in leadership.

For any organization to run smoothly, some form of structure formed by interdependency among the employees must exist. It is on this structure of interdependence that different types of power bases are formed. However, these kinds of power bases should not be confused with the ruler- subject relationship.