Differences Between Power And Authority

Discussion

People tend to think that power and authority mean the same thing and that they are interchangeable when in the real sense these two terms differ in meaning. Power refers to refers to the capacity of an individual to influence other people’s actions whether legitimately or not, without any formal appointment. The act of exercising power is independent in nature. Its acquired through knowledge and expertise. Also power can flow from any direction it does not require a hierarchy to be exercised. Power is attained the moment other people start relying on your knowledge and expertise to solve a situation or undertake some activity. Power does not rely on formal appointment for I to be exercised unlike Authority where one has to follow the chain of command to be able to exercise authority on others. Authority arises as a result of formal appointment or delegation that permits one to exercise control over the others. In most cases authority seems like an obligation that has been made through the use of force. Moreover, authority is something that comes as a result of relying on others to confirm your position to authorize as opposed to power where people rely on your council or resources to get things done. However, power and authority can also be confusing due to the overlapping similarities seen in some aspects. This paper will focus in demystifying the differences between the two terms and apply various examples to provide a much better understanding on the topic.

In my opinion, power refers to the ability of a person to influence/control the behavior/actions of others. An individual’s power stems from various elements that for example one can have power due to his personality, experience, financial resourcefulness or how well informed one is in a certain field (Tierney, Linehan, & Ullmann,2008).  For example, professionals such as lawyers and doctors get their power from their expertise and professional knowledge that has been acquired through learning and practicing. In such cases, these people can control people because they are experts in those various fields and so people trust them and are willing to do what they are told. That is, such a person with that kind of power can make a decision for someone, and he/she will not be opposed as his or her decisions are seen to be right by the society or majority of the population. A classic example is when someone gets sick and goes to the hospital to seek treatment, the doctor gives instructions to that patient on what he/she should do so as to get better. This patient is not obliged to do as the doctor says because the doctor is not his boss, but the patient follows the instructions given to the letter because he believes that the doctor is right as he is knowledgeable and an expert in what he does and this is a clear illustration of power.

On the other hand, authority refers to the obligation that a person has been given to achieve an organization’s goals. This person has been granted a formal right to command and give orders/instructions to his/her subordinates and in return, they are expected to comply as long as the orders given lie within the terms of the employment contract. Therefore, it is safe to say that authority is gotten from the position that one holds. Authority always flows downwards that is, it is delegated from top to bottom. This is to imply that in an institution, the lower managers are answerable to the middle-level managers who are accountable to the top level managers who in turn are answerable to the shareholders of the company (Letchfield, 2010). Hence, the higher someone’s position is, the more authority they possess in decision making.

Significance of Decision-making

The significance of decision-making- Decision-making is an integral part of our lives since we make decisions about various issues daily. For a company or organization to be able to achieve its goals and run as efficiently as possible, then decision making needs to be as smooth as possible whereby everyone understands his/her role and authority are respected (DuBrin,2012). Organizational structure is a means of facilitating the achievement of organizational objectives. These structures are typically dependent upon the employees that are; managers and supervisors rely on power and authority to ensure that employees do what they are supposed to do.

This is the legal power that a supervisor has to direct subordinates to take action accordingly. In an institution, where formalization is low, employees have a lot of freedom whereby they decide how to carry out their duties. However, where formalization is high, supervisors make decisions on how responsibilities in the organization are to be conducted and the employees are expected to oblige and do as they are told. There are various types of authority namely; line authority, staff authority and team authority.

Line authority: Authority that flows directly from the top to the bottom of the company. It is a chain of command that extends throughout the entire organization. Here supervisors are in charge, they give orders, evaluate performance and can reward or punish employees as they see fit. This kind of authority provides stability in the organization in that, employees are aware of whom to report to or rather whom they are accountable to

Staff authority: This is an authority that is based on expertise and normally involves advising line managers. Staff supervisors help departments to decide on what to do in issues like legal matters, human resources, public relations among others.

Team Authority:  A kind of authority granted to work teams involved in the organization’s day to day operations. Such work groups usually consist of employees who are mandated with carrying out specific tasks with minimal supervision.

In addition to the authority, supervisors have more personal uses of power to draw upon to get things done. Power, in essence, refers to the ability to exert influence in the organization beyond authority. A supervisor’s personal power could include physical strength, persuasiveness, knowledge, ability to get results just to mention a few (Griffin,2012).Ineffective running of the organization, supervisors may have to rely on various kinds of power such as reward power where a reward such as promotions are given when work is well done. Legitimate power where the supervisor has a legal right to give commands that are to be followed by the employees, another type of power is coercive power where fear is used to execute an action, for instance, an employee may be threatened that he will lose his job if he does not perform. Finally, referent power is also used by people up in the hierarchy of command to ensure smooth operation by exploiting the admiration that their employees have for them since they are aware that these employees look up to them and will do their best to please them and so, the supervisors use this to their advantage.

Types of Authority

From the above definitions of power and authority, it is clear that these two terms differ in many aspects. It is possible to have authority with no power for instance when a new manager or supervisor joins an organization, he/she has the authority to give instructions to his/her employees who are expected to comply, but he or she has no power to make them comply (DuBrin,2012).The new supervisor may face some subtle hostility from the employees and it may take time for these workers to warm up to him/her, respect and even look up to him/her and without such this supervisor in essence has authority but no power because were it not for the position held by the supervisor he/she cannot influence the action of the employees. Consequently, a person may have power without authority. An example of such a case is, a normal low ranking employee may be highly respected, admired by his peers and thus very influential and even consulted on some matters during decision making (Western,2007). Although the said person may not be able to able to give out orders or have the final say on decisions, the fact that he possesses such kind of influence over the rest of his fellow wok mates is power.

Differences between power and authority .Sure enough, power and authority do differ in more ways than one, but at the same time, they do overlap since they do share some aspects and also in some situations one without the other leads to inefficient execution of activities. More so, in decision making a delicate process that ensures the efficient running of an organization, without proper use of both power and authority, the objectives of the organization may not be achieved and worse. Still, the organization may collapse since proper management is the only guarantee of an institution’s success (Marquis & Huston, 2009). In that case, for effective decision making, it is vital that the gap between power and authority is closed. This is to mean that those in higher ranks need to look for ways in which they can have power since they already have authority. Authority gives you permission to make decisions, but the power behind the authority lies in the willingness of the person to be a good leader. There are several ways a supervisor can bridge the gap between power and authority including:

Ability to listen and learn; Effective decision making happens when the leader and those who follow him/her learn from each other. It is only through the willingness of the leader to learn and not act like a know it all that a leader can be able to make informed decisions. This way he or she can exercise his full authority and since he is going down to the level of listening to his subordinates, he achieves power in the process and thus efficient decision making happens (Bacon &Terry, 2011)

Being true to self; Authority is simply a mechanism provided to some people that facilitate decision making and therefore when you being a leader/supervisor presents yourself honestly to your staff, people are more likely to accept and trust you, and that is where true power lies as opposed to the misguided belief that power is instilling fear into people to do your bidding (Kellerman &Barbara. 2010)

Supervisors’ Personal Uses of Power

Recognizing and rewarding good work; to put power behind authority, good work should always be recognized. We all need an incentive to work even harder in our places of work, and so when are rewarded for doing a good job, we strive always to improve, correct where we have weaknesses and always bring our best to the table. When given such recognition, we are eager to do more and do it happily. And that is where the real power lies and the sooner a leader establishes this fact, the faster he/she can implement it to motivate his/her workers to work better and so management becomes so much easier (Seperich &McCalley,2006).

Rolling up your sleeves and joining in; Most leaders are misguided to think that their main responsibility is just to issue orders and not to get their hands dirty when in fact there is nothing that beats having a leader that is so flexible that he does not mind joining his staff in carrying out their duties once in a while. When your subordinates see that you are not afraid of getting down to their level, to show them how you want things to be done, they become motivated and enthusiastic to perform (Radcliffe & Landale, 2010). Through such kind of displays, better work relationships horizontally as well as diagonally are established, and as such, there is more efficient running of operations resulting in improved performance of the organization.

Below is a table that summarizes the differences in these terms.

Power	Authority
According to nature
Power is the capacity to influence others	Authority is the granted permission to the management to make decisions and command people
Direction of flow
Power can flow any direction. Subordinates can influence the behavior of their superiors and so can the superior influence the subordinates. It can also flow horizontally among the colleagues	Authority flows only in one direction that is from the superiors to the subordinates this is because authority relies upon delegation.
organization
It is hard to prepare a chart that shows how power is exercised by one individual to another	Authority is very simple to understand how it works as it can be represented diagrammatically o a flow chart.
Engagement
people with power are relied on to influence decisions or take actions due to their knowledge  and ability	Authority relies on other people for it to come into existence. Without people, there is no authority.
legitimacy
Power does not require any legal approval for it to be exercised	Authority has to e conferred by the superiors for it to be exercised
Power arises from the traits and abilities of an individual and cannot be shifted.	Authority is given and can be shifted from one person to another

Below is a summary of similarities in power and authority that overlap hence creating confusion

Once one has one of them, either power or authority, there is a very thin line in distinguishing the two as they go hand in hand.

Power means the ability to use the authority to influence decisions and actions, while authority is the permission from the superiors to use power to get things done.

The two when combined give birth to leadership, which is the aspect of balancing power and authority.

Conclusion

Is it better to have power or authority? I say it is better to have both as these are two entities that rely on each other for maximum results. Those in authority at times tend to misuse their position by getting people to do their bidding by using fear as their motivator thinking that when you are feared you can always get your way, but this can only last for so long. What happens when you lose that position? If that ever happens, one thing that is certain is that those people that you used to scare into doing your bidding, cannot listen to you any longer because they are aware that you have no power over them and that you cannot use threats against them anymore. This goes to show why it is important to have power as well when in authority and since power is not handed to anyone on a silver platter, one has to work for it. You have to earn respect; you have to earn admiration. For you to have any significant influence over others, there must be something special, something setting you apart from the rest be it your knowledge, your ability to relate to different groups of people, your expertise in your field among others. The bottom line is, power is earned and so being a leader, it should be your priority to earn power because just authority is not a guarantee of maximum results in regards to the running of an organization. Smart and skilled managers balance these options and use motivation rather than fear to achieve results and do not need to overt the use of power or authority.

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