French And Raven’s Power Theory And Examples Of Effective Leadership

Five Forms of Power in French and Raven’s Power Theory

In the recent times, effectiveness of leaders is very vital to achieve success and growth for the organization. Power and leadership qualities are closely related to each other (Teimouri et al. 2015). It has been observed that various forms of power affect an individual’s success and leadership. In 1959, Sir John French and Bertram Raven conducted an effective study relating to power (Fukuyama 2015). Power is generally divided into five different forms, which can be classified as coercive, legitimate, referent, reward and expert. When an individual is deemed to be leader, they have the ultimate power to make effective decisions. Moreover, according to French and Raven theory, social influences lead to the change in attitudes and beliefs of a leader (Hingley, Angell and Campelo 2015). The social powers are thus defined as potential of such influences that leads to change through available resources. The idea is therefore often used throughout the workforce and in organizational communication for effective management.

French and Raven’s power theory are in initiated with observance and extent to which power is dependent on present structural conditions (Karkoulian and Osman 2014). Dependency is actually the base or degree relating to internalization that takes place among individuals relating to social control. The first form of power is Coercive Power. It is the idea related to coercion which means that an individual is forced to perform against their will. The objective related to this is compliance. Thus kind of power leads to various problems. This includes dissatisfaction at work and unhealthy behavior. Leaders with coercive power use threats like, demotion or dismissal as their management style (Kent, Sommerfeldt and Saffer 2016). Reward power is another form of power, which involves an individual’s ability to delegate matters to the subordinates and reward them for their performance. The most popular forms are such as raises, compliments and promotions. The leader should offer reward to those team players, who are striving to achieve to make the leadership effective. 

Legitimate power is the power that gives an individual the ability to connect certain notion of responsibility or obligation towards the management. It is the most recognized form of power as well as leadership. Often it is regarded as ‘title power’ as the power comes along to the leader after being appointed to a particular position. The title or power is of great use while it is held but is eventually goes as the title is taken back (Blois and Hopkinson 2015). CEO, owners and other executives hold such power. Such kind of power is generally a weak form to convince and persuade other people. The fourth power is referent power that is based upon the individual’s right attitude (Özaslan 2017). This is usually the result of individual’s worthiness, perceived attractiveness and charm. A leader that possesses referent power has good appreciation from their environment. Therefore tends to have high number of influences. Referent power is often treated with high admiration and charm. A leader having referent power also has lot of influences.

Mahatma Gandhi: an Example of Effective Leadership through Referent Power

The last form of power is expert power, which is based on the individual’s in-depth information, expertise or knowledge. Leaders having expert powers are highly intelligent and self-confident. They trust their inner power to fulfill all the roles and responsibilities within the organization (Hunt 2015). A leader is effectively able to convince their subordinates as a result of their expert knowledge and power. The expertise of the leader is demonstrated through actions, credentials and reputations. Recently another form of power is also added by Raven, Informational power, which is the sixth base of power. Information power is the ability to bring about change by an agent of influence through adequate informational resources.  According to Raven informational leads to cognition and is accepted by the target of influence. In the age of digitalization, informational power is rapidly relevant due to the abundance of information that is easily available. The leaders with informational power possess knowledge that the community needs or want. It is actually a transitory form of power as the power is given away, when passes one information to other. French and Raven’s prior five forms of power are fully independent of the content (Blois and Hopkinson 2015). 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is popularly recognized as the greatest spiritual and political leader of twentieth century. His power of non-violence and love is one of his key assets. Due to his stature, presently he is considered as Mahatma, which means ‘great soul’ (Nayak 2018). Mahatma Gandhi was a visionary and empowering leader, who possessed the referent power as per French and Raven’s theory. Mahatma Gandhi proved to be an empowering leader not only as he empowered the Indians throughout the nation to corrupt the British Empire. Since, he was a true pioneer of Satyagraha. He was not only a mere politician but a man of vision and a great statesman. In India, Gandhi established himself as the slave of people and thus empowered the general public. He made it a firm policy to practice according to his preach. Just like many in the country, he resorted himself to simple living. Therefore, people looked up to him as their leader and guide. He had great motivational and communication skills (Kent, Sommerfeldt and Saffer 2016).

Gandhi was also popular in South Africa because of his movements and works. His non-violent management or leadership style was very well respected in the Indian style. He proved himself to be a transformational leader as he always motivated and empowered his followers towards success. With his charm and outstanding personality he gave the people hope when there was none (Higgs and Dulewicz 2016). In the modern history, Mahatma Gandhi is regarded as one of the great transformational leader due to his self-confidence and long term- vision. While leading several campaigns nationwide he applied his motivational and strategic planning skills. Mahatma Gandhi appeals influencing tactics that is based on friendship and loyalty. He accomplished his aim to free India from foreign domination in the year 1947. Various world civil rights leaders from Martin Luther King, Jr. up to Nelson Mandela have given credit to Gandhi for their source of inspiration (Carrillo, Gonzalez-Sparks and Salcedo 2017). Mahatma Gandhi was a servant leader, transformational and also won million of heart though his power of love. He is looked upon as a role model by his followers and is regarded with high self-esteem. 

Bill Gates: an Example of Effective Leadership through Legitimate and Expert Power

Bill Gates is another example, who is one of the top most admired business leaders throughout the world. He held legitimate power and rewarded as well as punished his employees to achieve success in the long-run. In the year 2008, Bill Gates retires from his CEO’s position that he held in Microsoft (Long 2017). He also possessed coercive power and was known to be very demanding boss by his subordinates. This power therefore encouraged his employees by enhancing their creativity and innovative skills. This further helped in recognizing the team and individuals achievement. He followed an authoritarian leadership style and changed his techniques and management style according to the situation. He was in control of everything within the organization of Microsoft. Much of his success can be rightly attributed to his quick decision making power. Bill Gates also possessed expert power as he was highly expert and genius in performing his duty. He focused on his domain and pursued his objective of dominance in software and operating system. 

Besides focus Bill Gates also has the ability to dream big, which he pursued through single-minded determination. He proved that knowledge is infinite and even though dropping out his college, he constantly improved himself to achieve his dreams. (Kovach 2016) His followers look upon him as a role model and guide by constantly innovating themselves and are successful. He held coercive power and was an autocratic leader but never threats or manipulated others to gain advantages. He used legitimate power while dealing with company’s high level mangers. Microsoft is famous for rewards and giving bonus and huge remuneration packages to its employees. Bill Gates held expert power due to his master of knowledge and expertise. He was mostly task-oriented leader and wanted better performance from his followers and subordinates (Fejerskov 2015). The work was done to achieve the organizational goals and objective.

Effective leadership has lead to accomplishing different challenging tasks effectively. In the current times, the features that are vital for leaders and organizations are to motivate people for making their valuable contribution through effective communication skills. It is important to hold powers that could lead to achieve the goals in the long-run. Therefore, it can be concluded that leaders have to create a charismatic personality so that their followers can be inspired and should further lead through examples to attain positive results. They need to offer their subordinates with excellent rewards and appreciation to gain support from their subordinates and followers.   

References:

Blois, K.J. and Hopkinson, G.C., 2015. Rejoinder to Hunt’s ‘The bases of power approach to channel relationships’. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(7-8), pp.765-773.

Carrillo, M., Gonzalez-Sparks, A. and Salcedo, N.U., 2017. Relationship Between Legitimate and Expert Social Power Types of Preadolescent Children on the Influence Perception in Their Mothers’ Purchasing Behavior in Peruvian Toy Stores. In Creating Marketing Magic and Innovative Future Marketing Trends (pp. 371-388). Springer, Cham.

Fejerskov, A.M., 2015. From unconventional to ordinary? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the homogenizing effects of international development cooperation. Journal of International Development, 27(7), pp.1098-1112.

Fukuyama, F., 2015. Why is democracy performing so poorly?. Journal of Democracy, 26(1), pp.11-20.

Higgs, M. and Dulewicz, V., 2016. Developments in leadership thinking. In Leading with Emotional Intelligence (pp. 75-103). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Hingley, M., Angell, R. and Campelo, A., 2015. Introduction to the special issue on power in business, customer, and market relationships. Industrial Marketing Management, 48, pp.101-102.

Hunt, S.D., 2015. The bases of power approach to channel relationships: has marketing’s scholarship been misguided?. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(7-8), pp.747-764.

Karkoulian, S. and Osman, Y., 2014. The effect of French and Raven power on knowledge acquisition, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing: An empirical investigation in Lebanese organizations. Oxford Journal: An International Journal of Business & Economics, 2(1).

Kovach, M., 2016. The Power Dynamics that Facilitate or Inhibit Organizational Success. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 16(2), p.45.

Long, B.S., 2017. Film Narratives and Lessons in Leadership: Insights From the Film & Leadership Case Study (FLiCS) Club. Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(4), pp.75-89.

Nayak, A.K., 2018. Effective leadership traits from Bhagavad Gita. International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 16(1), pp.1-18.

Özaslan, G., 2017. Principals’ conceptions of their current power basis revealed through phenomenography. Journal of Educational Administration.