Power and Characteristics

A small description of Power and its basic characteristics like dependency and its source.

1. Power and Characterstics

2. What is Power? Think of the term ‘power’ for a second and reflect on what goes on in your mind. Do you get a positive feeling? Well, if you don’t, you are not alone. A lot of people have negative feelings about power because the moment we hear that term, we quickly think of situations where we have been harmed by power – denial of leave or a well-deserved promotion or favouritism by a boss. It is common and easy to think of leaders who have used power in an unethical way. In reality, irrespective of the spheres in which leaders operate, they use power to achieve their goals. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. - Abraham Lincoln

3. Definition of Power A bility to cause or prevent an action, make things happen; the discretion to act or not to act. T he capacity to influence the behaviour of others . Any force that results in behaviour that would not have occurred if the force had not been present. power is the ability to make somebody do something that otherwise he or she would not have done.

4. Power is ability, a personal quality of a personal opposite to authority which is reflection of post achieved by an indiviudal. Similarly there are many points that distinct these two terms like power can flow in each direction horizontal, vertical but in case of authority only downwad and many more. Here we are interested in characterstics of power , what are its sailent features , how we can get a general idea of it. It can be assumed that power is just a result of need. Someone exercise power on you not beacuse your are not capable, you are dependent on him/her. If you are working for a firm, company its obvious leaders may warn you, reward you and you have to listen to them until there are chances of escape.

5. Relation: When we say power, there are at least two entities; one exercising the power and one subjugating to the power. The entities may be people, a department, a committee, or an organisation. Other entities or factors also influence this relationship. For example, a manager may want to exercise power over an employee, but it would depend on other factors such as the resistance of the employee, influence of a co-worker, or the union. Bases: Power always has bases. For example, a manager can reward/ promote or punish someone because rules exist to do so. Therefore, rules form the base of power. Characterstics of Power

6. Means: Base becomes effective if the manager has some means to make the base operational. For example, a manager may have the power to reward/promote, but if there is no budget or vacancy, the power cannot be exercised because the means to exercise power does not exist. Scope: Scope refers to the relation between the entities involved. What if the employee is not bothered about a reward or punishment from the manager? In that case, the manager cannot have power over the employee and cannot create a change in the behaviour of the employee. Relativeness: Power is comparable and you can say that ‘X’ is more powerful than ‘Y’.

7. Change: Whenever power is applied, there is a change in behaviour. In other words, change is a basic characteristic of power. Direction: Power has positive or negative direction. Let us consider a situation in which you failed to achieve your target. One manager punishes you by stopping your increment (negative direction) and another decides to coach you to make up the gap (positive direction). Contextual: Power depends on the situation. A manager can have power over you in the office, but would have no power outside the office. Dynamic/Shifting: Power is dynamic, and shifts as the society progresses. In many organisations especially those driven by knowledge, power has shifted from the employer to the employee. Power has also shifted from larger and structured companies to smaller ones who command high respect and valuation because of their niche in the knowledge economy.

8. For instance, Dr. Lal’s Pathlab went for an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock valued at ₹10 for a price band of ₹540 to 550 and was oversubscribed on the second day.

9. For instance, Dr. Lal’s Pathlab went for an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock valued at ₹10 for a price band of ₹540 to 550 and was oversubscribed on the second day. Many large companies do not have such a valuation. Power has also shifted from the government to the private sector in many ways. Governments all over the world are driven by WTO and other such bodies, where the private sector has a major say. Yet another prominent shift of power is from management to shareholders. This is partially because large institutional investors have a major say in an many companies. For instance, Canada Pension Fund invested ₹1000 crores in L&T Infrastructure on 15th December 2015, and hence, they enjoy power over the management.11 Power has shifted from single entities to coalitions. Today, a coalition is more powerful than a single entity. This is because coalitions have the power to cover the weaknesses of its individual members

10. Sources - https://www.slideshare.net/Burning_Ice/bibliography-presentationppt https://youtu.be/4cKkXmU3Iv8 http://www.mpow.org/elisheva_sadan_empowerment_spreads_chapter1.pdf https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/organisational-behaviour/9789352861637/xhtml/chapter013.xhtml#ch13_2

11. Thank You Sahil Jhajharia 194575