Examples of People with Expert Power-Is it Enough?

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Introduction

Organizations are groups of people with a purpose. These people may have differences in beliefs, perceptions of reality and values. Resources within organizations are usually scarce which can lead to conflict. Those with power play a critical role in allocating those resources and influencing others in the organization. How much influence an individual may have will be greatly determined by their structural and interpersonal power. In this essay, I will discuss the expert power of three individuals that I know personally: Chris Tierney, a small business owner, David Levy, a neurologist and author and Dr. Richard L. Lieber, a research scientist. The discussion will focus on whether, in these examples, expert power alone is enough to drive one’s success.

Reflective Essay

In French and Raven’s initial papers (French & Raven, 1959; Raven, 1965), they defined social influence as a change in the belief, attitude, or behavior of a person (the target of influence), which results from the action of another person (an influencing agent). Their six bases of power are widely cited in the organizational literature and they include: informational, reward, coercion, legitimate, expert and referent (Raven, B. 2008). Expert power is a personal characteristic, while legitimate, reward and coercive powers are largely prescribed by the organization (Ivancevich, et.al, p.342). In the original 1959 paper, the authors disagreed on whether “informational” should be an influence or a power resulting in only five bases of power included in the paper. Raven explains that expert power results from the target’s faith that the agent has some superior insight or knowledge about what behavior is best under the circumstances (Raven, B. 200...

... middle of paper ...

...rovided herein demonstrate that expert power alone is not enough.

Works Cited

French, J. R. P., Jr., & Raven, B. H. (1959). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in social power (pp. 150–167). Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.

Ivancevich, J., Konopaske, R. & Matteson, M. (2011). Organizational Behavior and Management. NewYork, NY: McGraw Hill.

Levy, D., Kilpatrick, J., (2011). Gray matter. Tyndal House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Il.

Mayer, J.D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D.R. (2000). Emotional intelligence as Zeitgeist, as personality, and as a mental ability. The Handbook of Emotional Intelligence, ed/. J.D.A. Parker 9San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp92-117.

Raven, B., (2008). The bases of power and the power/interaction model of interpersonal influence. Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp 1-22.

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