Max Weber's Theory Of Power Essay

Max Weber developed a concept of power explaining 3 sources of it. Relatively to sources he distinguished charismatic, traditional and legal types of authority. Richard Emerson continued to work on the concept of power. He studies power-dependence relation and looks deeper on its nature. Emerson explains that dependency of one subject - B (person or group) from the other subject A (person or group) develops, when there is a desirable goal or need and limitation on its availability and when subject A can facilitate in reaching of this goal. At the same moment subject A develop a power upon subject B. The definition of power suggested in the article is an ability to overcome resistance. Thus subject A can force subject B to overcome resistance to something that he does not want to do in exchange of a desirable goal or reward. The goal in this context could be love or friendship or any other thing that can be a valuable yet unavailable for one and

In the final experiment 14 workmen were placed in one room. Men were asked to do the job as a group under condition that the more they do the more they earn. The hypothesis of study was that men would try to work harder to earn more and that there might be pressure from those who work faster towards those who do it lowlier. The results were unexpected again. Instead of working as hard as they can, workmen developed informal rules in their group. According to that rules one should not be too fast, or too slow or to efficient and report to much to the boss or be too officious. Thus experiment had shown the role of informal group relationship.

The main conclusions of the Hawthorne studies:

- People work better when they are subjects of somebodies attention being part of a supportive group

- Social relations play an important role in peoples working life

- Informal relations could be more influential than formal

- Management must be sensitive to need of meaningful social group