Good vs. Bad Leaders: A Healthcare Experience

Influence Techniques
Vecchio (2007) describes five bases for influential power. There is reward, coercive, legitimist, referent and expert power (Vecchio, 2007). These powers can be used separately or combined depending on the situation and individuals the power is being used on. These influential powers will also depend on the experience of the leader that is utilizing them.
Mr. Smith has legitimate, referent, expert, coercive, and reward power. Legitimate power is based on position and the willingness of others to accept his directions (Gilley, 2006; Vecchio, 2007). Part of this is due to his position within the organization. Many individuals are raised to respect authority, and because of his title of director, many will respect his authority (Vecchio, 2007). Mr. Smith has referent power due to his attractive personality (Gilley, 2006; Vecchio, 2007). He has a personality that works well with everyone within our laboratory. He holds himself well and never does or says things that are not work appropriate. He also, never interacts with individuals outside of work if it will hurt his credibility. Finally, expert power is given to those that are perceived as knowledgeable (Gilley, 2006; Vecchio, 2007). Mr. Smith is very knowledgeable with his past as a medical technologist and educational background. He possesses the skills of well-expressed communication techniques. These techniques show all around him that he is educated and knowledgeable on the subject at hand. Finally, due to his position within the organization he has coercive and reward power. These powers give him the opportunity to reward or punish his subordinates based on their productivity (Gilley, 2006; Vecchio, 2007). Due to his title of laboratory director he has the...

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...Ms. Hall uses the assertiveness, ingratiation, and upward appeal. As with Mr. Smith, Ms. Hall uses assertiveness to create deadlines that need to be met to ensure that the physicians in the hospital are getting the results for their patients within a timely manner. Ingratiation is allowing the individual being motivated to feel important (Vecchio, 2007). Ms. Hall used this technique very recently, she did not want to be a part of a healthcare fair, so she used ingratiation to make her subordinates feel important and take on the job themselves. This motivational technique worked and she influenced the subordinate to do Ms. Hall’s job. Lastly, upward appeal is using higher levels to influence conformity on the target (Vecchio, 2007). She will use this often, this is due to her lack of power. She needs the influences of higher levels to keep her subordinates motivated.