Power And Leadership: An Influence Process

The article I will be reviewing is called “Power and Leadership: An Influence Process” by author Fred C. Lunenburg. This article covers the sources of power for leaders to influence others. These theories of power come from work done by French and Raven. They identified five sources of power which are then grouped into two categories. The two categories are organizational power (hard) and personal power (soft). The organization power group contains legitimate, reward and coercive power. The personal power group contains expert and referent power. In this article it discusses these types of power in depth where it pertains to leadership.

When discussing power within organizations there are several sources of the power. The first source of power is legitimate power also called position power. Legitimate power influences people’s behaviors based on the position they hold within the organization. An example of this type of power is a manager asking an employee to stay late to finish a project. “Subordinates play a major role in the exercise of legitimate power. If subordinates view the use of

One of the most influential theories of power comes from the work of French and Raven, who attempted to determine the sources of power leaders use to influence others. French and Raven identified five sources of power that can be grouped into two categories: organizational power (legitimate, reward, coercive) and personal power (expert and referent).” The personal sources of power are more strongly related to employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance than are the organizational power sources. “However, the various sources of power should not be thought of as completely separate from each other. Sometimes leaders use the sources of power together in varying combinations depending on the situation. A new concept of power, referred to as “empowerment,” has become a major strategy for improving work