Leadership: Leaders, Followers, Environments

Sources of power

Power emanates from five broad foundations:¹⁰⁶

1. Position or legitimate power
2. Reward power
3. Coercion or punishment power
4. Expert power
5. Referent or personal power

First, position confers power. Organizations find it useful to concentrate power in a few offices or positions. A king, CEO, and a city manager have legitimate power by virtue of the offices they hold. Their power is viewed as legitimate until something happens that makes it not so. Position provides leaders with access to information not otherwise available to others in the organization. It also gives access to support and to freedom or discretion of action that others do not have. For example, top managers do not typically have to ask permission to attend a conference in another city, and they can circumvent or bypass the bureaucracy to get things done more quickly. A top position holder has connections with sponsors and suppliers and board members that others do not have. Such interpersonal networks bring recognition, visibility, and relevance by being closer to key organizational challenges.¹⁰⁷ Note, however, that having power and being a leader are different things. Parking meter attendants have the power to give tickets, as do highway patrolmen. This does not make them leaders, but they do have power.

The ability to provide benefits or rewards is a second source of power, often not separable from position. A supervisor can reward performance with a corner office or a bonus; a highway patrolman might ...