Synopsis
There are six power bases managers can acquire, maintain, and use appropriately to achieve desired results. These bases are coercive, reward, legitimate, information, expert, and referent. The first four are called position powers and remaining two are called personal powers. These power bases, except coercive, can be effective in attaining desired results depending how they are used. Coercive power can be used for disciplining a subordinate, maintaining safety standards, or for dealing with emergency situations, but too much exercise of this power can have negative consequences in the long run. Other position powers, such as reward, legitimate, and information, can be used to obtain desired results, provided that the influencing agents have high expert and referent powers. Also expert power can be used to achieve desired results, but the influencing agent must have high referent power. In other words, personal powers mediate the relationships between position powers and...
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Rahim, M.A. (2016). Managerial Power. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1390-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1390-1
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