Before going to main topic, we should know what does power means. Power is basically the social influence, to make it easy we can understand in this way that there are two people from whom one person has a influence or control over other due to any reason and he will be able to change that persons believes, mind sets and actions. These two following powers we are going to discuss are identified by psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven in 1959.
Now moving towards to expert power, it could be defined in a way that expert power results from the follower’s faith that the leader, or expert, has some superior insight or information about what action is best under the particular situation. Or we can take that in this way that a subordinate telling to his colleague about his new task which his manager assigned him by saying my manager has lot of experience about these conditions and have quite good insights so he is probably right even though I don’t really understand the logic and reason behind this. If break his sentence so we got know that he strictly believes that what his manager is saying or telling him to do is perfectly good because has an extra edge on this situation. For example, If apple or any big firm gets into some legal issues they will listen to their appointed lawyers because board members know he know more than any one else in firm and he is the one will lead from the from front and will resolve this issue for the firm. If we take an example from general point of view for suppose we are going to a new city for business or just for vacation and by chance our google map is not working so know we will ask a person who lives in that city has more knowledge than us, so in that case that person has an expert power. To make one thing clearer it is not necessary that person should be your supervisor it can be any one who is expert in that particular field or context in which we are surrounded by. It is quite possible that follower may not understand the details or reasons but they will follow the advice because they know that he or she who is giving advice knows better and he is perfect in that area. If any leader wants to create an expert power so it is very important that work hard in their field of interest to be more expert and they should know how to communicate their expert advice to others to have the influence on followers. The advantage if any group member or anyone has this power, he becomes the main player of the group because will follow his or her instruction even if he is the boss or not. In short trust factor develops. This will lead to many promotions in side organization, your reputation starts getting better. It’s very hard to maintain this power for that you have to work constantly and if any things go wrong all finger will on that person.
Referent power can be defined as that it has its basis in identification, a feeling of oneness a follower has for a leader. The follower feels a sense of identification or a desire for that oneness. To short it down in this follower like the leader and they want to become like their leader. Like if we take an example young entrepreneur he wants to be like his or her model for example he wants to become like Owner of Alibaba, Jack Maa or Bill gates or any one he follows. In this scenario that follower will follow his sayings and will follow his footsteps to be in the same position right know that person in who contains the referent power. There was an employee working in a firm he says I really admire my manager or boss and wish to be like him one day. To make it clearer from my examples that this power is not limited to any position it can be any one who inspires others. In this scenario we love to have closed association with the person who have this power. The stronger the identification the more powerful the influence. For example, if I take example of my own brother, he wants to be like Jeff Bozos so he follows him through different social media, he follows his tips and guidelines. The follower’s motivation is intrinsic which means the motivation will automatically drive from inside. Follower get some sort of personal satisfaction when he follows that person. It is not necessary that leader may know or aware of this referent influence.
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