The Five Bases of Power

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The Five Bases of Power The five bases of power There are five bases of power. They are as follows: coercive power, reward power, legitimate power, referent power, and expert power. Different positions hold power and it is exercised in different ways. These different forms of power can come from various leaders like: a vice president of a company who would be considered an expert in their field, a professional player like Tim Tebow who has the power to influence others to be like him, and fire fighters have legitimate power. Our careers have reward power over us because it provides us with the money to feed our families and pay bills. Coercive power forces individuals to do things they do not want to do like a bully forcing his classmate to give him his lunch Employee 1 Employee 1 is motivated by reward power. We all work extremely hard so that we can put food on the table, pay our bills, give our kids the things they need, and to treat ourselves to the nicer things in life. The reward is in the eye of the beholder, from a set of golf clubs to a simple hi five. Reward power is having the ability to give someone what they want but in exchange they have to do something for you. A sales person works under reward power. It all comes down to the thought, you do this for me and you will get that in return. Employee 2 Employee 2 has expert power. We all have things we know how to do. In some cases we may be the only ones with that skill. Employee 2 is the only certified public accountant (CPA) in the accounting department therefor it puts him in a position of power. By having the ability and being the only one who can prepare the company’s financial statements he can negotiate a four day work week. He is the only one in the company that is privileged to have that schedule. Expert power can be used to motivate certain behaviors but for the most part it

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