Therefore Leaders Should Exercise Power Very Carefully And Wisely And Always Avoid Essay Example

The capacity to inspire the outlook and behavior of the masses in a proposed path is called as Power. Power when exercised in organizational manner can be of several forms viz. legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, information power and ecological power.
The persons at a leadership position exercise personal power that includes expert and referent power. The quantity of power exercised depends upon different situations and its levels also vary accordingly. The theory that deals with increment and decrement of occurrence of power between leaders and followers in groups is known as Social Exchange theory. The attainment and loss of power by smaller units such as functional departments or product divisions of an organization is explained by the strategic contingencies theory. The theories of power institutionalization describe the way in which political tactics are applied to protect and increase existing levels of power. Only a moderate amount of position power is normally fine as regards to the superior-subordinate relationship. Resentment and rebellion is generally caused when a leader tries to exercise too much power. At the same time, if the leader lacks sufficient amounts of power to reward competent employees and manipulate the defaulters then the organization has to suffer.
Leaders that count on more of personal power rather than positional power use it carefully, in a positive way and never over-exercise it. On the contrary, leaders who use power in a harsh and domineering manner have to face resentment and resistance from the group members.
Leaders are advised to make polite requests, verify authority only when necessary and follow proper channels and never in any case do exceed their scope of authority.