POWER AND LEADERSHIP

This lesson first defines power and distinguishes it from authority. Then it identifies sources of power and explains how power is used in organizations. Finally, it presents the political perspective of power in today’s organizations. The underlying premise of this lesson is that acquisition and distribution of power is a natural process in any organization. Power is a determinant of goals to be achieved and of how resources will be distributed. These, in turn, have far reaching implications for an organization ‘s performance and satisfaction and organizational effectiveness.
There is no universally accepted meaning of power has more diverse meanings than any other concept in organizational behaviour. In general it refers to a capacity that one has to influence the behaviour of an other so that the other does something which would not be done otherwise.
A few of the definitions on power are presented here to capture the wide range of the meanings it has assumed over a period of time.

LEADERSHIP1

Leadership and power concepts are intertwined. Leaders use power as a means of attaining group goals. In other words, leaders achieve goals and the power is a facilitator of goal achievement. Since, every organization has goals to purpose ,acquisition and distribution of power is a natural process in it . Power determines the goals , the organization seeks and how the resources in the organisation’s members performance and satisfaction as well organizational effectiveness.
They can be better understood by distinguishing power from authority and influence.
Definitions of power are intertwined with the concepts of authority and influence. Chester Barnard defined power as informal authority Many modern organizational sociologists define authority as legitimate power to have better understanding of power , We bring up clearly the distinctions between power and authority and power and influence.

Human Resource Management

Human resource management is concerned with the people dimension in management. Every organization is made up of people and thus acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to high levels of performance, and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This is applicable regardless of the type of organization-government, business, education, health, recreation, or social action. Hiring and retaining good people is vital to the success of every organization ,Whether profit or non profit, public or private. Those organizations that are able to acquire, develop, stimulate, and retain outstanding workers will be both effective and efficient. Those organizations which are ineffective or inefficient risk the hazards of stagnating or going out of business. Survival of an organization requires competent managers and workers coordinating their efforts towards a common goal. While successful coordination cannot guarantee success, organizations which are unsuccessful in getting such coordination from managers and workers will ultimately fail. To look at HRM more specifically, it is a process consisting of four functions-acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance-of human resources. These functions can be getting people, preparing them, activating them, and retaining them. The acquisition function begins with planning. Relative to human resource requirements, the organization needs to know where it is going and how it is going to get there. This includes the estimation of demands and supplies of labour. Acquisition also includes the recruitment, selection, and socialization of employees. The development function can be viewed along three dimensions. The first is employee training, which emphasizes skill development and the change in attitudes among workers. The second is management development, which concerns itself primarily with knowledge acquisition and the enhancement of an executive’s conceptual abilities. The third is career development , which is continual effort to match long term individual and organizational needs. The motivation function begins with the recognition that individuals are unique and that motivation techniques must reflect the needs of each individual. Within the motivation function, alienation, job satisfaction, performance appraisal, behavioral and structural techniques for stimulating worker performance, the importance of linking rewards to performance, compensation and benefits administration, and how to handle problem employees are reviewed. The final function is maintenance. In contrast to the motivation function, which attempts to stimulate performance, the maintenance function is concerned with providing those working conditions that employees believe are important in order to maintain their to the organization. Within the confines of the four functions- acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance-many changes have occurred over the years. What once was merely an activity to find a warm body to fill a vacancy has become a sophisticated process of finding , developing and retaining the best –qualified person for the job .But this metamorphosis did not occur overnight . It is the result of many changes in management thought, society, and the workers themselves.