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.