For convenience we can consider these strategies under three headings that are par- ticularly appropriate to an interpersonal communication analysis of power: (1) power in the relationship, (2) power in the person, and (3) power in the message. In the final section in this part of the chapter, we address the issue of resisting power and influence, or what is commonly called compliance-gaining.
Power in the Relationship
The bases of relationship power, research shows, can be conveniently classified into six types: referent, legitimate, expert, information or persuasion, reward, and coercive (French & Raven, 1968; Raven, Centers, & Rodrigues, 1975; Raven, Schwarzwald, &
Koslowsky, 1998). Each of these types of power offers a way of exerting influence or gaining compliance.
Before reading about these types of power, consider your interpersonal power by responding to the following statements. Respond on a 10-point scale in terms of how accurately each statement describes you (10 = very accurate).
____ 1. People wish to be like me or to be identified with me. For example, high school football players may admire the former professional football player who is now their coach and may want to be like him.
____ 2. My position is such that I often have to tell others what to do. For example, a mother’s position demands that she tell her children what to do, a manager’s position demands that he or she tell employees what to do, and so on.
____ 3. Other people realize that I have expertise in certain areas of knowl- edge. For example, a doctor has expertise in medicine, so others turn to the doctor to tell them what to do. Someone knowledgeable about computers similarly possesses expertise.
____ 4. People realize that I possess the communication ability to present an argument logically and persuasively. For example, a competent and persuasive leader will be given greater power than one less competent.
in a nutshell Table 12.1 Principles of Power
principle Comments
Some people are more powerful than others. Some people have more means of influence at their disposal than do others.
Power can be shared. Power is not necessarily reduced when it’s shared; often it’s increased.
Power can be increased or decreased. Power isn’t fixed; it increases or decreases on the basis of your own communication.
Power follows the principle of less interest. Power is held by the person who is less interested in the relationship, the person who can walk away most easily.
Power generates privilege. The more powerful person can do more things and break more rules than the less powerful.
Power has a cultural dimension. The meaning and effects of power differences vary greatly from one culture to another.
____ 5. People see me as having the ability to give them what they want. For example, employers have the ability to give their employees higher pay, longer vacations, and better working conditions.
____ 6. People see me as having the ability to administer punishment or to withhold things they want. For example, employers have the ability to reduce voluntary overtime, to shorten vacation time, or to fail to improve working conditions.
These statements refer to the six major types of power discussed in this section. Low scores (say, 1s, 2s, and 3s) indicate your belief that you possess little of the types of power indicated; high scores (8s, 9s, and 10s) indicate your belief that you possess a great deal of those types of power.
RefeRent PoweR If you can establish referent power over others (item 1 in the self-test) and make others wish to be like you or to be identified with you, you’ll more easily gain their compliance. Referent power is the kind of power an older brother may have over a younger brother because the younger brother wants to be like him.
The assumption made by the younger brother is that he will be more like his older brother if he believes and behaves as his brother does. Once he decides to do so, it takes little effort for the older brother to exert influence over or gain compliance from the younger sibling.
Referent power depends greatly on attractiveness and prestige; as they increase, so does identification and consequently your power to gain compliance. When you are well-liked and well-respected, are of the same gender as the other person, and have the same attitudes and experiences as the other person, your referent power is especially great.
Legitimate PoweR If you are seen as having legitimate power over others (item 2 in the self-test)—if others believe you have the right, by virtue of your posi- tion, to influence or control their behavior—they’ll logically be ready to comply with your requests. Legitimate power stems from our belief that certain people should have power over us, that they have a right to influence us because of who they are. Legitimate power usually derives from the roles that people occupy. Teachers are often perceived to have legitimate power—and this is doubly true for religious teachers. Parents are seen as having legitimate power over their children. Employers, judges, managers, doctors, and police officers are others who hold legitimate power in different areas.
exPeRt PoweR You have expert power over others (item 3 in the self-test) when you are seen as having expertise or knowledge. Your knowledge—as perceived by others—gives you expert power. Usually expert power is subject-specific. For ex- ample, when you’re ill, you’re influenced by the recommendation of someone with expert power related to your illness—say, a doctor. But you would not be influenced by the recommendation of someone to whom you don’t attribute illness-related expert power—say, the mail carrier or a plumber. You give the lawyer expert power in mat- ters of law and the psychiatrist expert power in matters of the mind, but ideally you don’t interchange them.
Your expert power increases when you’re seen as unbiased and as having nothing to gain personally from influencing others. It decreases when you’re seen as biased or as having something to gain from influencing others.
infoRmation oR PeRsuasion PoweR You have information or persuasion power over others (item 4 in the self-test) when others see you as having the ability to communicate logically and persuasively. If others believe that you have persuasive ability, then you have persuasion power—the power to influence others’ attitudes and behavior. If you’re seen as possessing significant information and the ability to use that information to gain compliance by presenting a well-reasoned argument, then you have information power.
RewaRD anD CoeRCive PoweRs You have reward power over others (item 5 in the self-test) if you have the ability to reward people. Rewards may be material Viewpoints Gender and
influence Research findings suggest that women have greater difficulty influencing others by communicating competence and authority than do men. Men, on the other hand, have greater difficulty influencing others using referent power (Carli, 1999). What would you suggest that men do to increase referent power and women do to increase expert and legitimate power?
(money, corner office, jewelry) or social (love, friendship, respect). If you’re able to grant others some kind of reward, you have control over them to the extent that they want what you can give them. The degree of power you have is directly related to the perceived desirability of the reward. Teachers have reward power over students because they control grades, letters of recommendation, social approval, and so on. Students, in turn, have reward power over teachers because they control social approval, student evaluations of faculty members, and various other rewards. Parents control rewards for children—food, television privileges, rights to the car, curfew times, and the like—and thus possess reward power.
You have coercive power over others (item 6 in the self-test) when you have the ability to gain compliance by administering punishments or removing rewards if others fail to yield to your influence. Usually, if you have reward power, you also have coercive power. Teachers may not only reward with high grades, favorable letters of recommendation, and social approval but may also punish with low grades, unfavorable letters, and social disapproval. Parents may deny as well as grant privileges to their children and hence they possess coercive as well as reward power.
The strength of coercive power depends on two factors: (1) the magnitude of the punishment that can be administered and (2) the likelihood that the punishment will be administered as a result of noncompliance. When threatened by mild punishment or by punishment you think will not be administered, you’re not as likely to take direction as you would be if the threatened punishment were severe and highly likely to be administered.
Reward and coercive power are opposite sides of a coin, and the consequences of using them are quite different. Here are some of the potential consequences:
• Attractiveness. If you have reward power, you’re likely to be seen as more attractive. People like those who have the power to reward them and who do in fact reward them. Coercive power, on the other hand, decreases attractiveness;
people dislike those who have the power to punish them or who threaten them with punishment—whether they actually follow through or not.
• Costs. When you use rewards to exert power, you don’t incur the same costs as when you use punishment. When you exert reward power, you’re dealing with a contented and happy individual. When you use coercive power, however, you must be prepared to incur anger and hostility, which may well be turned against you in the future.
• Effectiveness. When you give a reward, it signals that you exercised power effectively and that you gained the compliance of the other person. You give the reward because the person did what you wanted. In the exercise of coercive power, however, the reverse is true. When you administer punishment, it shows that you have been ineffective in using the threat of coercive
power and that there has been no compliance.
• Effects on other power bases. When you exert coercive power, other bases of power frequently are diminished.
There seems to be a boomerang effect in operation. People who exercise coercive power are seen as possessing less expert, legitimate, and referent power. Alternatively, when reward power is exerted, other bases of power increase.
People rarely use only one base of power to influence others;
they usually use multiple power bases. For example, if you pos- sess expert power, it’s likely that you also possess information power and perhaps legitimate power as well. If you want to gain the compliance of another person, you probably use all three bases of power rather than relying on only one. As you can appreciate, certain individuals have numerous power bases at their disposal, whereas others seem to have few to none, which brings us back to our first principle: some people are more powerful than others.
Viewpoints Power on the Job Research shows that coercive and legitimate powers have a negative impact when supervisors exercise these powers on subordinates in business settings (Richmond, McCroskey, & McCroskey, 2005).
And leadership researcher Gary Yukl (1989) showed that effective leaders avoid threats and minimize status differences. Ineffective leaders, instead, exercised power in manipulative, arrogant, and domineering ways. Does your experience support this?
Sometimes, attempts to gain the compliance of others through these power bases may backfire. At times, negative power operates, where your use of power exerts the opposite of what you intended. Each of the six power bases may, at times, have this negative influence. For example, negative referent power is evident when a son rejects his father’s influence and becomes his exact opposite. Negative coercive power may be seen when a child is warned against doing something under threat of punishment and then does exactly what he or she was told not to do.
Power in the Person
A great deal of your personal power, the power that resides in you as a person, depends on the credibility that you are seen to possess—the degree to which other people regard you as believable and therefore worth following. If others see you as competent and knowledgeable, of good character, and charismatic or dynamic, they will find you credible and see you as having personal power. As a result, you’ll be more effective in influencing their attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior. Credibility is not something you have or don’t have in any objective sense; rather, it’s a function of what other people think of you.
Before reading any further, examine your credibility by responding to each of the following phrases to indicate how you think a particularly important group of people (for example, your social network friends, school friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers) see you when you interact interpersonally. Use the following scale: 5 = definitely true, 4 = probably true, 3 = neither true nor untrue, 2 = probably untrue, and 1 = definitely untrue.
____ 1. People generally see me as knowledgeable.
____ 2. People see me as experienced.
____ 3. People see me as informed about what I’m talking about.
____ 4. I’m seen as fair when I talk about controversial things.
____ 5. People see me as concerned with who they are and what they want.
____ 6. People see me as consistent over time.
____ 7. People view me as an assertive individual.
____ 8. I’m seen as enthusiastic.
____ 9. People would consider me active rather than passive.
These statements focused on the three qualities that confer credibility—your perceived competence, character, and charisma—and is based on a large body of research (for example, McCroskey [2007]; Riggio [1987]). Items 1 to 3 refer to your perceived
competence: How competent or capable do you seem to be to other people? Items 4 to 6 refer to your perceived character:
Do people see you as a good and moral person? Items 7 to 9 re- fer to your perceived charisma: Do others see you as dynamic and active rather than as static and passive? Total scores range from a high of 45 to a low of 9. If you scored relatively high (say, around 32 or higher), then you feel your others see you as credible. If you scored relatively low (say, below 27), then you feel these people see you as lacking in credibility.
ComPetenCe Your perceived competence is the knowl- edge and expertise that others see you as possessing (state- ments 1–3 in the self-test). This is similar to expert and information power. The more knowledge and expertise oth- ers see you as having, the more likely they will believe you.
Similarly, you’re likely to believe a teacher or doctor if you think he or she is knowledgeable on the subject at hand.
ChaRaCteR People see you as credible if they perceive you as being someone of high moral character, someone who Viewpoints Power in the
media How is interpersonal power illustrated on prime-time television? For example: (1) Do male and female characters wield the same types of power? (2) Do the storylines in sitcoms and dramas reward the exercise of some types of power and punish the exercise of other types?
is honest, and someone they can trust (statements 4–6 in the self-test).
If others feel that your intentions are good for them (rather than for your own personal gain), they’ll think you are credible and they’ll believe you.
ChaRisma Charisma is a combination of your personality and dynamism as seen by other people (statements 7–9 in the self- test). If you are seen as friendly and pleasant rather than aloof and reserved, a dynamic rather than a hesitant and nonassertive speaker, you’re likely to be seen as more credible.
Here are a few ways you can enhance your credibility:
• Express your expertise when appropriate. But don’t overdo it.
• Stress your fairness. Everyone likes people who play fair and think about others fairly.
• Express concern for others. This shows your noble side and reveals a part of you that says you have character.
• Stress your concern for enduring values. This shows consis- tency and good moral character.
• Demonstrate a positive outlook. Positive people are more likely to be believed and to be thought of highly than are negative people.
• Be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm helps to demonstrate your charisma.
Power in the Message
You can communicate power much as you communicate any other message. Here we consider power in the message, specifically, how you can communicate power through verbal messages, nonverbal messages, and listening.
veRbaL messages A great deal of research has addressed the question of the verbal messages that communicate power. Combining these research efforts, we can identify a variety of dos and don’ts (Guerrero, Andersen, & Afifi, 2007; Dillard
& Marshall, 2003; Johnson, 1987; Kleinke, 1986; Molloy, 1981). First, here are some suggestions for exerting power and influence and persuading others:
• Direct request is the most common compliance-gaining strategy used by both men and women and is generally the strategy of those in power (“Can you get me a cup of coffee?” or “Please call for reservations”).
• bargaining or promising involves agreeing to do something if the other person does something (“I’ll clean up if you cook” or “We’ll go out tomorrow; I want to watch the game tonight”).
• ingratiation requires you to act especially kindly; you try to ingratiate yourself so that eventually you’ll get what you want (“You’re such a great cook” [I don’t want to cook tonight] or “You write so well” [I hope you’ll edit my term paper]).
• manipulation involves making the other person feel guilty or jealous enough to give you what you want (“Everyone else has an iPhone” [and you won’t have to feel guilty for depriving me] or “Pat called and asked if I’d go out this weekend” [unless you finally want to spend time together]).
• threatening involves warning the other person that unpleasant things will happen if you don’t get what you want (“I’ll leave if you continue smoking” [so stop smoking if you don’t want me to leave] or “If you don’t eat your veggies, you won’t get any ice cream” [so finish your broccoli]).
Next, here are some verbal messages that seem to weaken power and influence:
• hesitations, for example, “I er want to say that ah this one is er the best, you know?” Hesitations make you sound unprepared and uncertain.
InTerpersonal ChoICe poInT empowering Your Team
You are starting a prestigious project with a team of only five trainees. How do you empower your young team so that they become indepen- dent, take their own decisions, and evolve as professionals?
a. Tell them to work independently and come to you only when they cannot solve a problem themselves.
b. Tell them to work independently. You will support them if they do something wrong.
c. Tell them to read a few books on the topic.
d. Give them tasks and ask for weekly updates on their activities.