Organizational Behavior (Stephen Robbins)

research. Coercive power leads to resistance from individuals, decreased satisfaction, and

increased mistrust. Reward power results in compliance if the rewards are consistent with

what individuals want as rewards, something the Ethical Dilemma Exerciseon page 246

shows clearly. Legitimate power also results in compliance, but it does not generally result

in increased commitment. In other words, legitimate power does not inspire individuals to

act beyond the basic level. Expert and referent powers are the most likely to lead to com-

mitment from individuals. Research shows that deadline pressures increase group members’

reliance on individuals with expert and information power.^14 Ironically, the least effective

bases of power for improving commitment—coercive, reward, and legitimate—are the

ones most often used by managers, perhaps because they are the easiest to introduce.^15

DEPENDENCY: THEKEY TO POWER

As the Olympics figure skating furor unfolded, some claimed that French judge Marie-Reine Le

Gougne was pressured by the French figure skating federation to vote for the Russians, in

exchange for which the Russian judge would vote for the French skaters in the Olympic ice

dancing competition. In August 2002, a Russian mobster was arrested for possible bribery

charges in the case, suggesting that external pressures were applied to higher-ups in the skat-

ing organizations, who then pressured judges to fix votes. “Though it doesn’t excuse them

for not judging honestly, it suggests that individuals highly ranked within their federations are

indeed setting the tone for their [the judges’] behaviour,” noted US dance judge Sharon

Rogers.^16 The French judge was dependent on her superiors to keep her judging job, something

she valued very much. Meanwhile, a dependence on bribes from the Russian mobster made

higher-ups pressure their judges. What factors might lead to one person’s having greater power

over another?

In this section, we show how an understanding of dependency is central to furthering

your understanding of power itself.

The General Dependency Postulate

Let’s begin with a general postulate: The greater B’s dependency on A, the greater the power

A has over B.When you possess anything that others require but that you alone control,

you make them dependent upon you and therefore you gain power over them.^17 Another

way to frame dependency is to think about a relationship in terms of “who needs whom?”

The person who has the most need is the one most dependent on the relationship.^18

Dependency is inversely proportional to the alternative sources of supply. If something

is plentiful, possession of it will not increase your power. If everyone is intelligent, intel-

ligence gives no special advantage. Similarly, in the circles of the super rich, money

does not result in power. But if you can create a monopoly by controlling information,

prestige, or anything that others crave, they become dependent on you. Alternatively, the

more options you have, the less power you place in the hands of others. This explains,

for example, why most organizations develop multiple suppliers rather than give their

business to only one.

What Creates Dependency?

Dependency is increased when the resource you control is important, scarce, and can-

not be substituted.^19

Importance

If nobody wants what you have, there is no dependency. To create dependency, the

thing(s) you control must be perceived as important. In some organizations, people

226 Part 3Interacting Effectively

3 How does dependency

affect power?