Organizational Behavior (Stephen Robbins)

developed advertising themes around popular Canadians, such as “bad boy” Olympic
gold-medallist and snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, to convince people to buy specific
products.^11 Similarly, Nike has used sports celebrities such as former Toronto Raptors
star centre Vince Carter to promote its products. In some ads, stars have provided their own
music, as was the case in Canadian jazz diva Diana Krall’s TV commercials for Chrysler.

Information Power

Information powercomes from access to and control over information. People in an
organization who have data or knowledge that others need can make those others
dependent on them. Managers, for instance, because of their access to privileged sales, cost,
salary, profit, and similar data, can use this information to control and shape subordinates’
behaviour. Similarly, departments that possess information that is critical to a company’s
performance in times of high uncertainty—for example, the legal department when a
firm faces a major lawsuit or the human resource department during critical labour nego-
tiations—will gain increased power in their organizations until those uncertainties are
resolved. This chapter’s Case Incident—The Power of Bill Fowler at Blackmer/Dover Resources
on page 246–247 shows the power that one man can have in a manufacturing organization.

Evaluating the Bases of Power

Generally, people will respond in one of three ways when faced with the people who use
the bases of power described above:

• Commitment.The person is enthusiastic about the request and shows initiative
  and persistence in carrying it out.


• Compliance.The person goes along with the request grudgingly, puts in mini-
  mal effort, and takes little initiative in carrying out the request.


• Resistance.The person is opposed to the request and tries to avoid it with such
  tactics as refusing, stalling, or arguing about it.^12
  A review of the research on the effectiveness of these forms of power finds that they
  differ in their impact on a person’s performance.^13 Exhibit 7-3 summarizes some of this

Chapter 7Power and Politics 225

information power Power that

comes from access to and control

over information.

Coercive

Bases of

Leader

Power

Reward

Legitimate

Expert

Referent

Most likely employee response

Resistance Compliance Commitment

EXHIBIT 7-3 Continuum of Responses to Power

Source:R. M. Steers and J. S. Black, Organizational Behavior,5th ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), p. 487. Reprinted

by permission of Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.