There are five sources
of power in organizations namely, coercive, referent, legitimate, expert
and reward power as identified by American
sociologists John French and Bertram Raven. A person who uses Referent*
and Expert+ power, collectively known as personal power gets
more likes.
To test the above hypothesis,
we started a program called ‘peer-to-peer recognition’ in our team. In this
program, each member of the team nominates his/her peer providing justification
for nomination. The person, who receives maximum nomination, gets a token of
appreciation. In our first such initiative, we received 22 responses and 11
members were nominated. One member received maximum 6 nominations. Almost
everyone, who nominated the person, had provided justification that the nominee
had good knowledge and was always ready to help others. To quote one of them: “[the
said person] is very open and helpful to the team in all technical issues”.
In the 2nd round
of peer-to-peer recognition program, more members participated in the program
and we received 35 responses. The competition was much tough this time and 19
members were nominated. Two members received highest of 4 nominations each. Strikingly,
the phenomenon was the same again and similar justifications were given. One of
the justifications was “I would like to
nominate [members name], for his dedication and enthusiasm to share his
knowledge of applications. These days’ people are not willing to share any
knowledge, but his attitude towards knowledge sharing is quite appreciable. His
knowledge sharing sessions were very helpful for me to step into this
environment.” Both the members were nominated because of their knowledge
and willingness to help others. In fact, the other members, who received
nomination, were also appraised by their peer for their knowledge, hard work
and willingness to share their knowledge with others.
It is interesting to note
that a person, who has good knowledge and willingness to help others, got
maximum number of likes in both peer-to-peer programs. Moreover, none of the
members nominated his/her lead or manager. As we
can see, we don’t have to be in a leadership or senior level role in an organization
to have some form of power. In fact, the most respect is garnered on those who
have personal sources of power. There is more respect for these individuals
than for those who have power simply because they are the boss in the business.
It has been shown that when employees in an organization associate the
leadership’s power with expert or referent power, they are more engaged, more
devoted to the organization and their role within it. Employees are also more
willing to go the extra mile to reach organizational goals (cited from
quickbase.intuit.com).
Take away: Increase your personal power to increase likes.
*Referent power is derived from the
interpersonal relationships that a person cultivates with other people in the
organization.
+Expert power is derived from possessing
knowledge or expertise in a particular area.
