You have recently been hired to lead a team comprised of relatively long term, e

Question

You have recently been hired to lead a team comprised of relatively long term, experienced employees. Their performance has been generally satisfactory, however changes are coming and it will be your job to affect this change. As the “new sheriff” in town, what sources of power and influence are available to you? Which do you feel would be most successful and why? What are the potential consequences of your using the types of power and influence you identified? How do you think you would best be able to resolve any conflicts within the team.

Explanation / Answer

The sources of power and influence available with me as “new sheriff” in town are legitimate power, expert power, referent power, coercive power and reward power. Legitimate power is derived from the position I hold in the organization and expert power is derived from my knowledge and expertise in the particular area of job. Referent power arises from the interpersonal relationships I develop with other people in the organization and coercive power includes my ability to punish other employees to ensure adherence to the process. Reward power is based on my ability to influence other employees using rewards like incentives.

I feel the most successful would be referent power and reward power to influence the team of long term experienced employees. As they are experienced than me in the organization, use of legitimate and coercive power may result into employee dissatisfaction as it may affect their ego. As they are experienced professionals, they might be expert in the field and hence I may not be able to use expert power effectively. Hence I can be successful by developing good relationship with the team members using referent power and also motivate them by giving incentives for their performance using my reward power. By using these two powers, I can keep my teammates satisfied and ensure collaboration among the team members. When the team members respect me based on my referent power and also they would find me approachable to discuss their difficulties. Rewards power would help me to manage their performance and motivate the low performing employees to improve their performance by offering rewards for achieving targets. Through open communication between me and team, I would be able to solve the issues whenever they arise and ensure less conflict within the team. I would be able to resolve the conflict as I have the power to reward them and the team members may be afraid of losing rewards by not following my instructions.

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