Angie Week 11 Formal Power
A common type of power is social power is known as formal power. Formal power, unlike personal power, is determined by an individual’s standing in an organization rather than their followers. There are three different types of formal power: coercive power, reward power, and legitimate power.
The first form of formal power is coercive power. If you were ever taunted your younger sibling into getting a cup of water for you otherwise you would tell your parents that they broke the flower vase yesterday, you are exerting coercive power on your sibling. Your sibling, who would not want to risk getting in trouble would have no choice but to obey and get water for you. More specifically, coercive power is used when one threatens others with punishments in order to gain compliance. This can be seen in oppressive acts such as forcing others to do things under your control.
The second form of formal power is reward power. This can be seen through someone treating the other person to lunch in exchange for helping them with their math homework. Reward power is when one uses rewards to achieve compliance to your objectives. This form of formal power is more friendly than coercive power as both parties benefit from the trade.
The third and last form of formal power is legitimate power. Legitimate power is when a person uses their superior position in the organization to accomplish submission to his or her’s wishes. An example of this type of power may occur when a CEO of a company recommends his favorite employee to be promoted. As the CEO holds a very high standing in the company, he or she would have a lot of influence over the decisions made in the company. As a result, the chances of the particular employee being promoted will be higher.
https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/06/the-5-types-of-power/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-introtosociology/chapter/power-and-authority/
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Hi Angie, if you're an older sibling, you're probably familiar with excersizing coercive power (as your given example was spot-on!). But, I think it's great how you broke down powers into three different categories, as it is these powers which are used most commonly. Reading your blog made me think of how many powers there really are, and it also makes me question which ones I use on a daily base. When I reflect, I think about how the only power which is guaranteed to be used everyday is the power of my own voice and words.
ReplyDeleteHi Angie,
ReplyDeleteI thought that the three categories you brought up were an interesting and effective way to define formal power. In particular, I found the categories of coercive and reward power to be the most interesting, mainly because they exist as opposites. They reminded me of the concepts of positive and negative reinforcement. Both of these are commonly utilized in a variety of different environments (for better or for worse), and are powerful in their own rights.
Hi Angie,
ReplyDeleteWe can see these various forms of power in everyday life as you mentioned above. Personally, when I think about the three categories, I see coercive power being used the most in history. The compliance with the fear of punishment was a tactic used by many authoritarian leaders. Their goal was to instill fear and chaos so that people would also seek comfort in them. For example, Hitler used this tactic to convince people that oppression against specific people was okay. He emphasized that all their problems would go away if they irradicated these people. If people did not agree, he had secret spies and armies to keep them in check.
Thank you for this interesting lesson! I had no idea that there were so many different ways to classify power and always considered it a single, unchanging concept, but now that I think about it, formal power is exercised super frequently in every aspect of daily life. Considering that we all have at least a little bit of formal power in addition to our innate personal power, we humans are powerful creatures.
ReplyDeleteHi Angie, I learned many new things about formal power from your informative blog. As an older sibling, I am definitely familiar with corrosive power being used in the example you mentioned above. I also found reward power to be particularly interesting because it can be very subtle and is probably used by many people. Almost everyone has some form of formal power in their hands.
ReplyDeleteHi Angie, Your blog was really cool. The types of formal power were interesting to learn about. Everyone instinctively knows about coercion and these ways of exerting power, but giving them names and hard definitions helps people understand exactly what it means. Power is difficult to define, but by classifying it and its parts, you can learn about how it works and what it means in different situations.
ReplyDeleteHey Angie, This blog was really interesting I have never truly payed attention to these systems and powers of society and didn't know about the extent of formal power. Such as coercive power of rewarded power which we have all used but haven't dared find or look for the formal name.
ReplyDelete