Effective leadership is the result of a number of factors—such as vision, personality traits, specific behaviors, skills, courage, and power. Focusing on this last factor, leadership power can be categorized into five sources:
• Legitimate power: The authority or right to order someone to do something (followers comply be- cause they have to).
• Reward power: Influence that comes from the ability to hand out rewards (followers comply to obtain rewards).
• Coercive power: Influence that comes from the ability to hand out punishments (followers comply to avoid punishments).
• Referent power: Influence that derives from appealing personal characteristics (followers comply because of admiration or emulation).
• Expert power: Influence that stems from knowledge and expertise (followers comply because they believe the action is wise).
Labor relations constrain some of these sources of power. Labor law denies managers and union leaders the legitimate power to order individuals to support or not support a labor union and similarly bans the use of reward and coercive power to influence support for a union. Union contracts often specify limitations on management’s legitimate, reward, and coercive power—discipline and discharge must be conducted with just cause, and rewards are often seniority-based.
But these are turbulent times for labor relations. The institutions of labor relations—both labor law and unions—are widely regarded as weak. As such, in many cases these restrictions on a manager’s power are more theoretical than real. At the same time, managers are under great pressure in a hypercompetitive global economy.
QUESTIONS
1. Provide labor relations examples of a manager’s use of these five types of power that would support good leadership. Provide labor relations examples in which uses of these five types of power would undermine good leadership.
2. It is often argued that integrity is a key component of good leadership and that leaders should adhere to high ethical standards. Why?
3. With weak labor laws and labor unions, is it more or less important that leaders have high ethical standards?