Influencing Group Communication
William Frainier
BCOM/230
September 8, 2013
Jamie Barmach

Leadership and power often go hand in hand, but their definitions do have differences. Power is the ability of a person or organization to influence the behavior of another individual or organization. Leadership is being able to meet goals (Beebe & Masterson, 2006), and power is one way of achieving those goals (Judge & Robbins, 2009). Power relies on dependency. The greater someone depends on someone else, the more power is given to the other. Children are dependent on their parents for most necessities in life; therefore the parents have the power over them. Employees may be dependent on their manager for career advancement
It includes the acceptance of the organization’s members of the authority of the position. When the leaders of organizations issue directives, others usually comply. However, the authority figure must still first gain the respect of others for their position by being consistent and working within the authority of their position. The CEO of my company is an example of this base of power. Historically, he has shown all of the employees that he consistently applies the principles and policies of the company. He practices what he preaches. He has earned the employees’ respect by applying the same rules to himself that he does to them. He has also shown that he is very intelligent, and will rarely lead the company in a bad direction.
Personal power, on the other hand, comes from an individual’s personal characteristics (Judge & Robbins, 2009). These powers do not need the addition of a position of authority to be utilized. The first of these is expert power. This is the influence an individual can have because of their expertise, special skills, or amount of knowledge. This type of power is rapidly growing because of the explosion in technology. Most companies rely heavily on computers, smart phones, and the like, so an expert and skilled information technology employee can wield expert power. As businesses grow and the world becomes more complex, more specialized personnel are required. Tax accountants, economists, benefits specialists, and many others can