Influencing Group Communication
Christine Wilkes
Business Communication for Accountants
June 3, 2013
Jhankhana Patel University of Phoenix

In today’s workplace the influencing of a group or an individual is dependent on management and how they use their position of power. There are five basis of power these are legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power and referent power. These can be broken down into two groups. The first group is the formal power, which consists of legitimate power and the reward power. One example of legitimate power is when a person earns a promotion to a position that is deserved and is earned through years of school and time on the job. What is not legitimate is for an employee to become promoted because that individual knows is good friends with management and is a favorite with the manager. The reward power is from a manager or a partner that notices an employee is working hard, and he or she offers either a bonus or the opportunity to take an extended lunch, or leave early on a Friday. When there is a manager who rewards for a job well done, this builds confidence in the employee and notices by management. The project manager over the BP team has handed out fifty-dollar bonuses for outstanding work, attitude and the employee takes on more responsibility. One initiative within the team is to be chosen “Smasher of the Month” that means we are noticed for excelling. It is rewarding to be mentioned when striving to become greater employee. The third formal power is coercive; this power has a negative result on the person who is at the receiving end of the coercer. The coercive manager is dependent upon the fear of the employees and this allows control. What this means is that when an employee has a fear of a manager he or she will not communicate with that person unless necessary. This not only causes tension within a team, it also makes it difficult for the employee. The employee does not want to ask for help when needed, this can compromise a project and employee performance. This has happened in a previous position held while working for a beer distributer Capital City Beverage. The accounting manager I worked for gave off the impression that she did not like me and would talk to me when necessary. She was difficult to approach and always-found fault in my work, which in turn made me second-guess myself. I was not the only one she had done this too; there were three before me. The two and a half years I was employed, I watched others in the check-up department go through the same dealing with this manager. The owners finally decided that it was not worth good employees quitting because of one bad manager over one bad one. There are two of the five bases of power left to discuss, these are known as personal powers. Personal powers consist of the expert power and the referent power. Expert power comes from personal experience, knowledge, and skill in a preferred field. People gain experience in their choice field, as we do in accounting. Experience is earned in class and in the workplace through the years. Another