French and Raven's bases of power
In a notable study of power conducted by social psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven in 1959, power is divided into five separate and distinct forms. They identified those five bases of power as coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, and expert. This was followed by Raven's subsequent addition in 1965 of a sixth separate and distinct base of power: informational power.
French and Raven defined social influence as "a change in the belief, attitude, or behavior of a person which results from the action of another person ", and they defined social power as the potential for such influence, that is, the ability of the agent to bring about such a change using available resources.
Relating to social communication studies, power in social influence settings has introduced a large realm of research pertaining to persuasion tactics and leadership practices. Through social communication studies, it has been theorized that leadership and power are closely linked. It has been further presumed that different forms of power affect one's leadership and success. This idea is used often in organizational communication and throughout the workforce.
Though there have been many formal definitions of leadership that did not include social influence and power, any discussion of leadership must inevitably deal with the means by which a leader gets the members of a group or organization to act and move in a particular direction.
Whereby, this is to be considered "power" in social influential situations.
Overview
The original French and Raven model included five bases of power – reward, coercion, legitimate, expert, and referent – however, informational power was added by Raven in 1965, bringing the total to six. Since then, the model has gone through very significant developments: coercion and reward can have personal as well as impersonal forms. Expert and referent power can be negative or positive. Legitimate power, in addition to position power, may be based on other normative obligations: reciprocity, equity, and responsibility. Information may be utilized in direct or indirect fashion.French and Raven defined social power as the potential for influence (a change in the belief, attitude or behavior of a someone who is the target of influence.
As we know leadership and power are closely linked. This model shows how the different forms of power affect one's leadership and success. This idea is used often in organizational communication and throughout the workforce. "The French-Raven power forms are introduced with consideration of the level of observability and the extent to which power is dependent or independent of structural conditions. Dependency refers to the degree of internalization that occurs among persons subject to social control. Using these considerations it is possible to link personal processes to structural conditions".
Original typology
The bases of social power have evolved over the years with benefits coming from advanced research and theoretical developments in related fields. On the basis of research and evidence, there have been many other developments and elaborations on the original theory. French and Raven developed an original model outlining the change dependencies and also further delineating each power basis.Table 1
| Basis of Power | Social Dependence of Change | Importance of Surveillance |
| Coercion | Socially Dependent | Important |
| Reward | Socially Dependent | Important |
| Legitimacy | Socially Dependent | Important |
| Expert | Socially Dependent | Unimportant |
| Referent | Socially Dependent | Unimportant |
| Informational | Socially Independent | Unimportant |
It is a common understanding that most social influence can still be understood by the original six bases of power, but the foundational bases have been elaborated and further differentiated. Table 2 further differentiates the Bases of Social Power.
Table 2
Bases of power
As mentioned above, there are now six main concepts of power strategies consistently studied in social communication research. They are described as Coercive, Reward, Legitimate, Referent, Expert, and Informational. Additionally, research has shown that source credibility has an explicit effect on the bases of power used in persuasion.Source credibility, the bases of power, and objective power, which is established based on variables such as position or title, are interrelated. The levels of each have a direct relationship in the manipulation and levels of one another.
The bases of power differ according to the manner in which social changes are implemented, the permanence of such changes, and the ways in which each basis of power is established and maintained.
The effectiveness of power is situational. Given there are six bases of power studied in the communication field, it is very important to know the situational uses of each power, focusing on when each is most effective. According to French and Raven, "it is of particular practical interest to know what bases of power or which power strategies are most likely to be effective, but it is clear that there is no simple answer.
For example, a power strategy that works immediately but relies on surveillance may not last once surveillance ends. One organizational study found that reward power tended to lead to greater satisfaction on the part of employees, which means that it might increase influence in a broad range of situations. Coercive power was more effective in influencing a subordinate who jeopardized the success of the overall organization or threatened the leader's authority, even though in the short term it also led to resentment on the part of the target. A power strategy that ultimately leads to private acceptance and long-lasting change may be difficult to implement, and consume considerable time and energy. In the short term, complete reliance on information power might even be dangerous. A military officer leading his troops into combat might be severely handicapped if he had to give complete explanations for each move. Instead, he would want to rely on unquestioned legitimate position power, backed up by coercive power. Power resources, which may be effective for one leader, dealing with one target or follower, may not work for a different leader and follower. The manner in which the power strategy is utilized will also affect its success or failure. Where coercion is deemed necessary, a leader might soften its negative effects with a touch of humor. There have been studies indicating that cultural factors may determine the effectiveness of power strategies."
Coercive power
Coercive power uses the threat of force to gain compliance from another. Force may include physical, social, emotional, political, or economic means. Coercion is not always recognized by the target of influence. This type of power is based upon the idea of coercion. The main idea behind this concept is that someone is forced to do something that he/she does not desire to do. The main goal of coercion is compliance. Coercive power's influence is socially dependent on how the target relates to the change being desired by the influence agent. Furthermore, a person would have to be consistently watched by the influencing agent in order for the change to remain in effect.Impersonal
An example of impersonal coercion relates a person's belief that the influencing agent has the real power to physically threaten, impose a monetary fine or dismiss an employee.Personal
An example of personal coercion relates to a threat of rejection or the possibility of disapproval from a person whom is highly valued.According to Changingminds.org "demonstrations of the harm are often used to illustrate what will happen if compliance is not gained". The power of coercion has been proven to be related with punitive behavior that may be outside one's normal role expectations. However coercion has also been associated positively with generally punitive behavior and negatively associated to contingent reward behavior. This source of power can often lead to problems and in many circumstances it involves abuse. These types of leaders rely on the use of threats in their leadership style. Often the threats involve saying someone will be fired or demoted.