CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS ON LEADERSHIP
2.4 LEADERSHIP AND POWER
Power is important to leadership, because it is through power that leaders are able to influence subordinates to do what they (subordinates) would not do on their own. In the following discussion, power and influence are discussed.
2.4.1 Power and influence
Daft (2012:327) define power as “the potential ability of one person in an orga- nization to influence others to bring about desired outcomes”. This potential
influence in the organisation is accompanied by the need to achieve the desired outcomes for the power holders. Daft (2012:328) continued to define influence as to the effect of a person’s actions on attitudes, values, beliefs and actions of others. The differences that could be drawn between power and influence are that power causes a change in a person, whereas the degree of that actual change is influence. For example, a teacher may want to teach at a particular secondary school because he admires the way the Principal is running the school. French and Raven (in Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson, 2008:162–166) have proposed the following five bases of power:
2.4.1.1 Legitimate power
This is the power based on the authority of the formal position held by Prin- cipals, Deputy Principals and heads of departments in schools. Other staff members accept and respect the legitimate rights of formal leaders to set goals, make decisions, and direct activities.
2.4.1.2 Reward power
This is the power that stems from the authority of the Principal to reward others.
Principals have been given the authority to recommend payment of performance appraisal bonuses and promotions to teachers who successfully completes their tasks.
2.4.1.3 Referent power
This is the power based on the Principals’ personal traits such as integrity and honesty. If the Principal’s referent power is high, he/she is likely to be admired, and this admiration will then influence others to be like him/her.
2.4.1.4 Expert power
Principals are more effective if they possess the expertise, skill and knowledge that teachers respect and regard as important. Alternatively teachers who have the expertise, skill and knowledge are competent and confident and therefore, require little direction and support from the heads of departments (HoDs), deputy principals and Principals to do their work. Educational leadership has three-fold
• Ensure that curricular needs are met, for example prescribed activities and tasks are done, content for particular period or term or semester is covered, among others.
• Establish and maintain sound relationships among teachers, management (including school/circuit/district/provincial/national), learners, parents, com- munity and business people.
• Motivate educators and learners to improve and sustain performance, en- courage parents, the community, and the businesspeople to support learners and education, with the ultimate purpose of achieving school’s objectives.
In order to achieve these responsibilities, the school leadership uses authority and power given to it by the Department of Education to create school climate that is conducive for teachers to teach effectively, for learners to learn effective- ly, for the parents-community businesses to support the school. It is the respon- sibility of the school leadership to maintain a healthy balance between task- oriented and people-oriented leadership style.
2.4.1.5 Coercive power
This is the power to enforce compliance through fear, either psychologically or physically (physically referring to the verbal expression of sanction). Teachers who do not perform appropriately are reminded that there may be sanctions and other negative consequences against them. These sanctions may take the form of reprimands, transfers, no recommendations to payments of performance appraisal bonuses, and recommendations of terminations.
2.4.1.6 Information power
Raven (Warner, 2011:265; Daft, 2012:458) brought in another power, called in- formation power. Information is, according to her (Warner, 2011:265), a resource in business and education, and those who have access to it, are more powerful than those at the lower level of the school’s functional structure. Therefore, access to information is determined by a person’s position in the school. In a typical secondary school in Waterberg Education District, the order of access to information will be, starting from the top to the bottom, the Principal, deputy principal(s), heads of departments, senior teachers and lastly assistant teachers.
To conclude on different power bases, Daft (2012:327–328) groups these powers into hard and soft power bases. He (Daft, 2012:328) described hard power as “the kind of power that enables a supervisor to influence subordinates with the use of rewards and punishments, allow a manager to issue orders and expect them to be obeyed, or force his/her own decisions without regard for what anyone else think”. Such types of powers are likely to be legitimate, reward and coercive. While we acknowledge the positions that Principals are holding, this does not give them the right to force their decisions without con- sulting with their subordinates, or apply sanctions like punishments to those who do not always agree with their decisions. These powers, namely legitimate, reward and coercive are largely defined by organisation’s policies and pro- cedures.
Soft powers were described by Daft (2012:328) as those powers, which afford the possessor of them the ability to influence subordinates to do what they would not do on their own, because of their skill, expertise, and knowledge or the subordinates emulate the leader because of his/her respect, popularity, among others. The examples of such powers are expert and referent powers.
Effective Principals use both hard and soft powers alternatively, always taking subordinates on board.