Gaining Power and Influence in the Workplace - Essay Example

From this study it is clear that power is the aptitude to control people. Authority is the privilege to influence, control, and transform other people. To elucidate how the reporter gains power and influence in the work place, it is important to describe French and Raven model of power and influence. These two individuals postulated an all inclusive form of collective and shared authority. In doing so, they proposed and recommended various categories of authority. These categories include intimidation, incentive, valid, specialist, referent, as well as informational.

People in positions of leadership can achieve power and influence through corporeal and oral intimidations. Power through intimidation can either be applied to a single entity or a group of people.This paper highlights that achieving power and influence through incentives is practiced in many organizations all over the world. Individuals who are involved in making decisions regarding incentives have all the power and influence in the workplace. Valid power and influence is achieved on the basis of how the individual in management position is expected to behave by the public.

In referent power, people are known to respect and recognize the authority of individuals that they are capable of forming relationships or associations with. Informational power depends on the status of an individual as some individuals are considered to be more knowledgeable than others.