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Enjoying Your Work Richard Brislin |
Powerful people can
influence others in
an ethical mannerWhen people talked about George Allen, they always had positive things to say that contributed to his reputation as "a nice guy." People in his neighborhood said that he was a pillar of the church, always ready to advise the pastor on projects that would motivate parishioners to become involved. He coached teams in the local youth basketball league, even after his own children graduated from high school. "The league was a total mess about 10 years ago," one person remembered. "George brought people together and encouraged them to put their differences aside so that the neighborhood children would have good experiences."
Classmates from high school remembered Allen as someone who was active in student organizations. He ran for study body president and lost only because the winning candidate was an especially popular football player on a championship team.
Allen worked as an insurance salesman and was quite successful. He clearly cared about the well-being of his clients, and this led to many positive word-of-mouth referrals. After 12 years at his company, Allen was offered an executive position. He would be in charge of hiring and training new salespeople, supervising their work and reassigning them if they did not meet their sales quotas. He would also field complaints from clients if the salespeople misrepresented the types of coverage they were offering or if they did not provide follow-up services. Occasionally, when client complaints multiplied, he would have to ask some employees to find work at another organization. Old friends wondered if Allen would be able to prosper in such a job given that he had such a positive reputation as a "people person."
Individuals who know Allen and are concerned about his new position might have a negative view of power and wonder if a "nice guy" will find satisfaction in an administrative job. But power is not always negative. Power involves influencing the behavior of others.
This influence can be positive or negative. Power is much like fire. Some use fire to cook their food, to heat their homes and to provide energy for labor-saving machines. But others use it to destroy life and property. Just like power, fire is a tool that can be used for good and evil purposes.
Even though it might be relatively invisible, Allen has shown an interest in influencing others. He enjoys advising his church's pastor. He reorganized the community basketball league, clearly having an influence on children, coaches and parents. In high school he campaigned for the position of student body president. This interest in working with others can be put to good use in his workplace. In his current job, Allen has the potential to influence many salespeople and to guide them in developing ethical business practices.
But there is admittedly a downside to power. People can become intoxicated with their ability to influence others and can become abusive in their interpersonal relations.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
The purpose of this column is to increase understanding of human behavior as it has an impact on the workplace. Given the amount of time people spend at work, job satisfaction should ideally be high and it should contribute to general life happiness. Enjoyment can increase as people learn more about workplace psychology, communication, and group influences.
Richard Brislin is a professor in the College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii. He can be reached through the College Relations Office: cro@cba.hawaii.edu