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Enjoying Your Work Richard Brislin |
Power in increments can
help avoid abuse of
subordinatesIn the last few columns, I have discussed the advantages of knowing about power in the workplace. A sophisticated understanding of power helps people achieve their goals. Most important goals involve scarce resources, such as good-paying jobs, desirable office space, funding for one's proposals and the time and attention of senior executives. Knowing about power helps people identify influential decision-makers and gives them guidance for communicating with them. When people know about power, they become more confident in themselves and in their ability to have an impact on their organizations.
The downside of power is that its use can be intoxicating. When people drink too much alcohol, they become intoxicated and engage in behaviors that they would avoid when sober. The effects of power are similar. Many people change from friendly and decent co-workers into lunatics who find great pleasure in abusing others.
This is captured in the comments people make after someone has been promoted to a company's managerial ranks. If the new manager begins to order people around, someone will surely say, "Give people a little power, and it will go straight to their heads!"
Temple University's David Kipnis has researched other impacts of acquiring power. He found that many people find power pleasurable and strive to acquire more. People begin to make poor decisions because their judgments are clouded by their preoccupation with acquiring more influence and control over others.Powerful people begin to use company resources for their benefit, feeling they are justified because they brought so much to their organizations. These misuses of power often attract negative attention and are the first steps in people's downfalls. Newspapers often report stories of how power-holders forced employees to do work far beyond their job descriptions. Employees are asked to remodel houses, to do an executive's personal shopping or to support a power-holder's favorite political candidate.
Power-holders either do not receive or choose to ignore negative feedback from subordinates. Consequently, they continue to behave in ways that are consistent with their inflated views of themselves. Power-holders also take too much credit for the accomplishments of subordinates.
Even if they clearly do not contribute to certain successful projects, they argue that "I created the conditions under which my subordinates could prosper."
Are their steps that can be taken to lessen these negative effects of power?
Yes, and one way is to establish different sets of checks and balances. If power is distributed among many people, they can enforce limits on each other. Historically, this was a reason for the rise of unions. When management abused its power, workers united to form their own influential bloc.
Another way is to encourage executives to identify people who are likely to be responsible with their power. Then, they can be brought into the ranks of power-holders by slowly but surely giving them more responsibilities over a number of years. When people are gradually given more power over a long period of time, sometimes called "brought along slowly," they often learn to handle its potentially intoxicating effects.
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