Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Introduction
- I Relationships to manage the faces of power
- 1 Understanding power in organizations
- 2 How can power be tamed?
- 3 Power and self-construal: How the self affects power processes
- 4 The conceptualization of power and the nature of interdependency: The role of legitimacy and culture
- 5 Power in cooperation and competition: Understanding the positive and negative faces of power
- II Participative leadership: Leading with others
- III Exchange dynamics and outcomes
- IV Power to influence
- V Leading with values
- Index
- References
4 - The conceptualization of power and the nature of interdependency: The role of legitimacy and culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Introduction
- I Relationships to manage the faces of power
- 1 Understanding power in organizations
- 2 How can power be tamed?
- 3 Power and self-construal: How the self affects power processes
- 4 The conceptualization of power and the nature of interdependency: The role of legitimacy and culture
- 5 Power in cooperation and competition: Understanding the positive and negative faces of power
- II Participative leadership: Leading with others
- III Exchange dynamics and outcomes
- IV Power to influence
- V Leading with values
- Index
- References
Summary
Power is often considered the central animating force of human interaction. Who has power, who is affected by power, and how that power is exercised provide the foundation for understanding human relations (Russell 1960). Although it is difficult to give both a parsimonious and a complete definition of power (Fiske and Berdahl 2007; Lukes 1974), power is often defined as the ability to control resources, own and others, a definition rooted in theories of dependency and interdependency (Thibaut and Kelly 1959). Because those who possess power depend less on the resources of others than vice versa, the powerful are more easily able to satisfy their own needs and desires. Given this asymmetric interdependence, many models of power typically describe it as an inherently social variable.
Although power emerges from a specific set of social relations, the possession of power has a transformative impact on an individual's psychological state, leading the powerful to roam in a very different psychological space than the powerless (Keltner et al. 2003; Kipnis 1972). An explosion of research has demonstrated that the possession of power has metamorphic effects on the mental states of individuals and can lead to both positive and negative consequences.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Power and Interdependence in Organizations , pp. 67 - 82Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
References
and (2002) The experience of power: Examining the effects of power on approach and inhibition tendencies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1362–1377.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2006) Power, optimism, and risk-taking. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36, 511–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (2001) Who attains social status? Effects of personality and physical attractiveness in social groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 116–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2000) Emotional convergence between people over time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1054–1068.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1996) The politics and the constitution of Athens, trans. , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
, , , and (1995) Attractiveness of the underling: An automatic power → sex association and its consequences for sexual harassment and aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 768–781.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, and (1996) Who is this we? Levels of collective identity and self representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 83–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1995) Anomalies: Ultimatums, dictators and manners. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9, 209–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1994) Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67 (2), 319–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2003) Power and the ability to define the situation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, 185–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2001) Relationship orientation as moderator of the effects of social power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 183–187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1989) Culture and self-perception in Japan and the United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 124–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2007) Social power. In and (Eds.), Social psychology: A handbook of basic principles (pp. 678–692), New York, N.Y.: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
and (1959) The bases of social power. In (Ed.), Studies in social power (pp. 118–149), Ann Arbor, Mich.: Institute of Social Research.Google Scholar
, , and (2003) From power to action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 453–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and (2007) Power and immunity to constraint on cognition: Implications for creativity, conformity, and dissonance. Manuscript submitted for publication.
, , , and (2006) Power and perspectives not taken. Psychological Science, 17, 1068–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (2000) Power can bias impression processes: Stereotyping subordinates by default and by design. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 3, 227–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (2008) Power and the objectification of social targets. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 111–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2007) Power and goal pursuit. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1076–1087.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1979) Hierarchical power distance in forty countries. In and (Eds.), Organizations alike and unlike: Towards a comparative sociology of organizations (pp. 97–119), London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
, , and (2003) Power, approach and inhibition. Psychological Review, 110 (2), 265–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1972) Does power corrupt? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24, 33–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2007) Power and cooperation: The moderating effect of legitimacy. Manuscript submitted for publication.
, , , and (2008) Legitimacy moderates the effects of power on approach. Psychological Science, 19, 558–564.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1966) Power and privilege: A theory of social stratification, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
, , and (2007) Power, propensity to negotiate, and moving first in competitive interactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 200–212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2007) Power, risk, and the status quo: Does power promote riskier or more conservative decision-making? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 451–462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1991) Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1995) Affect- and cognition-based trust as foundations for interpersonal cooperation in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 24–59.Google Scholar
(1966) Beyond good and evil, trans. , New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1886.)Google Scholar
(1968) The will to power, trans. , New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1901.)Google Scholar
and Park, B. (2001) When power does not corrupt: Superior individuation processes among powerful perceivers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 549–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2006) Powerful perceivers, powerless objects: Flexibility of power-holders' social attention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 227–243.Google Scholar
(1997) The social contract, and the first and second discourses, trans. , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1762.)Google Scholar
(1960) Power, a new social analysis, London: Allen & Unwin. (Original work published 1938.)Google Scholar
, , and (1995) Intra- and interorganizational cooperation: Toward a research agenda. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 7–23.Google Scholar
and (2008) Nonconscious effects of power on basic approach and avoidance tendencies. Social Cognition, 26, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2006) You focus on the forest when you're in charge of the trees: Power priming and abstract information processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90 (4), 578–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1992) Further effects of role versus gender on interpersonal sensitivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62 (1), 154–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1979) Effects of unequal power on cooperation in conflict. Psychological Reports, 44, 239–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2000) Strategy and fairness in social decision making: Sometimes it pays to be powerless. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 36, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (2006) Power and emotion in negotiation: Power moderates the interpersonal effects of anger and happiness on concession making. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36, 557–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2001) Power use in cooperative and competitive settings. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23, 291–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1947) The theory of social and economic organization, trans. and , New York, N.Y.:Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
, , , and (2006) Power, culture, and (in)action: Considerations in the expression and enactment of power in East Asian and Western society. In (Ed.), Research on managing groups and teams: National culture and groups (pp. 53–73), Greenwich, Conn.: Elsevier Science Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 11
- Cited by