Social psychology in Organizations specialization at Leiden University
Lecture 2: Power and Leadership
Power
Asymmetric control over valued resources in social relationships
Power approach theory by Keltner:
Power leads to:
-Lack of perspective taking
-Lack of compassion and empathy
-Increased abstarct thinking
-Increased optimism and risk taking
-Increased sense of control
-Increased assertiveness
- Example: fan blowing on the table so papers are moving around. High-power people: turn off fan.
-Helping: people who feel powerful are more likely to help (rather than wait and see what happens)
Is power the same as status?
No, power ≠ status
Power = asymmetric outcome control
Status = respect and admiration and place in hierarchy/group
A combination of high power and low status can lead to aggression
Leadership
Is power the same as leadership?
No, power ≠ leadership
Power = asymmetric outcome control
Leadership = influence, motivation and direction towards common goal
-ability to influence, motivate and direct toward shared goal
How to select/create a leader who uses power to benefit the group?
Perspective taking: Power reduces perspective taking so the leader should be someone who is very good at perspective taking to begin with
Power as opportunity vs. responsibility: people who see power as a responsibility tend to take other people's perspective into account
Fairness
Distributive fairness = fair outcomes
-Equity: everyone gets the same opportunity
-Equality: everyone gets the same thing
-Need: everyone gets what the amount they are in need of
Procedural fairness = fair procedures for allocation of outcomes
-The fairness of the decision-making procedure about the allocation of resources, regardless of outcomes.
-People look at:
–-> Neutrality of decision making
-->Trust in motives of leader
-->Politeness and courtesy of leader to followers
Why is procedural fairness important?
-It communicates a message about one’s status in a group (relational concern)
-It can be a means to get control over outcomes
In research procedural fairness is often operationalized as: voice
Voice: an opportunity for followers to voice their opinion about a decision (outcome)
Typical procedural justice experiment:
Task --(pre-decisional voice)-->Allocation procedure ---(post decisional voice)-->Outcome
People’s evaluations of leaders largely depend on their evaluation of the procedural fairness rather than on their personal outcomes
Pre-decisional voice: leads to higher perceptions of outcome and proceduraal fairness
What is the contingency approach?
The effect of procedural fairness on follower reactions depends on leadership styles and follower characteristics:
C (leadership characteristic)
⟱
A (procedural fairness)-------------------> B (influence of followers)
-C can be something like: self-confident leader, or rewarding leader
Self-determination theory
Increase intrinsic motivation of followers by fulfilling 3 needs:
- Need for autonomy
- Need for competence
- Need for relatedness
Procedural fairness might help leaders to fulfill these needs in their followers
