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