Bases of Power and influence strategies : The impact of Leader-Member exchange

• Main Authors: May-Chiun, Lo, Rossazana, Abdul Rahim
• Format: Working Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2006
• Subjects: AC Collections. Series. Collected works
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/1406/1/bases%2Bof%2Bpower%2Band%2Binfluence%2B%2528abstract%2529.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/1406/

Leadership is a process of interaction between leaders and subordinates where a leader attempts to influence the behavior of their subordinates (Yukl, 2002). Leadership cannot take place without the participation of the subordinates, and power is the essence of leaders' behavior. The scope of the present study is to investigate the effect of perceived supervisors' power in their choice of a particular influence strategy. The authors investigated the pervasiveness of each of the seven influence details on a study of 102 managers working in manufacturing companies and compared the findings to previous research. This research has applied the seven power bases to examine the bases of power of supervisors as perceived by their subordinates and types of influence tactics that the supervisor would apply. Since this study also focused on both the supervisors and the subordinates perspective in the dyadic framework, it would be of interest to examine whether leader-member exchange (LMX) plays a moderating effect on the processes of social influence. Findings suggested that the use of an influence strategy is positively correlated to the corresponding type of power.