Perhaps the two most-often-confused terms in management are power and authority. Authority was defined in Chapter 11 as the right to command or give orders. The extent to which an individual is able to influence others so that they respond to orders is called power . 20 The greater this ability, the more power an individual is said to have.

Power and control are closely related. To illustrate, after comparing actual performance with planned performance and determining that corrective action is necessary, a manager usually gives orders to implement this action. Although the orders are issued by virtue of the manager’s organizational authority, they may or may not be followed precisely, depending on how much power the manager has over the individuals to whom the orders are addressed.

Business and management scholar and Stanford University professor Jeffrey Pfeffer claims that managers must learn how to wield power in order to advance their organization’s agenda. In fact, he says, many highly competent professionals have floundered in management careers because they are uncomfortable with using power.21 In the following sections, we describe the different types of power and the steps managers may take to increase their power.

The total power a manager possesses is made up of two different kinds of power: position power and personal power. Position power is power derived from the organizational position a manager holds.22 In general, a manager moving from lower-level management to upper-level management accrues more position power. Personal power is power derived from a manager’s relationships with others.23

Managers can increase their total power by enhancing either their position power or their personal power, or both. Position power is generally enhanced by a move to a higher organizational position, but most managers have little personal control over when they will move up in an organization. Managers do, however, have substantial control over the amount of personal power they hold over other organization members. John P. Kotter stresses the importance of developing personal power:

1. A sense of obligation toward the manager—If a manager succeeds in developing this sense of obligation, other organization members will allow the manager to influence them to a certain extent. The basic strategy suggested for creating this sense of obligation is to do personal favors for people.

2. A belief that the manager possesses a significant level of expertise within the organization—In general, a manager’s personal power increases as organization members perceive that the manager’s level of expertise is significant. To raise perceptions of their expertise, managers must quietly make their notable achievements visible to others and create a successful track record and a solid professional reputation.

3. A sense of identification with the manager—The manager can strive to develop this identification by behaving in ways that other organization members respect and by espousing the goals, values, and ideals that the organization members commonly hold. The following passage illustrates how a certain sales manager took steps to increase the degree to which his subordinates identified with him:

   One vice president of sales in a moderate-sized manufacturing company was reputed to be so much in control of his sales force that he could get them to respond to new and different marketing programs in a third of the time taken by the company’s best competitors. His power over his employees was based primarily on their strong identification with him and what he stood for. Immigrating to the United States at age seventeen, this person worked his way up “from nothing.” When made a sales manager in 1965, he began recruiting other young immigrants and sons of immigrants from his former country. When made vice president of sales in 1970, he continued to do so. In 1975, 85 percent of his sales force was made up of people whom he hired directly or who were hired by others he brought.27

4. The perception that they are dependent on the manager—The main strategy here is to clearly convey the amount of authority the manager has over organizational resources—not only those necessary for organization members to do their jobs, but also those that organization members personally receive in such forms as salaries and bonuses. This strategy is aptly reflected in the managerial version of the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules.”

In addition to avoiding the potential barriers to successful controlling mentioned in the previous section, managers can perform certain activities to make the control process more effective. To increase the quality of the controlling subsystem, managers should make sure that controlling activities take all of the following factors into account.