Leadership and Empowerment

The paradox of power diffusion and expansion is a fascinating topic. The lesson that Arnold Tannenbaum published in his research is that constituencies that perceive greater power within their field of influence, especially over the organization, tend to have higher satisfaction (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). Power sharing with group members demonstrates trust and respect. Tannenbaum also found that organizational effectiveness tended to be higher when members perceived that they possessed greater power. Obviously, the leaders most closely associated with these group members had created a climate of empowerment, where each member felt as if they could act as they saw fit on behalf of the organization. The author has experienced delegation of significant amounts of power, when working for a past manager who made each team member the “CEO” of each functional marketing area. There seems to be a certain gestalt in this type of situation with regard to total amount of power being wielded exceeding the leaders own formal organizational power – this may be that the reference, expert, etc. power of other members is exercised in addition to the positional power of the leader.

Reference

Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2002). The leadership challenge (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.