Power (communication)

Based on work originally proposed by the social psychologists French and Raven, there are six different breakdowns of power in interpersonal communication: referent, legitimate, reward, coercive, persuasive, and expert.

Ways people give up their power are by being over-polite, backing down from an argument, using a title (such as Doctor or Professor) when addressing another, allowing interruptions when speaking, and specific clothing choices can also suggest a loss of or way people give up power to others.

Referent power - is based upon the identification with the person who has the resources, or the desire to be like that person. It could be regarded as imitative power, which is often seen in the way children imitate their parents.

Legitimate power - is based on agreement on commonly held values which allow one person to have power over another person, for example an older person or one who has longer service or is seen to be charismatic.

Expert power - is based upon one person perceiving that the other person has expert knowledge of a given subject and is a recognised authority in a given situation eg. the engineer in a building project.

Coercive power - this enables a person to mediate punishments for others. For example, to dissmiss, suspend, reprimand them, or make them carry out unpleasant tasks.

Reward power - occurs when a person has the capacity to offer or mediate rewards to others eg. promotions, recommendations, praise or answers to questions.