Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Philippine Politics and Governance: Lesson 3: Nature, Dimensions, Types and Consequences of Power
Philippine Politics and Governance: Lesson 3: Nature, Dimensions, Types and Consequences of Power
Philippine Politics and Governance: Lesson 3: Nature, Dimensions, Types and Consequences of Power
Philippine
Politics and
Governance
Lesson 3: Nature,
Dimensions, Types and
Consequences of Power
WHAT IS POWER?
1. Latent
Power is something that people have and may or may not choose to
use.
2. Relative
The power one person has over another depends largely on thing
such as the expertise of one person to another and the
hierarchical level of one relative to the other.
3. Perceived
4. Dynamic
DIMENSIONS OF POWER
1. CHANNELS
The channels of power are the way in which power is enacted. They
can perhaps more readily be remembered as 'head, hands and
heart'.
2. Intent
These form the intent of the person using power, helping or
hurting others.
a. Positive power- this is power used for good, with the
intent of helping others. It is used to protect and
nurture, or at least do no harm. It is based on love,
care, concern and pro-social values.
b. Negative power- This power that is used either to
directly harm other people or with no care or concern
about them. It is based either on greed and selfishness
or on other negative emotions such as fear and hate.
3. Deliberateness
These are the deliberateness of power, the triggers which
lead to power being used.
a. Reactive power- This is power that is used in response
to situations, for example where a person has the power
to say no or to restrict access in some form. In some
countries, crimes are considered as being less so when
they are deemed as being reactive.
b. Proactive power- This is power used consciously and
deliberately, for example using your physical strength
to attack someone. This is where Values, Morals and
Ethics are more significant, as they imply deliberate
intent, premeditation and forethought.
TYPES OF POWER
1. LEGITIMATE
the power a person receives as a result of his or her position n
the formal hierarchy of an organization.
2. REWARD
power that achieves compliance based on the ability to
distributes rewards that others view as valuable.
3. COERCIVE
4. EXPERT
5. REFERENT
CONSEQUENCES OF POWER
Power and consequence are often closely related. The basic principle
is that a person with power has the ability to create consequences for
the target person, who takes these consequences into account when they
are deciding whether to comply with a request or refuse it.
1. Punishment
A very common attribute of power is that the wielder of power
has the ability to coerce the target into compliance through the
threat of some kind of punishment. The basic transaction is
hence 'Do as I say or else, I will harm you in some way'.
2. Prevention
Some people do not have the power to directly punish, though
they may have the ability to withhold something or prevent the
target person getting what they want.
Prevention in business situations could be loss of cooperation
or stopping the person from getting promoted.
3. Power loss
There is also consequence for the person wielding the power.
Sometimes use power of power leads to gaining more power as the
dominated person becomes cowed and hence easier to persuade in
future.
An example of losing power when it is used is where you have
helped a person in the past and they feel obliged to comply when
you ask something of them in return.