BITS Pilani

Pilani Campus

Leadership and Management of Change

Sidharth Mishra
Authority, Obedience and Power
 Authority, Obedience and Power
• Leadership and authority are not synonymous.
• Authority is the right to exercise the power which is formalized either by an
organization or a society.
• Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to work towards a common goal.
• Both can survive without each other. But their survival would be wobbly. For
best results in an organization they should be properly aligned with each
other for optimal performance.
• You should check your motivation for leadership.
• Is it leadership or the “trappings of leadership”?
• The Indian Maharajas
Leaders need authority to influence, mobilize and motivate.
Authority and Leadership Organization

Learning Points
• Role of Authority and expectation.
• Emotional and psychological issues caused by authority
• Leadership from formal and informal authority.
• Changing nature of authority and its demand on workforce.
• Leaders and optimal use of authority.
 Authority and Obedience
• Authority is power conferred to perform a service.
• Authority is dependent on the following.
• Complexity of the task to be performed.
• Captain of a ship.
• Significance of the impact of their tasks.
• Surgeon in OT.
• Power vested in authority role.
• Authority is linked to performance.
• Personal Experience and authority.
• Our experience determines the way we exercise our own authority.
• Adolph Hitler
• Constant fights with his father. Considered priesthood. Moved places.
 Authority and personal experience
• Someone takes charge.
• Protects
• Nourishes.
• Sets rule for engagement.
• Loves, punishes.
• Danger and abuse.
 Authority and Experience Reaction
• Safe and obedient
• Is s/he meeting performance obligation?
• Do they deserve power?
• Trustworthiness of authority figure.
• Emotional Response pattern
• Mental construct
• Trustworthiness, Likeability, Effectiveness, Benevolence of authority
• Coping with authority
 Engaging with authority
• Authority figures protect us by discharging professional obligations.
• Confer power upon us.
• We shouldn’t challenge authority unduly or tactlessly.
• We shouldn’t undermine them.
• We are aware of destructive uses of authority.
 Coping Strategies
• Maximize our benefits under minimum danger.
• Fight
• Flight
• Manipulate
• Partner
• Ignore
• Negotiate
• ‘Yes’ persons
 Personal Exercises
• What have been your personal coping strategies?
• Partner, Flight, Fight
• Has it been influenced by the gender of the “boss”?
• Not applicable.
• Has it been affected by the race and ethnicity of the boss?
• Yes.
• How do your employees respond to you?
• Analysis of your coping strategy?
• Is it effective?
• Is it subtle? Is it transparent?
• Does it create a stereotype?
If it is transparent, not effective and has created bad stereotypes; you need to reconsider your
coping strategy.
 Authority and Obedience
• Why do people obey?
• Milgram’s obedience experiment
• Teacher – Learner Experiment
• Teacher was advised by the experimenter ( a professor) to administer shocks of higher
severity to a student strapped on a chair if he did not learn given lessons. The voltage
went all the way up to 450V.
• The learners were actually actors who shrieked each time the “shock” was
administered. In reality there was no current flow.
• 65% of the ‘teachers’ went all the way to 450 V while applying shock.
• There was no observable gender difference.
• Compliance was higher when a third person gave the shock.
• Causes of Obedience
• Obedience caused by fear.
 Reasons for obedience
• A sense of obligation / or duty.
• Inability to realize the values of leaders.
• Living up to expectation of authority often while lacking the moral concern for victim.
• Obedience does not mean the following.
• Support’ Agreement, Loyalty, Affection, Commitment, understanding etc.
 Other forms of obedience
• Obedience caused by fear.
• Obedience as the line of least resistance.
• Obedience is morally right.
• Obeying authority is our duty
 Transference
• The phenomenon of transferring our images and emotions to those in authority.
• Positive transference
• A strong, but tolerant and affectionate father calls for an ‘obedient son”. In the presence of such a
person, the subject would transfer his feelings of his father to him and become the ‘obedient” son
• Negative Transference
• An abusive father would in turn make the subject rebellious and resentful, Such a person would not easily accept a leadership
figure.
• Counter-Transference
• When the father figure recognizes the subject’s behaviour and reciprocates.

• Ultimately it turns out to be a counterproductive exercise.

 Personal exercise
• What criteria or principles influence your obedience to authority? How easily
you challenge authority and usually on what grounds?
• I expect a boss to be fair. My challenge to authority is usually not overt or direct. It is
silent. I feel my antagonism against my boss and I wonder if he is also feeling my
emotions.
• There is only one reason why I challenge authority. I challenge when it is unfair and
discriminatory. I also feel frustrated if the job is boring.
• When do you expect others to be obedient to your authority?
• I expect others to carefully listen to my viewpoint and accept it if and only in they are able
to think through it. I welcome differing view points for as long as they are rationally
presented. I abhor tendentious differences. When there is anything they find ambiguous I
do everything possible to clarify my position. I expect a real buy in, not a manufactured
one.
 Personal exercise
• What kinds of transference do you project on authority figures?
• I am normally suspicious of my bosses, especially if they are Indians. I have had a great
working relationship with bosses from foreign cultures. I also do not have problems
with bosses with premium backgrounds.
• What kinds of transference have you noticed people project on to you?
• They generally look up to me as a genial., friendly elder brother.
• How do projections on you help or hinder your leadership effectiveness? And
how have they helped or hindered you in the past.
• It sometimes makes hard decisions difficult. I go to great lengths to explain the
situation when some one has to be let go. I try my best to soften the blow. I have also
done my best to defend my employees as and when I have felt they have been unfairly
treated by anyone in the organisation. This has often created problems with senior
management.
 Authority Max Weber’s view
• Legitimacy
• Being lawful
• Conforming to accepted tradition
• Being reasonable
• Being genuine
• Hereditary right.
 Authority Max Weber
• Rational Authority
• Comes from rational belief
• Traditional Authority
• tradition
• Charismatic Authority
• Special characteristics of the individual