Leadership, power, authority...
Burns, on power:
- power “is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance.” (page 12, quoting Weber)
- dimensions of power: distribution, scope, and domain. (page 16, quoting Robert Dahl)
- examples of power resources: constituency support, access to information, financial resources, skill, reputation, all relative to the competition’s strength.
- “…power and leadership are measured by the degree of production of intended effects.” (page 22)
Notes:
On Dahl’s dimensions: distribution -- the concentration and dispersion of power among persons of diverse influence in various political, social, and economic locations; scope -- the extent to which power is generalized over a wide range or is specialized [persons may be powerful relative to one kind of activity, and not to others]; and domain -- the number and nature of power respondents influenced by power wielders compared to those who are not.
“Power…is exercised when potential power wielders, motivated to achieve certain goals of their own, marshal in their power base resources (economic, military, institutional, or skill) that enable them to influence the behavior of respondents by activating motives of respondents relevant to those resources and to those goals. This is done in order to realize the purposes of the power wielders, whether or not these are also the goals of the respondents. …Leaders are a particular kind of power holder. Like power, leadership is relational, collective, and purposeful. Leadership shares with power the central function of achieving purpose. …All leaders are actual or potential power holders, but not all power holders are leaders.” Burns, page18
“Authority was…legitimated power. But it was legitimated by tradition, religious sanction, rights of succession, and procedures (page 24)….
Ultimately, the moral legitimacy of transformational leadership , and to a lesser degree transactional leadership, is grounded in conscious choice among real alternatives. (page 36)”