Power

An organization can be many different things. A family unit is a basic organization. Saskatchewan's provincial library system is a large, complicated organization. In order to understand what happens in an organization, you must understand who wields the power in it.

There are five different types of power:

• Legitimate or positional power. This is the type of power you have as head of your family household, or as the librarian in charge in your library.

• Expert power. You hold this type of power in your library, since you're the most qualified to find material that's housed there. Nobody else likely knows as well as you do where to find things!

• Referant power. People in organizations admire and respect others in the organization, giving them referant power. People with referant power are charismatic and inspire the trust of others.

• Coercive power. Your coercive power comes from such things as your ability to remove patrons from your library, or if you work in a school library, to send them to the principal's office for not following library rules.

• Reward power. In organizations, your superiors have the power to give you rewards, such as monetary gain or promotions. Favorite members of the staff may get more privileges, which is a problem.

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You've likely watched Mr. Bean in movies and on t.v. Many of his comedy scenes are about power. Let's watch this one and consider who has power.

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Customer Service with Mr. Bean

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This material was gathered by Linda Aksomitis

Instructor for Introduction to Internet Writing Markets

and Credenda Virtual College

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