Question

In the last one week, May and Phyllis have been putting in extra hours at work so that the project assigned to them by their manager is completed well within time. Though the manager was due to assign two more people for this project, he had not done so. As a result, May and Phyllis, who were having to do double their routine workload, went and complained to the division manager. May was promptly suspended from work for complaining about her immediate supervisor. This represents the operation of ________ power.

A) reward
B) legitimate
C) coercive
D) expert
E) referent

Answer 1

There are five types of power established by psychologists John French and Bertram Raven in 1959. May and Phyllis's example represents the operation of coercive power, which is defined as the use of force, threath or punishment to get an employee to follow instructions.