Why Can Power Be Abused So Easily?
Throughout history, people with power have done pretty remarkable accomplishments. George Washington led the U.S to victory in the American Revolutionary War and didn’t want to be named a king because of his commitment to the American republicanism. A true example of a great leader who understood why the people should have more power over However, with every good one, comes bad ones. You can search for hours upon hours looking up information about those who abused their power and get countless results. From Ivan the terrible with his randomly selected executions, to Kim Jong-Il and his ability to convince his country that he was cool. So why is this wonderful feeling of power so easily abused?
First off, let’s start with the six types of power, Coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, informational, and expert power. Coercive power is the power to force someone to do something or there will be consequences. Coercive power is nothing more than bullying, threats, and aggression to get those under them to do what they say. It’s by far the most used and abused form of power. Think about if someone was arguing with you and the only think they want is to fight. If they’re a better fighter than you, you have two options, fight or don’t fight. Either way, they become the winner and therefore more desirable.
Reward power is based upon “do this and get that” (John Prescott). This can be one of the most effective forms of power as long as the reward is seen of value. John Prescott from Linkedin.com uses a great example of how reward power can be used to better organizations, “Reward power can also be used to increase morale. Think of giving a trophy to the highest performer or the team with the lowest amount of mistakes. If used well, this type of reward can become a highly sought-after symbol within your organization.” After reading this, my entire thought process changed. I remembered back to a time that my mom and aunt would have me and my brother go around and do chores for family members and in return, we would get to go to this little diner for milkshakes. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better work ethic than when I was doing it for the good ol’ fashioned strawberry shakes.
Legitimate power is the power of position or role. This is seen more typically in a military environment where there’s commands and control. The whole power system is based around someone is going to make a decision and that person is going to take responsibility for that decision. However, having just legitimate power doesn’t always throw you into a higher position in power, unless you combine these next ones with it.
Referent power is the ability to attract others and gain trust from them. It’s also known as the power of respect. Gaining this power can take time if a leader shows he is successful and has a good record of success. Some people seem to come naturally to this power while it takes others learning how to develop the ability to gain this power and use if effectively.
Informational power got added into the group of powers so were going to discuss that as well. Informational power is ranked in the top three for effective power. Having informational power is having information that others do not and therefore can lead to having absolute power over another. It can be used for positive or negative outcomes. For example, a political candidate could have some saucy information about another candidate that could completely change the outcome of an election. I see this power as kind of a “dick power”. Holding information about someone to use it at the most effective moment for the worse outcome possible for that person is just an awful way that humans attack each other. On the other hand, it can be used to improve strategies and goals.
And finally, expert power. Expert power is when someone has such knowledge or expertise in an area. They say that this power is the most effective and I couldn’t agree more. I have worked construction for a couple years now and obviously I’m going to listen to someone who has in-depth knowledge about what they are responsible for. When someone has power because of their expertise in their area, they can use trust and respect to help persuade others. This seems like it would be the most highly sought-after leadership role.
Now that we understand all the types of power, it is a little easier to put together what works well for a leader, and what doesn’t work. However, if we know that some of these types of power usually never end too well, why do people still abuse these types of power?
The Stanford prison experiment is one of the biggest examples that once power is gained, it can be abused very quickly. The Stanford prison experiment allowed college students to be picked between guards and officers. They were supposed to spend two weeks in this psychological experiment however it was put to a halt after the experiment showed that just after six days the officers were abusing their powers and psychologically messing with the fellow college student prisoners. Stanley Milgram had a shock test that proved normal people could harm another if an authority ordered them to.
After learning about this information, it’s very easy to click together. When someone notices that a form of power works well in their favor and leads to greater feelings of “in charge”, leading them to be open to harsher punishments to stand strong.
In the movie “Mon Oncle Antoine”, Antoine passes out drunk and when Benoit jumps on him to wake him up, he hits him off and sends him into the snow. Antoine was showing coercive power in my opinion. The reason I believe this is because he was trying to punish Benoit for disrupting him. However, that’s not the only point. I feel like Antoine realized that tactic wasn’t going to work when Benoit stood up and smacked him right back. He wasn’t having it and was going to prove that Antoine couldn’t do that to him. I think between the alcohol and the, “punch of realization” I like to call it, changed Antoine’s view on what power he had over Benoit.
Perhaps if people were more willing to throw the punch of realization, it would change the mind of those abusing their power? Maybe for a few of them, but definitely not all of them. Joseph Stalin is a good example of what happens when nobody stops you when you first start abusing your power. According to HistoryOfRussia.org, Stalin was responsible for the estimated amount of “3.5- 8 million” deaths. “Today, most historians seem to have settled on a total of about 20 million.” Once the ball starts rolling, its seems like it starts spiraling out of control. What’s even scarier is when those people become higher ups and start making decisions.
So, what makes it so easy to abuse power? “Power tends to corrupt” (Lord Acton, 19th century British Historian) “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lord Acton) In a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, “DeCelles and her co-authors found that the answer is yes. People’s sense of ‘moral identity’—the degree to which they thought it was important to their sense of self to be “caring,’ ‘compassionate,’ ‘fair,’ ‘generous’ and so on—shaped their responses to feelings of power.” (Christopher Shea) In another part, she holds another little experiment that recorded how some people see themselves as powerful and how others had low and high moral-identity scores, “The undergraduates were told they shared a pool of 500 points with other people, and they could take between zero and ten points for themselves. The more points they took, the better their odds of winning a $100 lottery. But if they took too many—there
was no way of knowing what that tipping point was—the pot would empty and the lottery would be called off. The participants who had just written about an ordinary day each took roughly 6.5 points, regardless of their moral-identity score. But among those who had been primed to think of themselves as powerful, the people with low moral-identity scores grabbed 7.5 points—and those with high moral-identity scores took only about 5.5.” (Christopher Shea). When someone is given absolute power, which when they let them right about when they were powerful to increase their thought on how much they had, they normally think they are above others.
After looking at all the information I could possibly grasp for, I have finally come to the realization that you never see people abusing their power positively. Perhaps it’s possible that there’s a trait of having Coercive power that just makes you want to take over the world. Honestly, it doesn’t surprise me thought. I supposed if you gave a caveman a gun and taught him how to use it, he could go around and get what he needs without anyone ever bothering him. He would very quickly start dominating and never needs to worry.