Influencing Knowledge Workers: The Power of Top Management. Industrial Management & Data Systems

Jayasingam, S., Ansari, M. A., & Jantan, M. (2010). Influencing knowledge workers: the power of top management. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 110(1), 134-151. DOI:10.1108/02635571011008443

In this article, Jayasingam, Ansari and Jantan (2010) identify the “key leadership characteristics (in the form of social power) needed in a knowledge-based firm that can influence knowledge workers (KWs)” (p. 134). What power bases are needed in a knowledge-based organization has not been answered before. Hence the authors conducted this research. Initially they formed six hypothesis for each power base respectively which are all aiming to verify the effectiveness of the social power on organization. Basically, the hypothesis assumed that each power base plays same degree of influential in organization. The method they used to investigate was to select at least two employees at each knowledge-based organization to respond the survey. Respondent were mostly highly educated in order to fulfill the objective of the research. They established model to analyze the response, and the findings suggest that knowledge leaders should be able to strike a balance of various power bases in order to exert influence over workers. But they should focus on enhancing certain power bases such as expert power. The authors divided hypothesis into different and detailed sectors therefore enable them to examine the results more precisely, such as positive effect and negative effect of each power base on organization, as well as find out if there is any difference on the effectiveness of each power base among the size of organization.

     This article is highly useful for my research topic as it thoroughly emphasize and examine how 5 power bases works in knowledge-based management. It will assist my argument for the research topic since it is believed that in 21st century’s workplace, knowledge is essential in matter of management (Docurated 2016). And the result of this research clearly stated the effectiveness of each power base for knowledge-based management. Moreover, apart from expert power, how other power bases still matter are discussed as well which is very helpful for answering the essay. The main limitation of the research is that there are actually only 7-16 percent of the variance in knowledge management  practices is associated with leaders’ power. There could be other variables influencing the extent of knowledge management within an organization, but this was beyond the scope of the study. Authors believed that in future they could incorporate other important variables, such as culture in to the study. Another limitation is that the research focused on top-management power mostly thus may not reflect the effectiveness of power bases on other levels of management.

Michael L. Mallin & Charles B. Ragland (2017) Power-Base Effects on Salesperson Motivation and     Performance: A Contingency View, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 24:2, 99-121, DOI: 10.1080/1051712X.2017.1313671

This articles examines “how the five bases of social power that managers use in sales industry (reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, and expert) moderate influences in the salesperson motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic) as well as their performance” (p. 99). This study is based on some early literature that suggested motivation is a key determinant of salesperson performance. Therefore the authors conduct this research to further investigate how power bases would affect salesperson performance and their motivation since no studies exist to explain that the salesperson motivation and sales performance might be determined by the type of managerial power that is used. There are five hypothesis formed. The authors assumed beside legitimate power, other four power bases will positively moderate the relationship between salespersons motivation and sales performance. A cross-industry and cross-company convenience sample of 128 salespeople was used to test the study hypotheses. According to their response to the survey, test model was formed. Results indicated that reward power base actually did not positively moderate the relationship between either salesperson motivation and salesperson performance. Apart from this, other four hypothesis are established after research.

     Though this study is objective and supported by variety academic sources, few limitation still exist. The authors pointed out that they are unable to include some control variables into test model and this may affect the validity of the research. Study in this area can help sales managers accommodate their leadership to meet the individual needs of each salesperson therefore enable the team to maximize salesforce performance and goal achievement (p. 114). This article is useful for further understanding on how power bases are applied in particular working area (sales) however it might not be my major sources since the field discussed is quite restrictive. But it will still be referenced as a supplementary source.