Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Chapter: 6 The Centrality of Power
Robert French and Bertram Raven describe five types of social power, one that I was really able to relate to was reward power. Reward power, as mentioned in the reading, "person A has reward power over person B when A can give some formal or informal reward..." I worked at a pre-school for five years, and there we would implimite the reward power system. When the children were finishing there lunch, we would let them know that they had to eat a bite of everything on there plate in order to get their dessert. Many of the children were horrible eaters, especially when it came to eating their vegetables. I would always let them know that if they wanted a slice of watermelon (or any fruit that we had that day), they needed to take a a bite of everything on there plate, even if it was a small bite. I think that it's really interesting how organizational communication works in social power. While working at the pre-school, I never realized that this would be considered reward power. It's interesting to see that organizational communication is around in the everyday tasks that we do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Ha, I never realized I was doing the same thing with my sister when she was younger. I was around 9 and I wouldn't let her leave the table until she finished her food, or ate some of whatever she was missing, and if she did then she would have dessert. My stepdad (her dad) was nasty about making sure we cleaned our plates even if we didn't like the food--which was often for me. Well, when it came to hot dogs and such, I would tell her three more bites then she could get down and run around and at 7 could have dessert. Well being sneaky as I was (before she could count haha) I would suddenly be like nope you got two more bites to do haha. Anyhow, she would finish eating her food somehow, get down run around and at 7, sure enough she got her dessert. Im sure the reward power there is a little twisted since I was sneaky, but nonetheless, she wanted down and dessert, but had to finish her food before she could do either, hence the reward.
Sometimes we just need the little motivation to do something. Companies do rewards like bbq's/luncheons, bonus',or whatever else they can think up, as a way to thank their employees, and to encourage their employees to do well. I believe its a good tacit, and is essential in a company that wants their employees happy.
Reward power begins at an early age as you demonstrated with your experience working with pre-school children. Reward power is used by our parents, teachers, friends, coaches, and supervisors, and it seems to be conditioned in our culture.
In the work place the formal reward power may be the “bonus” check for meeting a sales quota, or your name on the monthly plaque submitted by your boss.
The gym I work out at can be very competitive. The trainers will set up workouts to where people are competing for the best time. The informal, but meaningful reward is not the loss of body fat, but having your name placed on the whiteboard by the trainer with a star next to it so everyone can see that you did the best. In short, its positive recognition and a small carrot at the end of the stick that drives us.
Reward power exists all around us in a variety of situations, including organizational communication. For example, if we did not complete our comments and blogs on time our professor would not give us the full amount of points for our participation. The professor provides the grade, and we complete the task on time.
Post a Comment