Leader Power and Subordinate Engagement
A View from Below
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Leader Power and Subordinate Engagement offers a new way of thinking about the connection between how managers use their power and the readiness of subordinates to be engaged with the organization and its goals. In providing a view from below, it identifies the needs of members that are aroused by having less power than the person to whom they report, and shows how managers can address those needs to promote cooperative relationships between levels of the system. The key needs of subordinates include agency, growth, and justice. Their fulfillment depends upon manager's understanding of these needs and their flexibility in finding ways to help meet them. This does not require changes in formal delegations of power, but care to manage these vertical relationships in ways that soften power differences and promote subordinate's willing commitment rather than only compliance with their manager's authority. The book explores the effects of managerial personality and organizational designs on success in building cooperative vertical relationships. It also looks at how the subordinate's reasons for accepting managerial influence affect the quality of their engagement with the organization.
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About the Book
What would happen in organizations if leaders used their power to encourage the full participation of subordinates?
Every day we read about leaders who abuse their power in ways that discourage the full engagement of subordinates.
Douglas R. Bunker, an organizational psychologist, proposes ways managers can create positive relationships with their subordinates that promote exceptional performance. Learn how to:
• understand why subordinates accept or reject messages from managers;
• examine the underlying ethical and moral perspectives on power; and
• think differently about your own use of power
He also explains how to address the three fundamental needs of employees: agency, growth, and justice. When leaders and their subordinates work toward fulfilling these needs, everyone’s success will be enhanced.
Filled with case studies and research, this guide will help you transform your company culture, bolster communication, and reap rewards from Leader Power and Subordinate Engagement.
About the Author
Douglas R. Bunker is an organizational psychologist who has combined academic appointments at Harvard Business School and the University at Buffalo with an active consulting practice in organizational development to a variety of business, governmental, and health care organizations in the United States and abroad.