Power and authority

The difference between power and authority it resides in that power is a capacity and authority is a skill. In this sense, power can be acquired, while authority depends on the ability of a person to influence others..

Can is the ability to subordinate other people or to dominate a situation.

Authority is the ability to influence others without the need for them to be subordinate.

	Can	Authority
Definition	Ability to subordinate others.	Ability to influence others without subordinating them.
Types	Coercive power. Reward power. Power of legitimacy. Expert power. Referrer power. Informative power.	Formal authority. Operational authority. Authority by acceptance.
Examples	Offering compensation to an employee in exchange for taking an action. Subordinate others for the management of specific knowledge.	Healthy work relationships between bosses and employees. Influence a group even if you don't have the position of power.

What is power

Power is the ability to impose command over a group of people or under a particular circumstance. Hence, it is a capacity imposed by the person who exercises power, or by third parties..

In this sense, power can not only be exercised by one person, but by several. It can also be exercised by institutions, in the same way that the States, represented in their executive, legislative and judicial powers have the maximum power of a country.

Power comes from Latin potere, which in turn has the Indo-European root poti, what does owner or master mean.

Types of power

In the late 1950s, social psychologists John R.P French and Bertam Raven described 5 forms of power. A decade later, a new category was added and today these 6 types of power are still used as a reference.

Coercive power

It is a type of power that is exercised from threat and fear. What is sought when exercising power in this way is that people carry out actions even when they are contrary to their values.

A clear example of coercive power in an organization is petitioning employees under the threat that they will lose their jobs if they do not comply with the order..

Coercive power is also expressed in dictatorial regimes when the population is forced to perform certain actions against their will, such as attending political meetings or voting for a particular candidate to avoid reprisals..

Reward power

It is the type of power that is exerted when generating an exchange. The reward power can be positive (if the expected sales results are achieved, the employee will earn a trip or a commission), or negative (if an employee breaks a product, it is deducted from their salary).

Power of legitimacy

It is the power that is obtained after being designated or elected to exercise it. This choice can be made by one person, group of people or institution.

The Queen of England, for example, has the legitimate power of the monarchy because it was granted to her according to the norms that corresponded to that end..

Presidents elected in popular votes also have the power of legitimacy.

Expert power

Expert power is based, as the name suggests, on the expertise or mastery of some specific skill, allowing you to influence others..

In an organization transitioning to the digital world, technology experts will influence relevant decisions in that area..

Referrer power

It is the power that is exercised from groups of individuals who share the same interests. In that case, the person who holds power can influence the collective, since they consider him a role model and, therefore, subordinates will try to emulate his steps.

Informative power

It refers to the ability to influence, manipulate or coerce others from the handling of sensitive information. When the social psychologists French and Bertram added this category, they did so to refer to the power of the media as an institution with a high influence on the collective..

However, access to technology has meant that now any individual can exercise this type of power, which is also transitory, since it depends on who handles more information about a situation..

In an organization, trusted personnel usually have this type of power, since they handle information that is unknown to the rest of the employees.

What is authority

Authority is the ability of a person or institution to influence others without necessarily exercising power.

Authority comes from Latin self-written, what does it mean to increase something, make something progress.

Types of authority

There are three types of authority:

Formal authority

It is the authority that is exercised as a consequence of occupying a position of power.

In turn, the formal authority can be:

• Linear: when it is exercised from one individual to another or others, which is known as a chain of command.
• Functional: when authority is distributed among several individuals who have the same rank.

In a company, an example of linear authority is the classic boss-employee relationship. While the functional authority would be the one exercised by the area heads over their respective departments.

Operational authority

In this case, authority is not exercised over people, but over acts. That is, when a person has the power to authorize certain actions to be carried out or not.

An example of operational authority is when the head of transport of a company allows vehicles to change the usual route of deliveries in an extraordinary situation.

Authority by acceptance

It is the authority that is acquired based on the choice of another person, group or institution.

In this sense, one of the clearest examples of authority by acceptance is that of Ghandi, who without having any position of power, managed to influence an important group of people to achieve political change..

See also:

• Difference between leader and boss.
• Difference between group and team.