Social Influence and Social

Power
In this topic we will be discussing:
• Social influence and Types
• Social power types of power
Social Influence
Social influence—
• Efforts by one or more people to change the behavior, attitudes, or
feelings of one or more others
• Social influence is indeed a very powerful force—it often succeeds in
changing the behavior of the people toward whom it is directed.
• Efforts to change others’ attitudes through persuasion was discussed
earlier, so here we will focus on social influence focused on changing
others’ behavior.
 Social Influence
Types of Social Influence
• Social psychologists under the umbrella of social influence studies
about three major forms of influence:
• Conformity :which involves efforts to change others’ behavior
through norms about how to behave in a given situation.
• Compliance : Efforts to get others to say “yes” to your direct request
• Obedience: Following direct orders by person in command
Social Influence: Conformity
• During an exam, another student’s cell phone begins to ring loudly.
What does this person do?
• You are driving on a street when you see and hear an ambulance
approaching from behind. What do you do?
• In a supermarket, a new checkout line suddenly opens, right next to a
checkout with a long line of shoppers. Who gets to go first in that new
line?
Social Influence
Conformity—Doing what we are expected to do in a given situation.
• In other words, refers to pressures to behave in ways consistent with
rules indicating how we should, or ought to, behave.
• These rules—whether subtle or obvious are known as social norms,
and they can exert powerful effects on our behavior.
• In some instances, social norms are stated explicitly and are quite
detailed.
• In other situations, norms may be rather implicit, and in fact, may
have developed in a totally informal manner.
 Social Influence
• At first glance, this strong tendency toward conformity—toward going along
with society’s or a group’s expectations about how we should behave in
various situations may seem objectionable it places restrictions on personal
freedom. Without it,
• Without it we would quickly find ourselves facing utter chaos.
• Imagine what would happen outside movie theaters, stadiums, or at
supermarket checkout counters if people did not obey the norm “Form a line
and wait your turn.”
• And consider the danger to both drivers and pedestrians if there were no
clear and widely followed traffic regulations. In some countries these are
lacking or routinely ignored.
• Basically, when people don’t follow existing social norms, their actions are
unpredictable—and sometimes, that can be dangerous
Conformity: It Makes Life More Predictable
When norms telling people how to behave don’t exist—or are largely ignored—
chaos can develop. Countries in which traffic regulations are taken lightly provide a
clear illustration of this fact—and of why conformity can sometimes be very useful.
• Experiment on conformity: Solomon Asch’s Line Judgment Task
• Participants in Asch’s research were asked to report their judgments on problems
such as this one. Their task was to indicate which of the comparison lines (1, 2, or 3)
best matched the standard line in length.
• To study conformity, he had participants make these judgments out loud, only after
hearing the answers of several other people—all of whom were Asch’s assistants.
• On certain critical trials the assistants all gave wrong answers. This exposed
participants to strong pressures toward conformity.
• A large majority of the participants in Asch’s research chose conformity
• Across several different studies, fully 76 percent of those tested went along with the
group’s false answers at least once; and overall, they voiced agreement with these
errors 37 percent of the time. In contrast, only 5 percent of the participants in a
control group, who responded to the same problems alone, made such errors.
• Of course, there were large individual differences in this respect. Almost 25 percent
of the participants never yielded to the group pressure
• How Social Norms Emerge:
Muzafer Sherif (1936) used a perceptual phenomenon known as the
autokinetic effect to study the outcomes of conformity on the
development of group norms.
Social Influence
• The participants in the studies by Muzafer Sherif (1936) initially had
different beliefs about the degree to which a point of light appeared
to be moving. (You can see these differences as expressed on Day 1.)
However, as they shared their beliefs with other group members over
several days, a common group norm developed. Shown here are the
estimates made by a group of three participants who met together on
four different days.
 Social Influence
How Social Norms Emerge
• Sherif’s findings help explain why social norms develop in many
situations—especially ambiguous ones.
• We have a strong desire to be “correct”—to behave in an appropriate
manner—and behaving consistent with social norms help us attain that
goal.
• This is one key foundation of social influence.
• Another is the desire to be accepted by others and liked by them
• Together, these two factors virtually assure that social influence is a
powerful force—one that can often strongly affect our behavior
Social Influence
Factors Affecting Conformity
• Asch’s research demonstrated the existence of powerful pressures
toward conformity.
• Research findings suggest that many factors play a role; here, we’ll
examine those that appear to be most important
 Social Influence
Factors Affecting Conformity
1. Cohesiveness and Conformity: Being Influenced by Those We Like.
• One factor that strongly influences our tendency to conform—to go along with
whatever norms are operating in a given situation—is cohesiveness—the extent to
which we are attracted to a particular social group and want to belong to it.
2. Conformity and Group Size: Why More Exerts Greater Social Pressure
• The larger the group—the greater the number of people who behave in some
specific way—the greater our tendency to conform, and “do as they do.”
3. Conformity and Status Within a Group
• In many contexts, group members differ with respect to status, and one important
source of such differences is seniority. Senior members feel less pressure to
conform. Junior members of the group, in contrast, experience strong pressures to
go along
Social Influence
Descriptive and Injunctive Social Norms: How Norms Affect Behavior
1. Descriptive norms are ones that simply describe what most people
do in a given situation. They influence behavior by informing us
about what is generally seen as effective or appropriate in that
situation.
2. Injunctive norms specify how people ought to be behave—what is
approved or disapproved behavior in a given situation. For instance,
there is a strong injunctive norm against cheating on exams—such
behavior is considered to be ethically wrong..
 Social Influence
Reasons for conformity
On the basis of research on the reasons for people to conform, the
following has been noted :
• Normative Social Influence: The Desire to Be Liked
• We have learned that doing so can help us win the approval and acceptance we
crave. It involves altering our behavior to meet others’ expectations.
• Informational Social Influence: The Desire to Be Right
• Other people’s actions and opinions define social reality for us, and we use
them as a guide for our own actions and opinions. It is based on our tendency to
depend on others as a source of information about many aspects of the social
world. The desire to be correct vis-à-vis the group’s responses.
Social Influence
• The power of social norms and social roles to induce conformity is
strong, it is not invincible.
• Sometimes, under the right conditions, individuals challenge existing
social orders and the rules they impose, and actively seek social
change. As Turner (2006, p. 45) puts it, social psychologists realize
that social structures are not set in stone; on the contrary, “ . . .the
future is created in the social present” and change as well as stability
is a common aspect of the social side of life.
•
 Social Influence
Reasons for Nonconformity: Why We Sometimes Choose “Not to Go Along”
• Power As a Shield Against Conformity Power the very word conjures up images of
people who are in charge—political leaders, generals, heads of corporations.
• The Desire to Be Unique and Nonconformity people have a need for uniqueness
and that when it is threatened they will actively resist conformity pressures to
restore their sense of uniqueness.
In sum, many factors contribute to nonconformity, so its occurrence is definitely not
an accident, Just as conformity stems from a variety of causes and motives, so too
does independence. Therefore, while conformity is often a safe, convenient, and
useful approach to social life, there is lots of room for independence and
individuality too
Social Influence: Compliance
• Suppose that you wanted someone to do something for you; how
would you go about getting this person to agree?
• If you think about this question for a moment, you’ll quickly realize
that you have many tactics for gaining compliance—for getting others
to say “yes” to your requests.
• What are these techniques and which ones work best
Social Influence: Compliance
Compliance: To Ask—Sometimes—Is to Receive
• Compliance is the process of getting one’s direct request accepted by
another person. There are several ways of gaining compliance that have
been researched and found out to be effective.
Robert Cialdini’s Study of ‘compliance professionals’
• Robert Cialdini conducted an interesting study in which he tried to observe
‘compliance professionals’ whose success depended on their ability to get
others to say ‘yes’. Cialdini worked as one such professional in
organizations by concealing his identity as a social psychologist. His efforts
led him to make sense of the ways to gain compliance that he reported as
the six basic principles of gaining compliance (Cialdini, 1994) :
Social Influence: Compliance
1. Friendship/liking : We comply to friends or people we like rather than
strangers.
2. Commitment and consistency : Once committed to a stand or decision,
we generally comply to requests that are consistent with that stand.
3. Scarcity : If the request refers to ‘disappearing opportunities’, there are
greater chances that we comply to that request.
4. Reciprocity : We generally like to accept the request of a person who has
done some favour to us or has accepted our request in the past.
5. Social validation : We comply to requests if we know that people similar
to us have also complied to the same request.
6. Authority :We generally comply to requests coming from persons with
authority or someone
 Social Influence: Compliance
Tactics Based on Friendship or Liking:
Ingratiation is the technique of getting others to like us and thereby, comply. For
this purpose, the following techniques are used by the person who makes request :
1. Self-enhancing technique : These techniques include improving one’s
appearance, presenting positive non-verbal cues (smiling or having a frequent eye
contact), and associating oneself with incidents or people the target person likes.
2. Other-enhancing techniques : These techniques include flattery, agreeing with
the target person, expressions of interest in them, giving them some gift.
3. Incidental similarity—calling attention to small and slightly surprising similarities
between them and ourselves
Social Influence: Compliance
Tactics Based on Commitment or Consistency
As observed earlier, Once committed to a stand or decision, a person
generally comply to requests that are consistent with that stand.
Following are techniques utilized for under this broader technique :
1. Foot-in-the-door Technique – when a smaller request is accepted, a
larger one is presented
2. Lowball technique – deal is changed or made less attractive when it
is accepted by a person
3. Bait-and-switch technique –Also called as lure effect items offered
for sale is unavailable, therefore, what is available is accepted.
Social Influence: Compliance
Tactics Based on Reciprocity
Reciprocity is a frequently used technique to gain compliance through
an exchange of favours. Following the ways in which it is applied :
1. Door-in-the-face technique – from larger to smaller requests
2. That’s-not-all technique – additional benefits offered before
making a decision
3. Foot-in-the-mouth technique – establishing some kind of
relationship with the target person
Social Influence: Compliance
Tactics Based on Scarcity
• For example sales are especially effective when they indicate that the
deadline for their end is close—an effect known as the deadline
technique
• Things that are scarce, rare, or in “Going Out of Business Sales” will
soon disappear
Social Influence: Compliance
Do Compliance Tactics Work?.
• A large body of evidence indicates that often they are successful
Social Influence: Obedience
Obedience to Authority
• Obedience is a form of social influence in which one person orders
one or more others to do something, and they do so. People obey the
commands or orders from others who are in authority
• It is, in a sense, the most direct form of social influence. Research by
Stanley Milgram indicates that many people readily obey orders from
a relatively powerless source of authority, even if these orders require
them to do harm, to the extent that they identify with the authority’s
goals
Social Influence
• It is lesser in frequency than conformity and compliance. However, in
our daily life, we do find the examples of obedience.
• How ever sometimes obedience that my harm others or in other
words, obedience that may prove to be destructive. For example,
soldiers and mobs do obey commands to harm innocent people.
• Particularly, in ethnic violence or communal riots in India, we may see
the role of authority figure who may demand destructive response
from their obedient followers
 Social Influence
Destructive obedience
Destructive obedience, which plays a role in many real-life atrocities, stems from
several factors, the effects of destructive obedience may go a long way in resisting a
harmful consequences for a society. Here are some of the ways to resist that social
psychologists studying obedience have arrived at :
1. One needs to be reminded that we, and not authority, are responsible for harm
that may be caused to the innocent people. In reality, when the processes of
law and order begin, the authority might not be in a position to save one if
he/she is the perpetrator of violence.
2. It is also important to point out to the followers that submission beyond a point
is inappropriate. In fact, as human beings with a rational mind and conscience,
one must be reminded to ask oneself whether the important ethical or human
concerns are violated while following the commands of the authority figure
Social Influence
• Resisting effects of destructive obedience (continued…)
3. One may not generally do so but one must learn to question the
expertise or motives of authority figure. Such an attitude change is
important because any human figure can not be above the ethical
or humanitarian concerns and one must cheque whether expertise
or motives of the leader matches these concerns or not.
4. It has also been noted that knowing about power of authority
behind command in itself helps. Such an awareness puts a question
mark over whether our decisions are based on some rationale and
ethics.
 Unintentional Social Influence
How Others Change Our Behavior Even When They Are Not Trying to Do So
• Although conformity, compliance, and obedience are distinct forms of social
influence, they all have one basic feature in common: All involve intentional
efforts by one or more people to change the behavior and thoughts of other
people.
• Do individuals sometimes influence others without overtly intending to do
so?
• Research findings indicate that such unintentional social influence is actually
quite common. There are several ways in which it can—and often does—
occur.
Unintentional Social Influence
• Emotional Contagion
• It is a very basic and pervasive form of social influence, and one that may well
play an important role in the social side of life.
• Recent research indicates that there is a neural mechanism in our brains that
may underlie our reactions to others’ emotions. This mechanism involves
mirror neurons.
• These are neurons that respond as strongly when we observe another
person’s actions or expressions of emotion, as when we perform these
actions and experience these emotions ourselves
• Social psychologist refer to such effects ( through which moods spread to one
person to another) as Social Contagion
 Unintentional Social Influence
Symbolic social influence
• Have you been in a situation where you were about to do something,
and before you did, asked yourself: “How would my parents, friends, or
significant other feel about this? How would they react if I went
ahead?” In such cases, the mere thought of the reactions of other
people may have strong effect on our actions and our attitudes
• Social psychologists refer to this as symbolic social influence and in such
situations, once again, others influence us without trying to do so.
• the extent other people are present in our thoughts When these relational
schemas are triggered, goals relevant to them may be activated
• the psychological presence of others may trigger goals with which that person is
associated—goals they want us to achieve.
 Unintentional Social Influence
Modeling: Learning from Observing Others
• Modeling is a very general process—children learn from their parents and
from teachers, individuals trying to acquire skills ranging from plumbing,
playing a musical instrument, and even to how to conduct a scientific
experiment—learn from others who already possess these skills
• Modeling also occurs in many situations in which we are not sure how to
behave—there are no clear rules for what is the appropriate way to act. In
such situations, we rely on the actions of others as a guide to what we
should do. This kind of influence is very strong.
Social Power
What is social power
• An individual’s power may be understood as his/her ability to shape
another person’s behavior.
• Social power is the potential influence one may have other by virtue
of one’s personal characteristics or social situations.
• It is important to understand various aspects or dimensions of social
power :
• Social dependence/independence
• Surveillance
• Positive/negative influence (boomerang effect and reactance)
Unintentional Social Influence
Social dependence/independence
• A person may be influenced by another person but the influenced person may or
may not be remain to be dependent on the influencer.
• For example, if one has the highest regards for a political leader, then he/she is
going to continuously follow the leaders thought, actions and ideology. Thus, the
person’s thought and actions are continuously shaped by and dependent upon
the leader.
• However, there are times when a person may not continue to be dependent on
the other person despite getting influenced by him.
• For example, a senior student helped another student in solving a problem of
mathematics. He did influence the junior student but the junior student learnt
solving a problem but did not have the need to continuously get advice from him.
• This is known as socially independent influence.
Social Power
Surveillance
• The influence on a person may be observed continuously by the influencer
directly or indirectly.
• This surveillance may have a impact on the influenced as he/she always has
a perception of being watched or noticed by the influencer.
• However, when the surveillance is not there, the influence also may fade
away.
• A classic example of surveillance and its impact is the case of a child at
home who study only when he feels that his actions are getting noticed by
parents or other elders. When the surveillance is over, the child may stop
studying.
Social Power
Positive/negative influence
• There may be a positive influence of the influencer on the influenced
person in terms or either rewards or inspiration that one may receive
from the person in power.
• However, the person in power may also evoke a negative impact on
the other person as influence produces some sort of discomfort to
person getting influenced.
• There are two such types of negative influence:
• Boomerang effect and Reactance.
 Social Power
Boomerang effect and reactance
• When the potential influencer is disliked or distrusted by other persons, they
may develop a completely opposite view to what the influencer was trying to
develop among the people. For example, a son of a communist father may
develop a completely different ideology because the father could not be trusted
to actually adhere to the demands of the communist ideology. This development
of a completely opposite view to what the influencer may try to have on the
other persons is known as a boomerang effect.
• Reactance is also an opposite reaction to what the potential influencer might
like to convey. However, this opposite reaction gets generated due to a threat to
one’s independence as perceived by the person. One may play guitar excessively
as a reaction to being told not to do so. The person may view the command from
the seniors not to play guitar in the hostel as a threat to his independence.
Social Power
What is Power: French and Ravens (1959)
• Is the extent to which one person can influence another to do something like
supervisor over subordinate .
• The Power bases involve both individual and organisational conditions .
Five types of social power or influence which people have
1. Expert
2. Referent
3. Legitimate
4. Reward
5. Coercive
 Social Power : Five Bases of Power
1. Informational or Expert Power: Refers to what extent leaders are believed to
have skills and expertise to attain groups goal.
Gives Information : Based on the knowledge, competency and expertise that a
supervisor has :
• Actual and perceived expertise ( Some people are better than others)
• Persuasion through expertise.
• Titles (Doctor),certifications, college degrees and distinctions can enhance the
perceived expert power of the individual
• Subordinate/target must believe in expert opinion/ knowledge
• Information must have importance for target.
• Expert power is based on a knowledge differential between the leader and the
target person
 Social Power : Bases of Power
2. Referent: The degree to which Subordinate like and identifies with the supervisor.
Feelings of affection, admiration, or loyalty drive this type of personal power.
Desire for identification & interpersonal attraction.
• Target likes or identifies, admires the leader / supervisor.
• Can be developed through interpersonal relationships.
• Can be enhanced by raising the status of the referent, like celebrity status.
“The most common way to exercise referent power is merely to ask the target person
with whom one has a friendship to do something… It is useful to indicate the
importance of the request because a request that is important to the leader is more
likely to result in subordinate commitment.”
 Social Power : Bases of Power
3. Legitimate Power: Legitimate right or authority to be in charge. A high level the Job
Role/ Title or rank
Power in formal role, belief that the supervisor has legitimate right or authority to be in
charge. Like Army ranks, political leaders
• Must be accepted by target
• Authority is exercised by making a legitimate request, either verbally or in written
form.
• A polite request is more effective than an arrogant demand. Compliance with the
request is more likely if it is perceived to be within the leader’s scope of authority.
• An illegitimate request is likely to be ignored, or otherwise resisted, especially if
the requested activity is tedious, dangerous, or unpleasant. Legitimate requests
should be made in a clear, concise manner, using language that the target person
can easily understand.
 Social Power : Bases of Power
4. Reward: Reward power is most commonly used by making an explicit or implicit
promise to give a person something under the leader’s control for carrying out a
request or performing a task
➢ Compliance is most likely if the reward is something valued by the target person.
➢ Ability of supervisor to give rewards or bonuses. Like pay hike, desirable
assignments, promotions
5. Coercive: Punishment for noncompliance.
➢ Ability to punish with disciplinary actions like fines ,fires salary reduction .
➢ Resistance is the most likely outcome when coercive power is used by a leader.
“It is best to avoid using coercion except when absolutely necessary
➢ Causes poor relationships with subordinates
 Social Power
• All five powers can be effective if used properly.
• Major limitation of Reward power is subordinates may get accustomed to it and
perform only when rewards is there.
• Coercive power can have detrimental effect leading to anger and counter productive
work behaviour.
• Expert,Referent and rewards bases of power are associated with good relationships on
the other hand coercive power is associated with poor relationships
 Case Study
Fortune named Steve Jobs the “Most Powerful Person in Business.” In 2009, the
magazine named him “CEO of the Decade.” Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc, has transformed no
fewer than five different industries: computers, Hollywood movies, music, retailing, and
wireless phones.
➢ His Apple II ushered in the personal computer era in 1977, and the graphical interface
of the Macintosh in 1984 set the standard that all other PCs emulated.
➢His company Pixar defined the computer-animated feature film.
➢ The iPod, iTunes, and iPhone revolutionized how we listen to music, how we pay for
and receive all types oof digital content, and what we expect of a mobile phone.
How has Jobs done it?
Jobs draws on all five types of power: legitimate, expert, reward, information, coercive,
and referent Let’s take each of these in turn.
1. Legitimate power. As CEO of Apple, Jobs enjoys unquestioned legitimate power.
2. Expert power. His success has built a tremendous amount of expert power. Jobs is
renowned for being able to think of markets and products for needs that people
didn’t even know they had.
3. Reward power. As one of the richest individuals in the United States, Jobs has
reward power both within and outside Apple. He also can reward individuals with his
time and attention.
4. Coercive power. Forcefulness is helpful when tackling large, intractable problems,
says Stanford social psychologist Roderick Kramer, who calls Jobs one of the “great
intimidators.” Robert Sutton notes that “the degree to which people in Silicon Valley
are afraid of Jobs is unbelievable.” Jobs is known to berate people to the point of
tears.
5. Referent power. But at the same time, “He inspires astounding effort and creativity
from his people.”

Employee Andy Herzfeld, the lead designer of the original Mac operating system, says
Jobs imbues employees with a “messianic zeal” and can make them feel that they’re
working on the greatest product in the world
Those who work with him say Jobs is very hard to please. However, they also say that
this means that Apple employees work hard to win his approval. “He has the ability to
pull the best out of people,”
Yukl’s (1989) sources of Political Power
• French and Raven bases of power are concerned with influences in any settings
• Yukl’s sources of Political power are concerned specifically with the power in
organizations
• Political action is the process by which people gain and protect their power in
the organisations.
• Three means by which it is achieved are :
• Control over decision processes
• Forming coalitions
• Co-optation
Yukl’s (1989) sources of Political Power
• Controlling Decision Process
It involves controlling and influences important decision in the organisation, such
as allocation of resources .
Can be achieved by serving appropriate committees or taking on right influential
task .
In India most important decisions are take by Parliament which are carried out
through cabinet ministers at the centre
CEO or CFO of any organisation will be involved in taking major decision for the
organisation.
This kind of decision making process can became autocratic style of exerting
power.
 Yukl’s (1989) sources of Political Power
• Forming Coalitions
➢Means entering into agreements with others to support your positions in return
for your support of others position in return.
➢This is often seen in legislative bodies where different factions/
people/politicians agree to support each other in favoured position .
➢Political leaders of different parties may support important issues like
employment opportunities to other group in return of the support for their
cause relating to education or gun control.
Yukl’s (1989) sources of Political Power
Co-opting
➢ It involves trying to diffuse another opposition faction by allowing its
members to participate in the decision.
➢ Hope is that this will make it difficult for them to remain in opposition.
For example If government wish to take action to reduce the pollution against
the Industry it will run into opposition.
By co-opting industry representation along with the government to decide on
the action plan, but at the same time not enough representation to determine
the government's actions.
Yukl’s (1989) sources of Political Power
• These type of political action concerns how power is acquired .
• Can be used for good purposes and are quite common in both government and
non government organisations.
• Gaining influence can be matter of achieving political rather than individual
power .
• Even the political leader of any country does not have power to get laws enacted
that might solve nations problems.
Yukl’s (1989) sources of Political Power

Co-opt the
opposition

Gain control of
Political Power
decision Process

Form coalitions

How political power tactics can be means of achieving political gain in

organizations.
Social Power: Leadership
Role of Leader in social influence
• Leadership is the process that helps in gaining an increased level of
efforts of the group members towards achieving the group goals
through the influence a leader (as a member of the group) is able to
exert on the group members’ motivation to perform.
• We will take up the following theories of leadership in detail : –
• The great person theory or the trait theory (along with leadership styles)
• The Transformational leadership
Social Power
Key traits of leaders
Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) noted the following traits of a leader :
• Drive : A leader exhibits the desire for achievement. He/she is
ambitious, highly energetic, tenacious and an initiative-taker.
• Honesty and integrity : A leader is trustworthy and reliable.
• Leadership motivation : influencing others to reach the group goals.
• Self-confidence : Having realistic measure of one’s abilities and trust
on the
Social Power
• Cognitive ability : Having high ability to process and integrate
information.
• Creativity : Can think of new or innovative ways to handle a problem
effectively.
• Flexibility : Having the capacity to adapt to the new situations and
demands of group members.
• Expertise : Having a comprehensive understanding of group
functioning and technical expertise required to achieve the group
goals.
 Social Power: Leadership
Leadership styles
A style of leadership is actually a ‘personal’ style that a leader employs in influencing
the group members. These are the following :
• Autocratic-democratic : If the leader takes his decisions on his own without
consulting the group members, this style is known as an autocratic. However,
he/she takes into account the opinions of the group members, it is knows as a
democratic style of leadership (Lewin et al. 1939).
• Directive-permissive : The leadership styles concerning directive-permissive
dimensions are related to whether a leader ‘directs’ the members to carry out an
assign task in certain ways or he/she leaves it up to the respective member to
decide about that–
• Task orientation and person orientation : The task- or person-orientation is about
whether a leader accentuates the accomplishment of tasks related to group goals
or the maintenance of a friendly and harmonious relationship with the group
members
Social Power: Leadership
Transformational leadership
• Transformational or charismatic leadership is a process through which
a leader influences the group member by utilizing a special type of
relationship between him/herself and the followers. The significant
characteristics of this special relationship are :
• The members experience a high degree of devotion, loyalty and reverence
towards the leader
• They are also enthusiastic about the leader and his/her ideas
• They follow the leader to an extent that they are willing to sacrifice their own
desires and interests to work towards achieving larger group goals
• They engage in achieving the group goals with a high degree of performance
 Transformational leaders’ approach towards the group and its
goals
• Following are some of the ways the transformational leaders work towards group goals through a
meaningful relationship with the group :
• Having a vision : Rather than just having a set of goals for their groups or masses, the
transformational leaders express their broad vision about ‘what their group should become’. For
example, we take a close look at Mahatma Gandhi, his goals were simply not the achievement of
freedom from foreign rule but how to transform one’s character to build a progressive society.
• Route for attaining vision : They also clearly chart out for the followers the ways the vision could be
made a reality. For Mahatma Gandhi, for example, building a progressive society began with making
efforts towards realizing one’s true self and its growth situated in the welfare of fellow human
beings.
• Framing : framing, here, means the influence of their vision on the followers to an extent that each
and every activity of the followers (in the direction of attaining that vision) becomes meaningful.
• Confidence in and concern for the followers : They have a deep faith in their followers and feel
concerned the followers.
• Masters of impression management : They have also been observed as the very apt at managing
their impression before others; whether it is their appearance or their communication, each speak
for the goals or vision they stand for.
Quick recap
• Social influence
• Conformity
• Compliance
• Obedience
• Social power
• Expert
• Legitimate
• Reward
• Coercive
• Leadership
• Trait
• Transformational
Thank You