The five sources of power available to managers are diverse, and range from legitimate or, in other words, positional power, which is the fruit of the position taken by a person in an organization, to expert power, which can also be seen as the power of authority, the power, which derives from one’s being an expert in a certain field. These powers also include referent power, which is the result of one’s developing personal relations with the members of the team, and coercive and reward power. The former is the result of one being able to punish the team members and create problems in their career, while the latter, on the contrary, is based on one’s ability to spread goods or benefits among the team members (Collins, 2012). The participatory and authoritarian leadership personality styles are, in some respect, related to these sources of power. To be more precise, those leaders, who exploit authoritarian leadership personality style will depend more on such sources of power as legitimate and coercive, while a participatory leader will depend more on referent and expert power. Certainly, there are ethical issues related to both styles. An authoritarian leader takes over the responsibility, while a participatory leader gives the team members more freedom for their creative effort.
Cook’s article in Reuters (Cook, 2017) is related to the emission scandal, in which Fiat Chrysler got involved along with two other car makers. In this article the CEO is described to demonstrate elements of participatory leadership style, since he is not blaming everything on the team, but rather, sets himself in the same boat with them, confronting European authorities and criticizing them for developing messy rules. In this respect he is participating and supporting his company and, thus, the members of his team.
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- Collins, D. (2012). Business Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
- Cook, Rebecca. (February, 2017). Fiat Chrysler CEO complains about emissions rules ‘mess’ in Europe. Reuters. Available Online at: http://www.reuters.com
