Employees’ Perceived Use of Leader Power and Implications for Affect and Work Intentions

• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Date: 01 December 2015
• Author: Taylor Peyton Roberts,Drea Zigarmi,W. Alan Randolph
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21216

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 26, no. 4, Winter 2015 © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21216 359

ARTICLES

Employees’ Perceived Use of

Leader Power and Implications

for Affect and Work Intentions

Drea Zigarmi, Taylor Peyton Roberts, W. Alan Randolph

The concept of power in organizations has been studied at both the macro

level (analyses of structural systems or policies) and at the micro level

(individual perceptions). In this study, we examine employee perceptions of

their leader’s use of power at the individual/psychological level. Applying

social cognitive theory, employee perceptions of their leader’s use of various

forms of power were explored in relationship to employees’ negative or

positive affect and corresponding work intentions. Structural equation

modeling was used to examine data from 651 employees. Positive and

negative affect mediated employees’ perceptions of their managers’ use of

various power bases and fi ve work intentions: intentions to perform, to

endorse the organization and its leadership, to stay in the organization, to

use discretionary effort, and to be an organizational citizen. Implications

for practice and future research are discussed.

Key Words: employee affect, appraisal model, power, work intentions

Power and politics are an unavoidable reality in today’s organizations (Clegg,

Courpasson, & Phillips, 2011; Pfeffer, 1992). A preponderance of the litera-

ture on power in the past 75 years has been philosophical or sociological

in nature (Elias, 2008). Much of the literature has addressed organizational

power and politics, “analyzing the conditions of embeddedness of organi-

zational politics in the social structure of corporations” (Clegg etal., 2011,

p.387). These structural perspectives on power (Pfeffer, 1992) are concerned

with the analysis of the total organization, the foundation of authority sys-

tems, and the character of legitimate power relations (e.g., DuBrin, 2009;

Haugaard & Clegg, 2012; Lunenberg, 2012; Pfeffer, 1992, 2011).

As the topic of power has begun to appear in the organizational literature

over the past 50 years, the importance of the concept of social power has

360 Zigarmi, Roberts, Randolph

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

become popular with management scholars and industrial/organizational psy-

chologists (Elias, 2008). Power is now frequently examined empirically in the

psychological and leadership literature according to the types of power com-

monly enacted by leaders, when types of power are effectively used, and why

leaders tend to move away from effective shared leadership in favor of act-

ing in self-interest (e.g., DeCelles, DeRue, Margolis, & Ceranic, 2012; French

& Raven, 1959; Lammers & Stapel, 2009; Maner & Mead, 2010; Pitesa &

Thau, 2013). A second prevalent line of investigation has emerged through

the examination of the effects of the distribution of power on employee per-

ceptions of empowerment (e.g., Randolph & Kemery, 2011; Seibert, Silver, &

Randolph, 2004; Tjosvold, 2006).

An analysis of publications in the four journals connected to the

Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) found very few empiri-

cal articles on leadership and power in the last 10 years. First, the Advances in

Developing Human Resources journal—which provides a central focus within

each issue—revealed no single issue on the topic of leadership and power. Yet

when focusing on leadership development and training curriculums within

a single journal issue, authors frequently advocated for increasing leaders’

awareness of the pros and cons resulting from the use of various forms of

power (e.g., Callahan, Whitener, & Sandlin, 2007; Keller, 2007). Second, our

examination of publications in the Human Resource Development Review iden-

tifi ed no article in the past 10 years primarily focused on the subject of lead-

ership and the use of various forms of power as conceptualized by French

and Raven (1959). But it is sometimes recommended by HRD practitioners

that leaders build their skills in the various forms of power (e.g., Gubbins

& Garavan, 2005; Yorks, 2004). Third, an examination of Human Resource

Development Quarterly publications showed only two citations to French and

Raven’s social power model (i.e., Germain & Tejeda, 2012; Kochery, 1993).

Without speaking to French and Raven’s model specifi cally, Vince (2014)

recently addressed power, emotion, and HRD in a provocative, invited article

featured in the winter issue of the Human Resource Development Quarterly.

Finally, our analysis of published articles in the Human Resource Development

International revealed only three articles that refer to forms of power used by

leaders in the past 15 years (i.e., Byrd, 2008; Hopfl , 1999; Montesino, 2002).

At the present time, the topic of leadership and power does not seem to have

received much attention in the fi eld of HRD, yet the adept use of power is a

key skill that leaders and HRD practitioners should demonstrate to be maxi-

mally effective in organizations.

Purpose of the Study

This article seeks to augment current understanding of structural power

at the organizational level by examining how structural forms of power as

implemented by leaders affect people at the individual psychological level.