The Power of Change and the Need to Change Power: Changing Perception of Power in the Organizational Setting

Power and social influence are integral aspects of relationships between individuals, social groups, and nations and are major topics in the fields of philosophy and social science. In the last 30 years, there has been growing interest in applying interpersonal influence theory to organizational settings, specifically on the power relationships between managers, subordinates, and peers (Higgins, Judge, & Ferris, 2003). As Kotter (1977) stated 40 years ago, power dynamics exist in all management process because managers depend on their workers to get jobs done. In order to be effective, managers need to make their supervisors, colleagues, and subordinates comply with their requests, support their ideas, and implement their decisions. Indeed, an important element in the organization success is effective managers, and a crucial part of a manager’s work involves influencing others (Elias, 2007). The ability to successfully influence others depends primarily on the manager’s choice of influence tactic, as some tactics are more effective than others in different situations (Laslo-Roth & Schwarzwald, 2016; Tal, Schwarzwald, & Koslowsky, 2015). Exercising power over others while maintaining a satisfying relationship in the workplace is a challenging task. Managers need to obtain the cooperation of subordinates, colleagues, and supervisors while juggling with schedules and quality requirements. In the traditional hierarchy, managers supervised employees by using their rank, knowledge, and privileges to reward or punish their subordinates (Schwarzwald, Koslowsky, & Ochana-Levin, 2004). The world, however, is changing, and where change is occurring, workers’ expectations from the workplace change along with it. Today’s employees have different values and expectations about work (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). Some organizations are now employing the most highly