The Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Global Social Power Based on French and Raven's Power Taxonomy¹

Abstract

A measure of global power was developed based on French and Raven's (1959) definition of social power as the potential of an agent to influence a target. A sample of 346 graduate students responded to a questionnaire assessing their perceptions of the power of their supervising professors in paid assistantship duties. Power was measured using established scales of the French and Raven 5 power bases in addition to the newly developed global power measure. Results indicate that the global power scale (a) has strong internal consistency, (b) is significantly related to each of the 5 individual power bases, and (c) significantly accounts for additional variance in compliance beyond the measures of the 5 power bases, beyond the sum of the bases, and beyond a measure of resistance and control.

A Subtle Source of Power: The Effect of Having an Expectation on Anticipated Interpersonal Power

“…Although several researchers have developed measures of bases of power in employment settings (e.g., Hinkin & Schriesheim, 1989; Nestler, Aguinis, Quigley, Lee, & Tedeschi, 1999; Raven, Schwarzwald, & Koslowsky, 1998), to our knowledge, there is not an extant closed-ended, quantitative measure of social power specifically applicable to interpersonal conversations of the type anticipated by participants in the present study. Therefore, we developed an assessment of perceived interpersonal power guided by French and Raven’s (1959; Raven, 1992) typology.…”

Leader Influence: A Research Review of French & Raven’s (1959) Power Dynamics

“…The other party, whether it be a person or group of individuals, is in position with minimal support and/or confidence. Additionally, Biong et al (2010) observed that coercive power should be avoided, and other researchers backed the notion that coercive power was less influential in motivating employees (Nesler, Quigley, Aguinis, Lee, & Tedeschi, 1999).…”

Accounting for Subordinate Perceptions of Supervisor Power: An Identity-Dependence Model.

“…What is the nature of judgments of perceived power? Do subordinates create a global or overall perception of supervisor power (Nesler, Aguinis, Quigley, Lee, & Tedeschi, 1999) or, instead, multifaceted perceptions (e.g., French & Raven, 1959)? Our model explains why both overall and specific power perceptions can coexist.…”