Benevolently bowing out: the influence of self-construals and leadership performance on the willful relinquishing of power

How Power Affects People: Activating, Wanting, and Goal Seeking

“…Power enhances personal control and resources , Van Dijke & Poppe 2006, which motivates some people to seek power and to avoid relinquishing it once they have gained it (Ratcliff & Vescio 2013). Together, this work shows that maintaining power is important for power holders, who monitor their relative power and respond to threats with harsh power assertion.…”

“…These moderating factors include power stability, intergroup conflict (Maner & Case 2016) (Galinsky et al 2003), and the predispositions of people in power . In many situations, people in authority positions sacrifice their interests to serve their groups (Hoogervorst et al 2012, Ratcliff & Vescio 2013. This is more pronounced in collectivistic cultures, which associate power with social responsibility (socialized power), whereas in individualistic cultures power is seen in terms of self-interested opportunities (personalized power; Torelli & Shavitt 2010; see also Sassenberg et al 2014).…”

The effects of leader illegitimacy on leaders' and subordinates' responses to relinquishing power decisions

“…One emerging area of inquiry that has investigated the use of legitimate power is one that examines the phenomenon of relinquishing power (Ratcliff, ; Ratcliff et al, ; Ratcliff & Vescio, ). Relinquishing power can be defined as a process of voluntary sharing, transferring, or abdicating one's influence or control to another person or group (Ratcliff, ; Ratcliff et al, ).…”

“…In this case, poor leadership performance feedback was a situational cue that signaled to leaders that they were not forwarding group goals which they have been entrusted to achieve. Furthermore, collectivistically‐focused people (e.g., Ratcliff & Vescio, ) and women (e.g., Ratcliff, ; Ratcliff et al, ) had a higher propensity to relinquish power than did individualistically‐focused people and men. These findings are consistent with the suggestion that collectivistically‐focused people may do so because they feel interdependent with their group and thus accountable to them (Blader & Chen, ; Boehm & Flack, ; Markus & Kitayama, ).…”

“…Relinquishing power is a social process by which leaders can honor the social contract they hold with their group by voluntary sharing, transferring, or abdicating their influence and control to another (Ratcliff, ; Ratcliff, Vescio, & Dahl, ). Indeed, empirical research shows that when people believe that they hold legitimate positions of power, they often relinquish their power when doing so would be beneficial to their group (e.g., Ratcliff, ; Ratcliff et al, ; Ratcliff & Vescio, ). However, existing research on relinquishing power has thus far only examined when leaders with legitimate power willfully relinquish power.…”