Unveiling the Good and Evil of Organisational Power: An Empirical Study

Abstract

This research seeks to investigate the “relational side’s role” of Organisational Power in mitigating that of the “role power” in private firms under the lens of gender dynamics.
 
 Employing a sample of service firm workers, a regression analysis is conducted to investigate the role of Reference and Experience, framed as Personal Power because of their relational nature, in mitigating the impact of Coercive power (Positional Power) and the gender-based dynamics occurring between them. From a theoretical standpoint, this study represents an encouraging update on organisational power studies, focusing on the way different forms of power impact and coexist with each other. Furthermore, the originality of this work lies in the will of framing power relationality - understood as personal power - to overcome the exercise of power as a form derived from the role supervisors. Lastly, to contribute to gender studies on the role and predisposition of women to have a perhaps natural predisposition for forms of coercion, as they are more sensitive to relationality and to establish bonds that produce, among their superiors, forms of positive power.