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The Effects of Social Power Bases Within Varying Organizational Cultures City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2017 The Effects of Social Power Bases Within Varying Organizational Cultures Ayanna Cummings The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2313 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL POWER BASES WITHIN VARYING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES by AYANNA R. CUMMINGS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2017 © 2017 AYANNA R. CUMMINGS All Rights Reserved ii The Effects of Social Power Bases within Varying Organizational Cultures by Ayanna R. Cummings This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Psychology to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ___________________________ ______________________________ Date Harold Goldstein, PhD Chair of Examining Committee ___________________________ ______________________________ Date Richard Bodnar, PhD Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Harold Goldstein, PhD, Advisor CUNY Faculty Charles Scherbaum, PhD CUNY Faculty Karen Lyness, PhD CUNY Faculty Loren Naidoo, PhD CUNY Faculty Charles Moses, PhD, Dean, College of Business, Austin Peay State University THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract The Effects of Social Power Bases within Varying Organizational Cultures by Ayanna R. Cummings Advisor: Harold Goldstein, PhD This study focuses on social power in the context of organizational culture and how this relationship impacts outcomes of follower compliance and trust. Power is the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or a course of events (Handgraaf, et al., 2008). There are six different types of social power, including informational, referent, legitimate, coercive, rewarding, and expert (Fontaine & Beerman, 1977). Each type of social power may lead to varying psychological outcomes, such as compliance, satisfaction, and agreement. To date, the empirical literature has not fully addressed the issue of whether one type of power is more effective than the others in different organizational cultural contexts. This study examined the effectiveness of four types of social power in varying organizational cultural contexts for eliciting follower compliance and trust (Tharp, 2009). The methodology employed videos which manipulated the types of power and culture to examine their impact on followers. Followers were asked to what extent they would comply with the leader and how much they trusted the leader. None of the findings for MANOVA, ANOVA and T-tests were statistically significant. Coercive power in hierarchical culture demonstrated higher compliance and trust outcome means, but reward power within an adhocracy culture demonstrated lower compliance and trust outcome means. Results are discussed in terms of potential confounders, possible attributional influences, and the implications for organizational outcomes of compliance and trust. iv Acknowledgements I wish to thank my dear mother, whose tireless encouragement, support, and motivation inspire me each day to continue striving for my own excellence in all that I do. She is my biggest cheerleader, without whom I do not know whether I would have accomplished this monumental goal I set for myself. Secondly, I wish to thank Harold Goldstein and my Dissertation Committee, Charles Scherbaum, Karen Lyness, Charles Moses, and Loren Naidoo, whose support and feedback made this paper ready for submission. Without their encouragement and approval I would not have come this far. Thank you to my dear Aunt Ruby, who will celebrate her 95th birthday in January, 2018, only a few months! Congratulations to both of us are an order, Aunt Ruby! My grandmother is smiling down on me now, and I hope you know how much I love and appreciate all that you are and the spirit that lives in you. You are the strength of our family, and we love you dearly. Thank you for your constant prayers, without ceasing. Finally, I thank my Heavenly Father, whose grace and mercy saw me through the best and worst days. When I look back at it all, I remember all the goodness and joy I feel right this very moment, and that is sufficient. v Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………….viii LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………..........ix CHAPTER 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………..1 CHAPTER 2: Power…………………………………………………………………………4 Models of Social Power……………………………………………………………...6 Types of Power………………………………………………………………………7 Soft vs. Harsh Power Bases…………………………………………………............18 Outcomes/Implications of Power……………………………………………………19 CHAPTER 3: Organizational Culture……………………………………………………….27 Definition…………………………………………………………………………….27 Four Types of Organizational Culture……………………………………………….28 Leader Power in the Context of Organizational Culture……………………………..34 CHAPTER 4: Current Study and Hypotheses……………………………………………….42 CHAPTER 5: Method………………………………………………………………………..46 Participants…………………………………………………………………………...46 Research Design……………………………………………………………………...46 Procedure…………………………………………………………………………….47 Independent Variables……………………………………………………………….49 Control Variables…………………………………………………………………….51 Dependent Measures………………………………………………………………....51 CHAPTER 6: Results………………………………………………………………………...53 vi Pilot Study Summary…………………………………………………………………53 Main Study……………………………………………………………………………60 Hypothesis Test Results/MANOVA..………………………………………...66 T-Test Results………...……………………………………………………….69 Univariate ANOVA Results……………..…………………………………….71 CHAPTER 7: Discussion……………………………………………………………………...79 Findings and Review of Hypotheses…………………………………………………..79 Limitations……………………………………………………………………………..86 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...93 Implications and Directions for Future Research………………………………93 Appendix A. Figure 1. Compliance and Trust Predictions……………………………………..100 Appendix B. Scenario and Condition/Manipulations.………………………………..………..101 Appendix C. Pilot Study Questions………………………………….……………………..…106 Appendix D. Fictitious Company Description.………….……………………………………109 Appendix E. Bio of James Smith, Fictitious Leader Depicted in Video……………………..112 Appendix F. Compliance with Supervisor’s Wishes Scale (Rahim, 1988)………………......115 Appendix G. Trust Questionnaire (McCallister, 1995)……..…………………………………116 References……………………………………………………………………………………..118 vii List of Tables Table 1: Pilot Study Response Summary……………………………….……………………….57 Table 2: Descriptive Statistics for the Dependent Variables…………………………………….64 Table 3: Normality Tests for the Dependent Variables per Group………………………..……..66 Table 4: Results of MANOVA Model Effects Including Demographic Factors………….70 & 79 Table 5: T-Test Comparison of Compliance Across Adhocracy and Hierarchy Cultures………71 Table 6: T-Test Comparison of Trust Across Adhocracy and Hierarchy Cultures……………...71 Table 7: Univariate ANOVA Tests of Between-Subjects Effects for Total Compliance……….72 Table 8: Estimated Marginal Means by Group for Total Compliance…………………………..72 Table 9: Multiple Comparisons by Group for Total Compliance………………………………..73 Table 10: Tests of Between-Subjects Effects for Total Trust……………………………………76 Table 11: Estimated Marginal Means by Group for Total Trust………………………………...77 Table 12: Multiple Comparisons for Total Trust………………………………………………...78 Table 13: Ethnic Breakdown for Total Enrollment at the Main Study Data Collection Site……91 viii List of Figures Figure 1. Compliance and Trust Predictions…………………………………………………..97 Figure 2: Box Plots for the Total Compliance Score per Group………………………………65 Figure 3: Box Plots for the Total Trust Score per Group……………………………………...65 Figure 4: MANOVA Marginal Means for the Total Compliance Scale per Group…………...68 Figure 5: MANOVA Marginal Means for the Total Trust Scale per Group………………….69 Figure 6: Univariate ANOVA Marginal Means of Total Compliance………………………..73 Figure 7: Marginal Means by Group for Total Trust………………………………………….77 ix EFFECTS OF SOCIAL POWER AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 1 CHAPTER 1: Introduction This study focuses on social power in the context of organizational culture and how this relationship impacts outcomes of follower compliance and trust. Power is the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or a course of events (Handgraaf, et al., 2008). There are six different types of social power, including informational, referent, legitimate, coercive, rewarding, and expert (Fontaine & Beerman, 1977). Each type of social power may lead to varying psychological outcomes, such as compliance, satisfaction, and agreement. Attributions for why compliance and commitment behaviors arise include “attempts to avoid punishment, gain rewards or approval, please a positive reference person, rely on convincing information, or merely to carry out orders given by a legitimate authority or an expert,” (Alanazi & Rodrigues, 2003; Rodrigues, 1995). To date, the empirical literature has not addressed the issue of whether one type of power is more effective than the others in different organizational cultural contexts. The present research will examine the effectiveness of four types of social power in varying organizational cultural contexts for eliciting
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