Understanding Coercive Power in the Workplace: How Managers Use Threats and Sanctions to Control Employees

In the last week, May and Phyllis have been putting in extra hours at work so that the project assigned to them is completed on time. Though the manager was due to assign two more people to this project, he had not done so and, instead, was emphasizing to employees the importance of adhering to the needs of the department in regard to workload. As a result, May and Phyllis, who had double their routine workload, complained to the division manager. May was promptly suspended from work for complaining about her immediate supervisor. This scenario describes ________ power.rewardlegitimatecoerciveexpert

coercive

This scenario describes coercive power. Coercive power is the ability of a manager to punish or control an employee’s actions through threats, sanctions, or other negative means. In this case, May was suspended from work for complaining about her supervisor, demonstrating the manager’s use of coercive power to enforce obedience and maintain control over the work environment.

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