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Definitions
Intricate
– According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Having many complexly
interrelating parts or elements that are difficult to analyze,
understand, or explain.
Power
– political scientists frequently defined power as “the ability to
influence the behavior of others" with or without resistance. It
has also been defined as a measure of an entity's ability to control their
environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority
is often used for power, perceived as legitimate by the social structure. When
a company exerts upward power, it is the subordinates who influence the
decisions of the leader (Greiner & Schein, 1988). Often, the study of power
in a society is referred to as politics.
Intricacies
of Power – it is the complexities and difficulties that are encountered in
trying to analyze, understand or explain power. This is more so with the
dispensation of power - understand of the limitations of power and use of
power.
Thomas
Hobbes defined power as a man's "present means, to obtain some future
apparent good" while Nietzsche disseminated ideas on the "will to
power", which he saw as the domination of other human as much as the
exercise of control over one's environment.
There
are different types of power – political, economic, social, and religious, etc.
Also, there are five bases of power –positional, referent, expert, reward, and
coercive.
The
argument here will be limited to political power. Political power (imperium
in Latin) is a type of power held by a group in a society that controls and
administers some or all of public resources, including labor and wealth. There
are many ways to obtain possession of such power. At the nation-state level
political legitimacy for political power is held by the representatives of
national sovereignty. Political powers are not limited to heads of states,
however, the extent to which a person or group such as an insurgency, terrorist
group, or multinational corporation possesses such power is related to the
amount of social influence they can wield, formally or informally. In many
cases this influence is not contained within a single state and it refers to
international power.
Seeking
power
One
has to know why you want to seek power and what you plan to do the power once
you acquire it. What is your platform from which you will seek and use power?
To seek power you have to think about the reason(s) why you want power – is it
political, economic, ideological, religious, social, or otherwise. Also, you
want to determine if it is feasible and how to go about acquiring it. You have
to look at the factors that will determine your success – obstacles, opponents,
supporters, logistics, etc. Who controls the power – the proletariats, the
rich, the oligarchy, employers of labor, the labor leaders, electorate,
politicians, etc.? When you seek power you need to have a strategic plan in
place or business plan that details what you want to do, how you want to do it,
what you hope to achieve, how you plan to pay for it, implementation, and
evaluation. The understanding of these will help with the use of power when it
is acquired. One seeks power via a myriad of ways – elections, coup d’état,
promotions, inheritance, war, mergers & acquisitions, etc. You have to know
who the stakeholders are and those that control power. Build relationship with
them and build bridges across cultures, ideologies, sentiments and the like.
You cannot please everyone but you can impact everyone one way or the other.
Build political capital, communicate effectively, and build alliances.
Use
of power
One
has to understand the level of authority that power grants you and the limits
of the power. Who controls the power determines the level of authority and the
limitations of the power. Once you know that then you the power seeker will
then determine how you plan to use it – judiciously, bastardly, dastardly,
amicably, sharing, dictatorship, or otherwise. When you do not understand the enumerated
ways to use power then one is apt to abuse power. When power is entrusted on
someone who does not understand it that person tends to abuse it instead of
using it for the greater good. You use power to alleviate poverty and/or
improve society, increase sales, increase production, and improve quality of a
product or life. Devolution of power and/or decentralization of power in most
instances help to empower the rest of the community, society, business, or
polity. When that is done the power comes back to you most of the time because
the people involved continue to seek your approval or authorization. You have
to learn to navigate through some difficult terrain using the favors built over
time. Be ready to compromise but do not surrender your principles. Keep your
opponent guessing and don’t show your hand all the time. Be transparent and an
active listener to all people regardless of whether you agree or disagree with
them. Be ready to cut your losses and move on for tomorrow is another day. You
don’t have to win all the time for sometimes you have to lose in order to win.
Always think of the impact of your action or lack thereof when you decide to
use power – is it fair, will it benefit all, can we stop it, etc.
Abuse of power
It
is the act of using one’s position of power in an abusive way. It is also seen
as the illegitimate use of power. This can take many forms, such as taking
advantage of someone, gaining access to information that shouldn’t be
accessible to the public, or just manipulating someone with the ability to
punish them if they don’t comply.
Abuse of power is defined to
exist whenever someone who has power over others (the capacity to impose his or
her will on others) by virtue of his or her superior mental dexterity, social
position, physical strength, knowledge, technology, weapons, wealth, or the
trust that others have in him or her, unjustifiably uses that power to exploit
or harm those others, or through lack of action, allows exploitation or harm to
occur to them.
Abuse
of power can lead to moral evil with bastardization of ethics of the society. A
very good example is Nigeria where subsequent military leaders have bastardized
the society, embezzled funds, killed opponents, and practically ruined the
county. The same things have happened in most developing countries, especially
African countries where dictators – military or civilian – have subjugated the
laws and deprived the people their rights.
Retention
of power
When
one understands the reason(s) why they seek power and couple it with how to use
power, then it is easy to retain power. But when you do not have a game plan
before you seek power and you do not understand how to use power without
abusing, then it is very difficult, if not impossible, to retain power. This sometimes
leads to seeing power as absolute and absolute power corrupts absolutely. You
need to ask yourself if you do need to retain power and why. Is it for your ego
and have you lost your objective. Retention of power means grooming of the next
generation of leaders – mentorship. Transfer of power is another way of
retaining – to a fellow believer and/or party affiliate. This is also part of
grooming of leadership for the future.
Conclusion
The
intricacies of power consist of knowing what is power, why you need power, what
you plan to do with it, a well-crafted plan, and executing the plan for the
greater good. Those are insurances to retaining power for a long term. The lack
of understanding of power can lead to retention of power by any means necessary.
This often leads to dictatorship and totalitarianism.
© uzoma
onyemaechi, June 2011
References
George, Bill and McLean,
Andrew. (2007) "Why leaders lose their way",Strategy &
Leadership, Vol. 35 Issue: 3, pp.4 – 11
Greiner, Larry E. and Schein, Virginia E. Power and organization development: Mobilizing
power to implement change.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1988
Hobbs, Thomas. The
Leviathan, Mineola, NY: DoverPublications, 2006
Nietzsche, Friedrich
Wilhelm. The Will to Power, London, England, UK: Vintage [Random House
Group], 1968
