Power Is the Great Motivator

by David H. Burnham, David C. McClelland

In this provocative exploration into the nature and value of power in organizations, authors David McClelland and David Burnham reveal how the drive for influence is essential to good management. The authors provide a wealth of counterintuitive insights about what using power really means in today's business landscape. Power Is the Great Motivator is a must-read for all managers seeking to foster high morale and a strong sense of responsibility and commitment in their workforce.

Genres: Business, Psychology

65 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2008

Reviews

[Gabriela Pistol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting perspective, great insight, bad editorial work.

[Samantha Porth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well structured and researched points that absolutely surprised me. This is going to be a huge tool to allow me better management approaches and coaching in my field.

[Thang Tran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvard Business Review Classics published a series of outstanding essays in book-form. The language is for general readership, concise, to-the-point, with clear research statistics to back up the hypotheses.

The central argument in this book is that effective leaders are those who have a strong desire for achievement and power, not for polishing his ego but for the benefit of the institution that they serve. This high power motivation categorizes three types of leaders: Affiliative leaders (more oriented toward affiliation, wanting to be liked), Personal Power (organization oriented but not disciplined enough), and Institutional leader (more institution-minded, willing to sacrifice personal interest). Institutional leaders are the most effective.

Because successful organizations must encourage team efforts rather than one-person-does-everything mentality, managers have large responsibility to bring people of all sorts of skills together, create positive, fair, and democratic environment for his employees. Affiliative leaders tend to desire to be liked and try to please everyone, likely to make exceptions for and favor certain individuals, causing low morale and unfairness. Institutional leaders value the style of coaching over commanding. But overall, leadership styles can be alternated in various situations, as long as the end result serves both to the institution and the employees best.

This short book is good for getting us aware of the leadership style in the workplace. However, I wonder how that will play out in a culturally diverse work-environment or in different political systems in different countries.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

READ APR 2010

Interesting take on three distinct types of managers and what makes a manager effective. Best quote, "management is an influence game" (p. 24).