Introduction:
Power comes from the ability to control other’s happiness and make others dependent on them but no person is totally dependent on another. Emerson’s Power Dependency Theory explains how power and dependency are reciprocal and how the power and dependence are kept in check through balancing operations. Power and dependence are important concepts to understand because they are something that plays out in one’s everyday relationships and one does not even recognize it. One place that the concepts of Emerson’s theory can be seen clearly is in UCSB’s Greek community – in the relationship between the community, the university administration, and each Greek organization’s members.
The Theory: Power Dependence Theory
Emerson’s Power Dependence Theory builds off of Thibault and Kelley’s Social Exchange Theory to explain how one can get others to do things for them by controlling their happiness. This theory functions under the assumption that people want more happiness, something that is achieve through resources or anything that can bring a person happiness. When something makes a person happy, that thing also makes them vulnerable because others can control them through it. So, anyone who controls a lot of happiness is an actor who has a lot of power and can exchange happiness for what they want, because this powerful actor can …show more content…
The mutual dependency of different actors in a relationship shows that both actors have power and that an increase in power is accomplished by increasing the dependency of others through heightening the the level of need or reducing the alternatives. This concept as shown above is applicable to a variety of relationships, whether they are personal, professional, or organizational. Overall this theory explains how power is a dynamic that is centered around mutual
Power comes from the ability to control other’s happiness and make others dependent on them but no person is totally dependent on another. Emerson’s Power Dependency Theory explains how power and dependency are reciprocal and how the power and dependence are kept in check through balancing operations. Power and dependence are important concepts to understand because they are something that plays out in one’s everyday relationships and one does not even recognize it. One place that the concepts of Emerson’s theory can be seen clearly is in UCSB’s Greek community – in the relationship between the community, the university administration, and each Greek organization’s members.
The Theory: Power Dependence Theory
Emerson’s Power Dependence Theory builds off of Thibault and Kelley’s Social Exchange Theory to explain how one can get others to do things for them by controlling their happiness. This theory functions under the assumption that people want more happiness, something that is achieve through resources or anything that can bring a person happiness. When something makes a person happy, that thing also makes them vulnerable because others can control them through it. So, anyone who controls a lot of happiness is an actor who has a lot of power and can exchange happiness for what they want, because this powerful actor can …show more content…
The mutual dependency of different actors in a relationship shows that both actors have power and that an increase in power is accomplished by increasing the dependency of others through heightening the the level of need or reducing the alternatives. This concept as shown above is applicable to a variety of relationships, whether they are personal, professional, or organizational. Overall this theory explains how power is a dynamic that is centered around mutual