For leaders to be effective they need to be able to influence people to carry out particular requests and implement decisions. The key concept of a leadership is how they use their power to influence another person. Power “may refer to the agent’s influence over a single [person], or over multiple [people]” (Yukl, 2012, p. 186). According to Yukl, there are five different types of power: legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, referent power, expert power, information power, and ecological power (2012, p. 189). A leaders’ power is based on the position they hold in an organization or the persons’ personal attributes. Legitimate power is based on a person’s formal authority using their own set of standards that allows them to assert
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Informational power comes to pass when a leader receives information and does not share it with their subordinates or peers. “Some managers distort information to persuade people that a particular course of action is desirable” (Yukl, 2012, p. 192). Useful information does not appear out of thin air; organizations must actively gather a network of different sources that can provide extra information. Criminal Justice leaders can distort information by editing reports, controlling how information is distributed to subordinates and peers, as well as presenting false information. All of these can harm the flow of the criminal justice system. “Control of information also makes it easier for a leader to cover up failures and mistakes that would otherwise undermine a carefully cultivated image of expertise” (Yukl, 2012, p. 192). Stojkovic, Kalinich, & Klofas, describe a situation where older inmates in the Hawaiian prison system lost their leadership status, and power, when they were “denied access to information from the warden’s office” (2007, p. 442). Originally the older inmates were using the information they reeved from the warden’s office to influence the organizational members with their own ideas and decisions. When reform school graduates came to the Hawaiian prison system, they caused the older inmates to lose their power by keeping the information to themselves. This example shows how informational power can damage a criminal justice organization by changing the balance of power depending upon who is in control of the
Informational power comes to pass when a leader receives information and does not share it with their subordinates or peers. “Some managers distort information to persuade people that a particular course of action is desirable” (Yukl, 2012, p. 192). Useful information does not appear out of thin air; organizations must actively gather a network of different sources that can provide extra information. Criminal Justice leaders can distort information by editing reports, controlling how information is distributed to subordinates and peers, as well as presenting false information. All of these can harm the flow of the criminal justice system. “Control of information also makes it easier for a leader to cover up failures and mistakes that would otherwise undermine a carefully cultivated image of expertise” (Yukl, 2012, p. 192). Stojkovic, Kalinich, & Klofas, describe a situation where older inmates in the Hawaiian prison system lost their leadership status, and power, when they were “denied access to information from the warden’s office” (2007, p. 442). Originally the older inmates were using the information they reeved from the warden’s office to influence the organizational members with their own ideas and decisions. When reform school graduates came to the Hawaiian prison system, they caused the older inmates to lose their power by keeping the information to themselves. This example shows how informational power can damage a criminal justice organization by changing the balance of power depending upon who is in control of the