Study on management styles and

managerial power types for a large

organization

Ilie Mihai TUCEAN

Matei TMIL
Gabriela NEGRU-TRUI

Politehnica University Timisoara

~ INTRODUCTION
~ ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
~ LEADERSHIP STYLES
~ MANAGEMENT POWER
~ CASE STUDY
~ CONCLUSIONS

~ INTRODUCTION
The leadership style represents the behavioral model which
characterizes a leader (DuBrin, 1995).
A way of approaching the leadership styles is the one which takes
in account three key-points on leadership continuum.
The organizational power of a leader (manager) derives also from
position power (legitimate, reward, coercive) and personal power
(expert, referent). It is very important the way in which the employee
perceives the organizational power for the degree in which the
organization is successfully or not.

~ INTRODUCTION
The paper presents a study regarding leadership styles and
managerial power at large organization, and a comparative study
between the issues.
From a juridical point of view, in Romania, large (and very large)
scale organisations are organisations with at least 250 employees
(more than 1000 employees respectively).
In our case study, we analyse a higher education organisation
(university) with 1352 employees (672 employed in education
activities and 680 employed in auxiliary didactic and non-didactic
activities). The target was the support positions in organisation for
didactic activities, meaning the auxiliary didactic employees and
non-didactic, 500 of them from main organisation structure.

~ ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
Hierarchical Matrix

Authority - Power

Rector

Faculties

Departments

Rector

Faculties

Departments

Faculty 1

Department 1

Faculty 2

Department 2

Faculty n

Department m

~ ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

~ ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

~ LEADERSHIP
STYLES

Fig. 1. Blake Mouton Managerial Grid

Source: Robert R. Blake and Anne Adams
McCarse, Leadership DukennasGrid
Solutions, Houston: Gulf Publishing
Company, 1991

~ MANAGEMENT POWER
The model of 5 power types consists in:
Coercive power
Reward power
Legitimate power
Referent power
Expert power

John R. P. French and Bertram Raven (1959)

~ MANAGEMENT POWER
The organization which is analyzed has activities in
public services domain (higher education - university).
- Direct method of study, based on obtaining directly
the information from the individuals (employees from
support compartments).
We get responses from 158 employees.
- The structure of the organization - from a classical
pyramidal structure to a matrix structure.

~ MANAGEMENT POWER

Objectives:
Identifying preferences about leaders power type
Identifying the leadership style
Identifying the possible relations between the two models

~ MANAGEMENT POWER
Identifying preferences about leaders power type

Fig. 2: Power level evaluation

~ MANAGEMENT POWER
Identifying preferences about leaders power type

Fig. 3. Evaluation of managerial power types

~ MANAGEMENT POWER
Identifying the leadership style

Fig. 4. Managerial Grid

Fig. 5. Managerial
Grid with Managerial
Power Types:
a.low power;
b.medium power;
c.high power;
d.all levels

~ CONCLUSIONS
The main objectives of this study were to identify the leadership style,
preferences about leaders power type, and the relationships between
them.
The employee considers that their leaders have a high referent and
expert power and low reward and coercive power, and medium legitimate
power.
The leadership style is both people and tasks centered, encouraging the
subordinate participation to decision making, promoting trust and mutual
respect. Employees consider that team work is the most efficient for
organizational optimal activity. We consider that the leadership style is
consistent and appropriate with the type and size of studied organization.

~ CONCLUSIONS
Regarding power, the level of power resulted from the study is perceived
not enough for about a third of employees (32.28% with low power) and
the recommendation is to reconsider the chain of command establish in
the organization and the authority from all levels, but especially for bottom
and medium management (so an bottom-up analysis is required).
We also consider that expert and referent power is well established and
used in organization, with a need to increase the reward power type
(which is now at 20.25%). Reward power is also connected with the level
of power, so both our recommendations (regarding power level and type)
are correlated.

~ CONCLUSIONS

By integrating the power types model into Blake-Mouton leadership grid,

we can see that the scatter of the power levels are similar, only the
number for the each level if different. We consider that this is a good
situation and we need to do follow-up and further analyses in the future to
see if and how this will change in time.
Because of the influence of factors like: workforce migration,
demographic decrease, education system changes, workforce
characteristics evolution etc., the orientations and priorities of the
leadership styles compatibility can change in time.

Thank you !