Authorities' Coercive and Legitimate Power: The Impact on Cognitions Underlying Cooperation.
The execution of coercive and legitimate power by an authority assures cooperation and prohibits free-riding. While coercive power can be comprised of severe punishment and strict monitoring, legitimate power covers expert, and informative procedures. The perception of these powers wielded by authorities stimulates specific cognitions: trust, relational climates, and motives. With four experiments, the single and combined impact of coercive and legitimate power on these processes and on intended cooperation of n1= 120, n2= 130, n3= 368, and n4= 102 student participants is investigated within two exemplary contexts (tax contributions, insurance claims). Findings reveal that coercive power increases an antagonistic climate and enforced compliance, whereas legitimate power increases reason-based trust, a service climate, and voluntary cooperation. Unexpectedly, legitimate power is additionally having a negative effect on an antagonistic climate and a positive effect on enforced compliance; these findings lead to a modification of theoretical assumptions. However, solely reason-based trust, but not climate perceptions and motives, mediates the relationship between power and intended cooperation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry UniversityCoventry, UK; Faculty of Psychology, University of ViennaVienna, Austria.
Eva
E
Hofmann
Faculty of Psychology, University of ViennaVienna, Austria; Institute of Organization and Global Management Education, Johannes Kepler UniversityLinz, Austria.
Barbara
B
Hartl
Faculty of Psychology, University of ViennaVienna, Austria; Institute of Psychology, Georg-August-University GoettingenGoettingen, Germany.
Katharina
K
Gangl
Labor Science and Organization, Institute of Management Science, TU Wien Vienna, Austria.
Martina
M
Hartner-Tiefenthaler
Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria.
Erich
E
Kirchler
authority; coercive power; cooperation; legitimate power; trust