ipl-logo

Bases Of Social Power In The Forgotten By David Baldacci

615 Words3 Pages

John Puller, the protagonist in David Baldacci's popular fictional novel “The Forgotten,” demonstrates every leadership trait in the Bases of Social Power. John Puller, Army CID, is a gifted leader capable of wearing many hats. He has enough expertise and legitimacy to support coercive actions, and has no problems cashing in on his referent power to relay rewards to his followers.

The “Bases of Social Power” formed by J. R. P. French and B. Raven delineate five types of power bases that can give rise to leadership:

(1) “expert power, which is based on the perception that the leader possesses some special knowledge or expertise
(2) referent power, which is based on the follower’s liking, admiring, or identifying with the leader
(3) reward …show more content…

He is a Chief Warrant Officer for the United State's Army Criminal Investigation Command (Baldacci 2012). Puller is informed and seasoned in high-stakes criminal investigations. Puller's duties include investigations of serious felony level crimes, like human-trafficking, conducting sensitive investigations, collecting criminal intelligence, and developing countermeasures for combat. Puller is seen as an authority figure by most who meet him, even if they do not know his credentials. Puller's referent power enables him to glean information about his deceased aunt from Paradise, FL's Medical Examiner. ME Louise Timmins researched Puller before their meeting: “I checked you out, Agent Puller...you are absolutely terrific at what you do, and that tenacity doesn't come close to describing your intensity when on the hunt (Baldacci 2012, p.128).” People want to help John Puller and see him as a legitimate leader, someone worthy of exercising influence over them.. His referent power is as important as his legitimacy, and just as indicative of his follower's faith as his reward power. Puller is generous with rewards to those who follow; he genuinely has the best interest of innocents in mind. While investigating his aunt's death, Puller stumbled upon the attempted sexual assault of a young girl named Isabel. Three men attacked her while her small brother Mateo watched, and Puller quickly stopped the men from raping

Show More
Related

Gaining Power In Unwholly, By Neal Shusterman

1419 Words | 6 Pages

The word power makes some think of leadership, positive role models, and mentors, but sometimes power is a want that can overcome the actions of an individual in a negative way. The novel Unwind is about to runaways, Risa and Connor, who are trying to escape being unwound or dismantled till they are living in a divided state. In the novel UnWholly by Neal Shusterman, Connor and Risa have moved on since running away, and are now running the Graveyard, a safe place for runaways until they turn 17, and cannot be unwound. Both of the stories use symbolism and character archetype to imply the theme that wanting power of something you don't have can be tempting, but might not always be the right thing.

Read More

Power In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

1049 Words | 5 Pages

Why have leaders? Why not embrace anarchy where decision-making and power are shared evenly among community members? Although this system would seem to ensure peace, harmony, and equality within society, it may foster complacency and stunt progress. This idea of how power should be distributed within a group has perplexed society for years, and John Steinbeck explores this theme while describing a family’s experience during the Great Depression. By presenting differing types of communities in his novel The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck demonstrates the impact of leadership and lack thereof.

Read More

Rameshwar Sangha Case Study

924 Words | 4 Pages

Reasons for choosing Rameshwar Sangha: • We choose this leader because he has a positive attitude towards his life which we also need to learn. • We all sometimes somewhere are resistant to change so as a group we want to learn some tips that what can be done to accept change as change is the only constant thing. • We wanted to learn that how he managed to reach at such a position and being so successful as he was also an immigrant and it is very difficult for an immigrant to settle in another country. • To learn about the important values and ethics that he demonstrates as a leader.

Read More

The Influence Of John Locke's Two Treatises On Government

1125 Words | 5 Pages

Every human society no matter how primitive or complex must have a power structure. Yet there can be many ways in, which power and authority are shared or sometimes not shared at all. Other the centuries there have been a variety of theories and systems to identify plus when possible implement the proper role of power and authority. There are instances of power and authority evolving over time as well as attempts to introduce ideal or utopian power structures. Concepts about the wielding and distribution of power have certainly altered over the centuries though not always in a progressive or democratic way.

Read More

Increase In Party Polarization

1624 Words | 7 Pages

Thomas Hobbes once said that “curiosity is the lust of the mind”; that humans naturally gravitate towards knowing more of the unknown out of pure desire. In the context of power, this statement could not be any more truer. In history, we have seen countless examples of power-hungry figures who have only been detrimental to their societies. The Mussolinis and Maos of this world have proven time and time again that the desire to elevate one’s status of power ends more often than not in terrible consequences. The increase in party polarization that the United States sees today can be linked to a power-hungry society.

Read More

Overview Of Sociology: A Down-To-Earth Approach

1261 Words | 6 Pages

Democracy is one of the words James Henslin (2014, p.51) lists among the ten core values of the United States that sociologist Robin Williams identified. In the description of this value, he discusses how it refers primarily to majority rule. However, does the majority actually rule, or has American democracy sold out to capitalistic America? Through application of the conflict perspective, an apparent relationship is made between a select group of those who own the means of production and the mass of those who don’t, where those who do own this means exploit their power for personal gain and shift American democracy to oligarchy.

Read More

Essay Of Mice And Men Power

1050 Words | 5 Pages

There are lots of people who have power in society, but some have it more than others. Everyone tries to obtain it, especially throughout history. Power has been around for millions of years and is still around to this day. Whether it’s wanting to become a king, an emperor, a Pharaoh, or a president. If you’re placed in a certain social class hierarchy that, determines how much power you have.

Read More

Astrotech Case Summary

486 Words | 2 Pages

There were various sources of politics and power apparent in the AstroTech case. Legitimate, coercive, reward, expert, and charismatic are all sources of power that specifically involve an individual. Legitimate power played a role in this case because there were managers who felt like their position gave them power within the company, whereas coercive power was played by a couple of individuals who used a harsh leadership style to get results. Reward power was identified in this case by a promotion that was given to an individual to manage the newly acquired division, while expert power was revealed by an individual who knew more about quality control and specific regulations. A manager in this case displayed charismatic power by his willingness to help his subordinates get the work

Read More

Foucault's Discussion Of Panopticism

1186 Words | 5 Pages

This essay is a summary about the idea and application of Panopticism, and its many implementations. Firstly, I will be explaining the concept of Panopticism. Next, I will dissect a few of the reoccurring arguments in the third chapter of Foucault 's Discipline & Punish. Finally, I will be dissecting some modern examples of Panopticism.

Read More

Power Corrupts In George Orwell's Animal Farm

730 Words | 3 Pages

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power itself I know is not always a good thing. In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm you would be easily be able to pick out reasons why this is. Power Power is corruption itself, I will elaborate to you a few reasons in detail to establish that "power corrupts”. Power corrupts, It is anything but difficult to see that this statement is factual.

Read More

Leadership Theory: Leadership Thought Prior To 1900

760 Words | 4 Pages

The definitions of leadership appearing in the first three decades of the 20th century emphasized control and centralization of power (Northouse, 2016, p.2). In the early 1900s research began to see if leaders possessed certain traits or characteristics that would distinguish

Read More

Power And Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

709 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, it explores the ideas of power and leadership. During the novel, Golding uses the characters Jack and Ralph to portray the fact that humans have a desire for both power and leadership. In the novel, Jack represents the need for power and Ralph symbolises leadership. The terms of power and leadership are far different from each other, “power” is defined as ‘the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events.’

Read More

Max Weber's Idea Of Charismatic Leadership

1521 Words | 7 Pages

However, while according to different authors, “It’s true that no amount of training or practice will turn you into Churchill or Martin Luther King Jr.”, the charismatic training “can make you more charismatic in the eyes of your followers, and that will invariably make you a more effective leader.” (Antonakis, Fenley, & Liechti, 2012) Conclusion If you add up all the basic properties of charisma, the main factors are the following: the ability of the leader to stand out from the crowd, emphasizing its uniqueness, unity of the followers, and finally, to the loyalty of the masses to the leader. Despite the exclusivity of the leader and his difference from the masses, they must have something in common that unites them: it may be a common enemy,

Read More

Three Faces Of Power Theory

919 Words | 4 Pages

understand the 'hidden face' of power as in Steven Lukes' (1974) “three faces of power” it is necessary to explore beyond what initially appears from a policy decision or political standpoint. The realms in which the media operate can be quite complex, gauging an understanding to these is essential when trying to understand the various sources of power that the media controls and hence can manipulate. There have been numerous theories and theorists which have been introduced throughout this course regarding various conceptions of power, the 'two faces' view of Bachrach and Baratz (1970) provided the framework for the view on power. However, it was not until Lukes (1974) “three faces of power” theory which expanded on the work of Bachrach and

Read More

The Importance Of The Leader-Follow-Situation Framework

793 Words | 4 Pages

In today's world, the citizen has experienced bad or good leaders. The role of the leader has the extensive knowledge of understanding the leadership situation and influence other complete tasks. The important factor of the leader is to gain power. Power referred as the individuals capacity to move others, to entice others, to persuade and encourage others to attain specific goals or to engage in the specific behavior. Leader power is the capacity to influence and motivate others ().

Read More

More about Bases Of Social Power In The Forgotten By David Baldacci

Related Topics

Open Document