Power is the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way, Power is not only strength it is a human relationships, power is the authority one person holds over another. In the play The Crucible,written by Arthur Miller. Three characters Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and Judge Danforth. All want to gain power as the play goes on. But it takes a turn and influenced them negatively.
Abuse of power is when people who have power use it to their unfair advantage. So in this essay there will be examples and ideas about this story and ways that these three things were used. The first category is abusive power. This category was shown not a lot in the story but had a lot of significant value to the play itself.
The meaning of power is the capacity or the ability to direct or influence the behavior
But first what is Power? When researching Power words such as authority, control, direct, command and influence all appear. These words all support the following statement “Power is the ability to influence and control the behaviour of others.” The problem with power is that it often leads to those in power abusing it. As Lord Acton famously quoted “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Power is sometimes taken from a person’s perspective. Characters such as Nurse Ratched and McMurphy both abuses their power that they built around, the power they had in place was used to control people around them. In the movie One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest McMurphy tried to use his power for good but was stopped and foiled by Nurse Ratched and her Minions followers. In One scene of the movie One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest McMurphy tried to get the patients to go against Nurse Retched orders by throwing a party, by doing that he broke many laws that was put in place and disrespected Nurse Ratched as an authority figure. McMurphy wanted to prove to all the
In the book An Inspector Calls by J.B Priestley, the character Mr Birling says to his future son in law “If you have no power, it’s because you haven’t worked hard enough.” I believe this statement to be untrue, by using examples set by the media to demonstrate why I think this statement is false. First, let’s look at the definition of the word power to get a better understanding of the argument. The Oxford English dictionary defines power as “The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others.” So we will be looking at people or organisations that influence the behaviour of others.
To give one example of manipulation, Flannery O'Connor, Georgia State author of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", writes that "You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?"(421). The grandmother is trying to make the misfit vulnerable, even though he has already killed everyone but her. She's begging the misfit for her life. Every one of those people would still be alive if it was not for the grandmother. She did not have much hope left anyways for her life because she annoyed the misfit with her ugly and selfish ways.
Power is the ability to actor do something in a particular way. People who have too much power and abuse it, and turn their power into a negative power. Fear and tyranny are abused by people with power creating a negative effect on society. Leaders with a huge rule of power will abuse their role as a leader by creating a fearful environment.
Power can be defined as the possession of control over others. Throughout history, there has been a constant struggle over power. The matter of who should dominate over others and who should not have sparked many debates in America. Kathryn Stockett illustrated in her novel, The Help, the power struggle in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. The fictional novel follows a maid named Aibileen as she tells her story in an attempt to fight for the hope of change in her community.
The article When Does Power Disparity Help or Hurt Group Performance?, published in 2015 by the Journal of Applied Psychology, discusses how power disparities and social hierarchies impact a group of individuals and whether they help or hamper group performance. Furthermore, the goal of this research is to examine and dissect the relationship between the power holder and those he or she asserts his or her power over. The researchers have one main hypothesis that they intend to test throughout the article: the power holder’s competence and leadership dictate how power disparity and group performance mesh with one another. To be more specific, the more competent a power holder proves to be, the more the power disparity incentivizes groups to work effectively and efficiently.
Everyone uses manipulation In different forms to keep their control. In lord of the flies jack uses fear as a manipulative tool to maintain his control. “the chief was sitting there, naked to the waist, His face blocked with white and red. The tribe lay in semicircle before him.
As humans, the desire to want control or influence is natural. However, some people may go to greater extremes than others to obtain this power. For instance, in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth was characterized as a good man, well renowned for winning a battle. His wife, on the contrary, Lady Macbeth, has a strong urge to obtain power and she is willing to do anything to acquire it. She implemented the thought of destroying everyone who stood in the way along the path to reach royalty in Macbeth’s mind by making him feel like he as though he is less of a man if he decided not to.
(ii) Power and Conflict: The capacity the one person has the influence over the other persons such that other persons act in accordance with his/her wishes can be defined as ‘Power’. Conflicts could be both positive and negative. Good conflicts could be encouraged but bad conflicts ought to be prevented.
Power as conceptualized by critical theorists. Power is one of the words that holds great effect. It is defined by Webster (2015) as “the ability to control people or things; a person or organization that has a lot of control and influence over other people or organizations”. In general, a person or organization that holds power has authority over others. Thus, power is conceptualized in the organizational communication by critical theorists.
The effect of power on culture and leadership is real and this effect can be long lasting. The term power conjures up images of both evil and good and is a subject that is rarely discussed in management planning sessions or leadership training. But, because strength is the basis for influence attempts understanding its uses and limitations help a leader to learn to use it effectively. Becoming a efficacious leader is critical because companies do not form accidentally. Leaders help companies for culture by being goal oriented, having a specific purpose, and are created because one or more individuals perceive that the concerted and coordinated action of a number of people can accomplish something that individual action cannot.