What is power distance?
According to Dutch academic Geert Hofstede, in applied psychology, power distance is the "extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally". Modified to an organizational setting, power distance refers to how subordinates and people in power share responsibility. Power distance in organizations is categorized into low and high power distance. When power distance is high employees enjoy centralization, expect to be told what to do, and generally accept unequal power. Contrastingly, a low power distance culture maintains that although hierarchies exist for order, power should be used legitimately, and everyone should be subject to the same rules. While ideally, many employees may want to work for organizations where fair play is promoted, and decision-making requires consultation, the reality is that large power distance takes precedence in many organizations, promoting tyrannical leadership.
Relationship between power distance and tyrannical leadership
Ever worked in an organization where punctuality and obedience were put above enhancing workplace communication and learning? Or perhaps you’ve witnessed a Manager verbally assault an employee. All these are examples of a management style that is based on tyranny. Tyranny is an authoritarian type of governance in which one person or a group of people hold exponentially more power over the majority of people, and exert it oppressively. Managers who use Tyranny to govern subordinates often distrust subordinates and have cold top-down interactions. Furthermore, using severe and public criticism of subordinates, and boastful behavior, are typical behaviors of tyrant leaders. Given that organizational culture is a significant influencer of employee behavior at the workplace, Tyrannical behavior is usually set by leaders of a workplace, and displayed by their top managers. Furthermore, high power distance organizations (that emphasize the distinction between superiors and subordinates), although not always, are usually a breeding environment for tyrannical leadership. However, if as established above, that tyranny cultivates fear in subordinates, and impedes communication - why do some organizations gravitate towards tyrannical leadership? We’ll enlighten you in the next section, with examples from the Impact Sector.
How tyranny shows up in the Impact Sector
Although the Impact Sector is usually synonymous with inclusion and collaboration, the sad reality is that many impact organizations aren't as inclusive as they seem. According to Stanford Social Innovation Review, during the 1980s and 90s social sector organizations embraced hierarchical structures to allocate their resources better. In the later 2000s, social organizations abolished this leadership style as it contributed to tyranny, amongst other injustices. However several Impact sector workers still experience injustices associated with hierarchies and tyranny. Some of these include:
Lack of consideration
The harsh reality is in the pursuit to give your all in doing good, Impact Sector workers work tirelessly, and often it goes without any gratitude or consideration. When asked for a break from the emotional and physical turmoil of impact work, some workers have claimed a reluctance from management to provide support. Instead, workers are accused of insubordination.
Self-aggrandizement
Self-gain often comes in the form of huge salary discrepancies between top managers and staff members at the bottom of the organization hierarchy. A non-profit salary compensation guide found that non-profit Chief Executives in the United States earned an average annual salary of $103 963, with top earners making up to $219 000 annually. On the other hand, the average Volunteer Coordinator's annual salary is $40 139. While a Special Events Coordinator earns an average of $43 056 annually. In addition to gains from well-paid salaries, some Impact Sector leaders benefit from fund misappropriation and do not take any accountability for it.
Belittling subordinates
The most common form of Tyranny, across various sectors, is the use of belittling statements by superiors towards a subordinate. Belittling can take place in private or in public set-ups. Examples of belittling include your superior criticizing you in front of others. It can also take the face of superiors refusing to acknowledge your analysis of reports and projects to promote their own agendas.
Abusing authority to cover up inexperience
A Stanford study found that only 59 percent of executives in the non-profit sector had previous non-profit experience. Furthermore, Impact sector workers have perceived a frequent occurrence of working under management that is inadequately trained, or that along the journey lose sight of their initial intentions to impart good. They lack knowledge of basic social development theories and due to that, may ignore bottom-up development and enforce authoritative management.
How stakeholders are linked to power?
You may have heard in the past that Funders of Impact Sectors, such as non-profits, often exercise their power in ways that come across as authoritarian and uncompromising. Their power exertions can often lead to ethical entanglements and jeopardize the priorities of budgets, but even go as far-reaching as negatively impacting the leadership style of Impact organizations. For example, should a Donor choose that an organization changes its female employees to volunteers to save on hiring costs, the top management responsible for implementing that rule will be perceived as biased.
In another scenario, a Manager who may have gotten their role at a non-profit through a connection at a Donor Agency may end up leading in a style that aims to please the Donor, and excessively exert their power on subordinates to keep in line with their personal agendas. Due to the overarching idea that all decisions regarding Impact Sector operations must be made in consensus between Funders and the Sector, Funders may often have significant opportunities to abuse their power. Unfortunately, navigating this type of authoritative power may prove difficult for employees at the bottom of the hierarchy, especially if an Impact Sector gives too much executive power to a Funder.
How to effectively manage and engage power distances?
With tyranny being a potential part of the workplace across various sectors, it is crucial to know how to effectively manage it to succeed in your job. A few strategies for managing tyrant behavior from management include:
Understand the context within which you work
To understand tyrannical leadership and to identify the actors who abuse imbalanced power dynamics, you need to understand the context within which you work. After that, establish the context in which your leaders work and their priorities concerning performing duties. Try to establish how the two contexts and priorities align. In doing so, you will be able to shift your time, anticipate when and why they may overreact over something, and come up with effective solutions.
Focus on creating agreements rather than managing expectations
When work is delegated to you by a superior, ensuring you agree on the terms of the work and priorities is better than attempting to meet expectations you may be unsure of. When delegated a task, document an agreement via email or on paper to avoid ambiguity and doubt. By enforcing an agreement, a tyrannical superior will likely not throw a tantrum, especially if it's unjustified based on the agreement.
Focus on the common goal
Often, focusing on the common goal of the Impact organization, for example, helping students attend college, can help you and a superior move past partisan battling and get work done. Also focusing on a common goal tends to help people with varying political views or with cultural differences defy stereotypes, or remove catalysts that can inflict biased conflict.
Control your emotions
It's easy to get triggered emotionally by a superior who belittles subordinates, is considered arrogant, or lacks consideration. However, lashing back out after a fit of anger or feeling deeply sad may impact your rationality and lead you to taking decisions that may impact the longevity of your job. Instead, stay calm in the heat of conflict, or during a moment when your superior seems to be inconsiderate. This will allow you to analyze the situation with better clarity and understand what is triggering them and how to remedy it. When you are in the wrong, it is vital to account for your actions.
Civilly have honest conversations about power
In some cases, it's worth talking about the power that belongs to each party to have a clear framework of who assigns certain decisions and when inclusion or exclusion regarding contribution is necessary. When attempting to have this conversation, ask your superiors what their expectations are of you, and ask them to elaborate on the scope of your job. Politely ask them to elaborate on what you should expect from them. Remember, when having this conversation, do not judge how power gets distributed.
Saying ‘NO’ politely and effectively
There comes a time when managing tyranny from superiors will just not suffice to uphold your emotional and physical well-being. Sometimes it's best if you just didn't accept belittling statements or a forceful overload of work. But how do you do that without feeling awkward or guilty, or without causing more conflict? Here are a few of our tips:
- Assess the situation before jumping into saying no. Ask yourself questions like, do you have good reasons for turning down a task or confronting a situation?
- Know your priorities and communicate them to your superior (This is especially beneficial when you are overworked )
- Be prepared to present evidence. ( Whether it is a time a superior unfairly judged a situation, a superior acted unlawfully, or you were assigned too much work without consideration, you should be prepared to provide evidence of your notions.)
- Be direct about your sentiments about an encounter or a work task. Make it logical and keep it short.
- When confronting a superior let them know your confrontation is by no means a challenge to their authority.
- Remember to remain respectful, and where possible, show gratitude.