Affective Consequences of Social Power: Powerholder and Target Expectancies Associated with Different Types of Power

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Abstract
An experiment examined expectancies for powerholders and targets for target compliance and satisfaction with compliance following a request by a powerholder. Degree of expected target compliance and satisfaction was expected to be influenced by the type of social power used. 30 head and 60 staff hospital nurses read a series of 6 scenarios each describing a request by a head nurse (powerholder) for compliance by staff nurse (target) and each scenario involving a different type of social power. Head and staff nurses were asked to role-play the head or staff nurse, respectively, in each scenario. Results indicated that legitimate, coercive, and expert power generally led to low expectancies for compliance and satisfaction, whereas informational, referent, and rewarding power led to high expectancies. Further, head nurses expected more compliance and satisfaction with compliance than the staff nurses expected. Finally, staff nurses' expectancies were much more sensitive to the type of power used than were head nurses' expectancies.

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