Lord Of The Flies Power Essay

The Most Effective Power

Power is an effective tool used by leaders to control others. Although many leaders use power to influence others, there are different genres of power they can use. However, only one power is the most effective. Lord of the Flies by William Golding and the article, “Power and Leadership: An Influence Process” by Fred C. Lunenburg illustrate many genres of powers used by leaders. The most acceptable form of power to use is reward power because people are more likely to follow a leader that provides them with benefits.

Reward power is a better way of obtaining followers that will be more loyal to the leader. Towards the second half of the novel, Jack entices the boys in Ralph’s group to join his tribe by bribing them, so many of the boys join his tribe: “Listen all of you. Me and my hunters, we’re living along the beach by a flat rock. We hunt and feast and have fun. If you want to join my tribe come and see us. Perhaps I’ll let you join. Perhaps not” (Golding 140). Jack uses rewards in order to entice people to join the feast. They end up being loyal to him instead of Ralph because of his intelligent decision to use satisfactory rewards to gain followers. The boys were more interested in Jack’s current fulfilling reward than Ralph’s future reward which was

The article “Power and Leadership: An Influence Process” claims that if a leader wants to utilize reward power, they must insure the rewards engage their peers: “A manager can use reward power to influence and control employees' behavior, as long as employees value the rewards” (Lunenburg). A leader must have appealing awards to control their peers. With the use of rewards, followers will respect and admire the leader, making this type of power the most effective. The tactics used in reward power are unlike coercive power, which uses more forceful