We propose that interpersonal behaviors can activate feelings of power, and we examine this idea in the context of advice giving. Specifically, we show (a) that advice giving is an interpersonal behavior that enhances individuals’ sense of power and (b) that those who seek power are motivated to engage in advice giving. Four studies, including two experiments (N = 290, N = 188), an organization-based field study (N = 94), and a negotiation simulation (N = 124), demonstrate that giving advice enhances the adviser’s sense of power because it gives the adviser perceived influence over others’ actions. Two of our studies further demonstrate that people with a high tendency to seek power are more likely to give advice than those with a low tendency. This research establishes advice giving as a subtle route to a sense of power, shows that the desire to feel powerful motivates advice giving, and highlights the dynamic interplay between power and advice.
AhearnK. K.FerrisG. R.HochwarterW. A.DouglasC.AmmeterA. P. (2004). Leader political skill and team performance. Journal of Management, 30, 309-327.
2.
AndersonC.BrionS. (2014). Perspectives on power in organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology & Organizational Behavior, 1, 67-97.
3.
AndersonC.GalinskyA. D. (2006). Power, optimism, and risk-taking. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36, 511-536.
4.
AndersonC.JohnO. P.KeltnerD. (2012). The personal sense of power. Journal of Personality, 80, 313-344.
5.
AndersonC.WillerR.KilduffG. J.BrownC. E. (2012). The origins of deference: When do people prefer lower status?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 1077-1088.
6.
BelmiP.LaurinK. (2016). Who wants to get to the top? Class and lay theories about power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 505-529.
7.
BolesT. L.CrosonR.MurnighanJ. K. (2000). Deception and retribution in repeated ultimatum bargaining. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 83, 235-259.
8.
BonaccioS.DalalR. S. (2006). Advice taking and decision-making: An integrative literature review, and implications for the organizational sciences. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 101, 127-151.
9.
CarpenterM. A.LiM.JiangH. (2012). Social network research in organizational contexts: A systematic review of methodological issues and choices. Journal of Management, 38, 1328-1361.
10.
CasciaroT.GinoF.KouchakiM. (2014). The contaminating effects of building instrumental ties: How networking can make us feel dirty. Administrative Science Quarterly, 59, 705-735.
11.
CialdiniR. B.GoldsteinN. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 591-621.
12.
EmersonR. M. (1962). Power-dependence relations. American Sociological Review, 27, 31-41.
13.
FastN. J.GruenfeldD. H.SivanathanN.GalinskyA. D. (2009). Illusory control: A generative force behind power’s far-reaching effects. Psychological Science, 20, 502-508.
14.
FastN. J.SivanathanN.MayerN. D.GalinskyA. D. (2012). Power and overconfident decision-making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 117, 249-260.
15.
FengB.MagenE. (2016). Relationship closeness predicts unsolicited advice giving in supportive interactions. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 33, 751-767.
16.
FerrisG. R.TreadwayD. C.KolodinskyR. W.HochwarterW. A.KacmarC. J.DouglasC.FrinkD. D. (2005). Development and validation of the political skill inventory. Journal of Management, 31, 126-152.
17.
FerrisG. R.TreadwayD. C.PerrewéP. L.BrouerR. L.DouglasC.LuxS. (2007). Political skill in organizations. Journal of Management, 33, 290-320.
18.
FrenchJ. R. P.RavenB. (1959). The bases of social power. In CartwrightD.ZanderA. (Eds.), Group dynamics (pp. 150-167). New York, NY: Harper & Row.
19.
GalinskyA. D.GruenfeldD. H.MageeJ. C. (2003). From power to action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 453-466.
20.
GalinskyA. D.SchaererM.MageeJ. C. (2017). The four horsemen of power at the bargaining table. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 32, 606-611.
21.
GilbertD. T.SilveraD. H. (1996). Overhelping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 678-690.
22.
GinoF. (2008). Do we listen to advice just because we paid for it? The impact of advice cost on its use. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 107, 234-245.
23.
GinoF.BrooksA. W.SchweitzerM. E. (2012). Anxiety, advice, and the ability to discern: feeling anxious motivates individuals to seek and use advice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 497.
24.
GinoF.WilmuthC.BrooksA. W. (2015). Compared to men, women view professional advancement as equally attainable, but less desirable. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112, 12354-12359.
25.
GoldsmithD.FitchK. L. (1997). The normative context of advice as social support. Human Communication Research, 23, 454-476.
26.
GruenfeldD. H.InesiM. E.MageeJ. C.GalinskyA. D. (2008). Power and the objectification of social targets. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 111-127.
27.
HarveyN.FischerI. (1997). Taking advice: Accepting help, improving judgment, and sharing responsibility. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 70, 117-133.
28.
HayesA. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
29.
HuangL.GalinskyA. D.GruenfeldD. H.GuilloryL. E. (2011). Powerful postures versus powerful roles: Which is the proximate correlate of thought and behavior?Psychological Science, 22, 95-102.
30.
InesiM. E. (2010). Power and loss aversion. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 112, 58-69.
31.
JanssenO. (2005). The joint impact of perceived influence and supervisor supportiveness on employee innovative behaviour. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 573-579.
32.
KipnisD.SchmidtS. M.WilkinsonI. (1980). Intraorganizational influence tactics: Explorations in getting one’s way. Journal of Applied Psychology, 65, 440-452.
33.
LammersJ.StapelD. A.GalinskyA. D. (2010). Power increases hypocrisy moralizing in reasoning, immorality in behavior. Psychological Science, 21, 737-744.
34.
LammersJ.StokerJ. I.RinkF.GalinskyA. D. (2016). To have control over or to be free from others? The desire for power reflects a need for autonomy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 498-512.
35.
MacGeorgeE. L.FengB.GuntzvillerL. M. (2016). Advice: Expanding the communication paradigm. Annals of the International Communication Association, 40, 213-243.
36.
MageeJ. C.GalinskyA. D. (2008). Social hierarchy: The self-reinforcing nature of power and status. The Academy of Management Annals, 2, 351-398.
37.
MageeJ. C.LangnerC. A. (2008). How personalized and socialized power motivation facilitate antisocial and prosocial decision-making. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1547-1559.
38.
MastM. S.HallJ. A.SchmidP. C. (2010). Wanting to be boss and wanting to be subordinate: Effects on performance motivation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40, 458-472.
39.
McClellandD. C. (1975). Power: The inner experience. Oxford, UK: Irvington.
40.
McClellandD. C.BoyatzisR. E. (1982). Leadership motive pattern and long-term success in management. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 737-743.
41.
MintzbergH. (1983.). Power in and around organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
42.
OppenheimerD. M.MeyvisT.DavidenkoN. (2009). Instructional manipulation checks: Detecting satisficing to increase statistical power. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 867-872.
43.
PfefferJ. (1992). Managing with power: Politics and influence in organizations. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
44.
PfefferJ.FongC. T. (2002). The end of business schools? Less success than meets the eye. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 1, 78-95.
45.
RaderC. A.LarrickR. P.SollJ. B. (2017). Advice as social influence: Informational goals and the consequences for accuracy. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11, Article e1239.
46.
SchaererM.LeeA. J.GalinskyA. D.ThauS. (in press). Contextualizing social power research within organizational behavior. In FerrisD. L.JohnsonR. E.SedikidesC. (Eds.), The self at work: Fundamental theory and research (Organizational Frontiers Series of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, pp. 194-221). New York, NY: Routledge.
47.
SchaererM.SwaabR. I.GalinskyA. D. (2015). Anchors weigh more than power: Why absolute powerlessness liberates negotiators to achieve better outcomes. Psychological Science, 25, 1581-1591.
48.
SeeK. E.MorrisonE. W.RothmanN. B.SollJ. B. (2011). The detrimental effects of power on confidence, advice taking, and accuracy. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 116, 272-285.
49.
SilverE. (1991). Should I give advice? A systemic view. Journal of Family Therapy, 13, 295-309.
50.
SkinnerS. J.DonnellyJ. H.IvancevichJ. M. (1987). Effects of transactional form on environmental linkages and power-dependence relations. Academy of Management Journal, 30, 577-588.
51.
SmithP. K.HofmannW. (2016). Power in everyday life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113, 10043-10048.
52.
SollJ. B.LarrickR. P. (2009). Strategies for revising judgment: How (and how well) people use others’ opinions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 780-805.
53.
SpectorP. E. (1988). Development of the Work Locus of Control Scale. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 61, 335-340.
54.
ThomasJ. C.SosinL. (2011). Therapeutic expedition: Equipping the Christian counselor for the journey. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman.
55.
TostL. P. (2015). When, why, and how do powerholders “feel the power”? Examining the links between structural and psychological power and reviving the connection between power and responsibility. Research in Organizational Behavior, 35, 29-56.
56.
TostL. P.GinoF.LarrickR. P. (2012). Power, competitiveness, and advice taking: Why the powerful don’t listen. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 117, 53-65.
57.
TostL. P.GinoF.LarrickR. P. (2013). When power makes others speechless: The negative impact of leader power on team performance. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 1465-1486.
58.
TreadwayD. C.HochwarterW. A.KacmarC. J.FerrisG. R. (2005). Political will, political skill, and political behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 229-245.
59.
TrippT. M.SondakH. (1992). An evaluation of dependent variables in experimental negotiation studies: Impasse rates and Pareto efficiency. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 51, 273-295.
60.
Van KleefG. A.De DreuC. K.PietroniD.MansteadA. S. (2006). Power and emotion in negotiation: Power moderates the interpersonal effects of anger and happiness on concession making. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36, 557-581.
61.
VeachP. M.LeRoyB. S.BartelsD. M. (2003). Facilitating the genetic counseling process: A practice manual. New York, NY: Springer.
62.
WinterD. G.StewartA. J. (1983). The power motive. In LondonH.ExnerJ. E. (Eds.), Dimensions of personality (pp. 391-447). New York, NY: John Wiley.
63.
YanivI.FosterD. P. (1997). Precision and accuracy of judgmental estimation. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 10, 21-32.
64.
YuklG.TraceyJ. B. (1992). Consequences of influence tactics used with subordinates, peers, and the boss. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 525-535.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
