Project description

Social power characterizes many instances in which people exchange knowledge and collaborate. Power can tempt people to focus on personal benefits, hindering collaboration. Feeling responsible (e.g., for one’s followers) and establishing trust may be especially challenging for leaders in virtual contexts – as followers work far away from them. How can those with high and low power collaborate effectively here? How can powerholders communicate their responsibility?

Having social power implies making decisions that impact others' outcomes. Power is especially relevant in virtual contexts: As computer-mediated communication (cmc) transmits less social cues than face-to-face communication, pre-existing power differences can especially influence behavior in cmc. 

Our research shows: People can understand a high-power position differently. They can recognize the opportunities to freely pursue goals that such a position affords, and/or the responsibility to take care of things. This responsibility is often overlooked. Powerholders rather tend to focus on the opportunities, often deciding in favor of personal interests, ignoring others' advice, and withholding relevant knowledge. 

So far, our projects showed under which preconditions people are attracted to power (e.g., often, the opportunities are more attractive than the responsibility) and that power alters the way how people think about their actions – for instance, to learn from mistakes ('If only I had done things differently') or communicate with others via e-mail. Furthermore, we demonstrated that anticipating digital rather than personal contact lowers responsibility among powerholders. 

By means of laboratory and field studies, our recent projects examine how powerholders can signal to others that they recognize their responsibility (e.g., to establish trust in online contexts) and which factors contribute to effective virtual collaboration between leaders and followers. Among other aspects, we find that collaboration across a distance requires frequent contact between leaders and followers in order to be successful.

Cooperations

Prof. Dr. Naomi Ellemers, Utrecht University, NL

Dr. Daan Scheepers, Universität Leiden, NL

Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg, ZPID 

Our research in the media (examples)

Leibniz-Magazin: „Machtfrage: Wie Chefinnen und Chefs handeln, hat auch damit zu tun, wie sie ihre Macht wahrnehmen.“https://www.leibniz-magazin.de/alle-artikel/magazindetail/detail/machtfrage.html

Wirtschaftswoche: http://www.wiwo.de/erfolg/trends/studie-macht-foerdert-die-lernfaehigkeit/9676504.html

New York Times: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/jobs/power-leaders.html