1998/02/01 by Bertram H. Raven, Joseph Schwarzwald, Meni Koslowsky · 396 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Attribution #Communication in Education and Healthcare #Interpersonal communication #Power (physics) #Psychology #Psychology of Social Influence #Reciprocity (cultural anthropology) #Referent #Social psychology #Transitive relation #Workplace Violence and Bullying
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1998.tb01708.x
published in Journal of Applied Social Psychology 28(4), 307-332 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1998/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
In response to new theoretical conceptualizations (Raven, 1992, 1993), an instrument was developed to measure 11 bases of power, the original 6 French and Raven (1959; Raven, 1965) bases of power, with 3 of these further differentiated: reward (personal, impersonal), coercion (personal. impersonal), legitimate (position, reciprocity, equity, dependence), expert, referent, and information. In Study 1, 317 American student respondents rated the likelihood that each of these power bases contributed to a supervisor successfully influencing a subordinate in a series of hypothetical situations. The internal consistency of the items which made up the 11 power bases proved adequate. Factor analysis found 7 factors and 2 categories of bases: harsh and soft. In Study 2, which used 101 Israeli health workers, the earlier findings were generally supported. In addition, job satisfaction was found to be positively related to the attribution of soft bases to the supervisor.