Referent power is individual power of an individual over the Team or Followers, based on a high level of identification with, admiration of, or respect for the powerholder/ leader.
Nationalism, patriotism, celebrities, mass leaders and widely-respected people are examples of referent power in effect.
Referent power is one of the Five Bases of Social Power, as defined by Bertram Raven and his colleagues in 1959.
Definition: Referent power refers to the ability of a leader to influence a follower because of the follower's loyalty, respect, friendship, admiration, affection, or a desire to gain approval.
Referent power is gained by a leader who has strong interpersonal relationship skills.
Referent power, as an aspect of personal power, becomes particularly important as organizational leadership is increasingly about collaboration and influence rather than command and control.
Famous quotes containing the word power:
“So immense are the claims on a mother, physical claims on her bodily and brain vigor, and moral claims on her heart and thoughts, that she cannot ... meet them all and find any large margin beyond for other cares and work. She serves the community in the very best and highest way it is possible to do, by giving birth to healthy children, whose physical strength has not been defrauded, and to whose moral and mental nature she can give the whole of her thoughts.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)