Page 34 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Unit 2: Library Authority and Communities

be personal power. A person gets his personal power from his personality or from his expert Notes
knowledge. Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Programmers, etc. get their power from their expertise
and professional knowledge. Power can also be legitimate or official power. This power comes
from a higher authority.
In management, authority differs from power in the following ways:

Nature: Authority is the formal right given to a manager to make decisions or to command.
Power is the personal ability to influence others or events.

Flow: Authority flows downwards in the organisation. This is because it is delegated by
the superiors to the subordinates. Power can flow in any direction. Even subordinates
have power over their superiors, if they can influence their behaviour. So power can flow
upwards, downwards or horizontally.
Organisational Charts: Authority relationships (superior-subordinate relationships) can
be shown in the organisation charts. Power relationships cannot be shown in organisation
charts.

Level of Management: Authority depends on the level of management. Higher the level of
management, higher will be the authority and vice-versa. Power does not depend on the
level of management. Power can exist at any level of management. Even a lower-level
manager or a worker can have power to influence the behaviour of a top-level manager.
Legitimacy: Authority is always official in nature. So it is legitimate. Power need not be
official in nature. So it need not be legitimate.
Position and Person: Authority is given to a position or post. The manager gets the
authority only when he holds that position. Power resides (lives) in the person who uses
it.

Notes According to Henri Fayol: “Authority is the right to give orders and power to exact
(get) obedience.”

Task Differentiate between authority and power in a tabular form.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
4. ……………..is the ability of a person or a group to influence the beliefs and actions of
other people.
5. Authority flows ………………….. in the organisation.

2.3 Use of Authority

The fostering of democratic norms in the library depends, to a great extent, the way authority is
used within the library system.
The handling of the ‘authority question,’ is no doubt, very ticklish but if there is concentration
of authority only in one person or a few select ones democratic values can be seriously endangered

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