Reward power is used to influence people to comply by offering compensation and incentives like pay increases, promotions, bonuses, first pick in company assignments, and additional recognition. The effectiveness of reward power depends on how desirable the incentives are or if the rewards are accurately and quickly delivered as promised. 

The purpose of coercive power is to influence employees through fear of punishment. This can include demotion, negative tasks, or maybe even demotion entirely.  This issuance of threats is typically effective but has negative consequences on the work environment, causing employees to resent their management and the job. It is also known to cause employees to lose motivation while gaining a sense of distrust. 

Legitimate formal power differs from reward and coercive power in how authority is used and perceived. While reward power relies on offering something valuable—like promotions, pay raises, or preferred tasks—to influence others, and coercive power uses fear and the threat of negative consequences like demotion or punishment, legitimate power is based purely on a person’s official position within an organization. It doesn’t depend on offering rewards or instilling fear but rather on the accepted right to lead due to one’s role. 

Expert power is power that comes from someone’s knowledge, skills or expertise in a certain area. People with this kind of power are influential because people rely on them for guidance, advice and decision making within that area. This kind of power is usually earned through education, training or lot’s of experience. This power grows when people can trust you and you build credibility. 

Referent power is one of the most influential kinds of power someone could have. Referent power is the ability to influence others due to their admiration, respect and identification with a person. It’s a form of soft informal power that can be based on good personal qualities. Some of the qualities that can be used to be influential might include being fair, confident, authentic and a good mentor. Being able to do these things is super powerful and influential in the workplace and can lead to many good things. 

Informational power is one of the least influential types of power. It is  gained when an individual or organization has information that another party does not possess. Even though information is power the reason this classification does not hold the most power is because once information is shared its power is lost. In terms of management, it is key to share information with those underneath you. The key is to know which information is important for the team to know, and which will not affect the work they do.