Comparing The Five Sources Of Power In The Lion King

According to French and Raven, individuals have five sources of power by which they can induce others to behave in accordance with their wishes. These five sources of power are coercive powers, reward powers, legitimate powers, expert powers, and referent powers. In the movie, Lion King, an alpha male, the king of the jungle, which is a Lion name Mufasa, is killed by his jealous older brother Scar. The planned death only worked due to the manipulation of Mufasa’s son, Simba, by Scar. After Mufasa dies, Simba runs away and Scar takes control of the Pride Land. Years later Simba returns to the Pride Land to tell everyone the truth, take back the control of his late father’s, once, great land, and to return it to its former nourishing state. So exactly what do these powers have to do with a Disney Movie? Let’s find out.
Coercive power is the power to force someone to do something that they do not want to do. This force could be either physical or mental torture. In the movie the The Lion King, when Scar takes over the Pride lands he uses coercive powers to make the lionesses hunt for the food and to hold other dictatorial powers. In the movie, Scar even goes as far as hitting Simba’s mother, because she compares him to Simba. He thrives on instilling fear.
Reward power is the power in which you are able to
get what you want because of bribery. The person that holds this power is the one who can control the other by giving them exactly what they want. The reward can be anything, that the person who is being bribed desires. Also, this is not always negative. In the movie Nala, Simba’s childhood friend, finds him after he has left his home for so long. She asks Simba to return home, but it is evident after repeatedly asking that he does not want to return. So she uses reward power, even though the Pride Land is not her possession, she tells Simba that he needs to return and if he does he can take back the Pride Lands and rule it as his father once did. And because of this logic he returns.
The next power is called a legitimate power, it is very self explanatory. This person holds a legitimate power, but only due to status. The person, though, forgets that the people he or she is ordering around is not obeying them, but their status. Scar is again a perfect example of this. When he became the King of the Pride Lands he didn’t realize that his subjects did not respect him, but his position. He kept this respect in his position, by using coercive powers, which is very common in legitimate power.
Referent Power is a person possesses characteristics that makes someone else aspire to be like them.
Therefore this person is willing to do whatever the person they aspire to be like wants them to do. This power can be either positive or negative. Mustafa and Scar both possessed referent power when it came to the young impressionable cub, Simba. In a positive aspect, Simba aspired to be as great as his father, hence the song “Oh I Just can’t wait to be King.” He also, in a more negative note wanted to be accepted by his uncle Scar. This is how Scar was able to manipulate Simba into tricking his father to follow him to the canyon, where Mustafa fell to his
death.
The last power is expert power. This power is exhibited when the person has knowledge that someone else wants. The most prominent example of this power, throughout the entire move would be Rafiki, the baboon. He was the king’s advisor, led Simba back to the right path, and then became Simba’s advisor, once he became king.
According to Katz an outstanding leader must possess these three skills: technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills. Technical skills are when the person understands specific work and activities and are able to excel in them. Human skills are when the leader is able to work well with other people, they are able to exchange ideas and work together towards one goal. Conceptual skills are when the person is able to put ideas into actions. However, not everyone is perfect; most people don’t possess all of these skills. If I had to choose one of the skills that a leader must possess, it would have to be human skills.
Now it is possible for a leader to be in charge without possessing human skills but things tend to work better if the person heading the community or organization is able to get along with his citizens and co-workers. If the leader is able to get along with other people then there will be no need for real conceptual skills because his subjects and co-workers will come up with ideas that he will be able to work out with others to put into place. In the movie, Mustafa possessed human skills; everyone in his kingdom liked him. Therefore, it was easier for him to run his kingdom, unlike Scar. Scar ran the kingdom, but did not have that human skill which made it hard for him to completely have the kingdom on his side. Thus, the kingdom was ready to fight against him as soon as Simba returned because they didn’t like Scar; he didn’t possess that human skill.
Some people believe that if your kingdom loves you, the respect will come and then is when you will become a good leader. This was the leadership styles practiced by Mustafa and his son Simba. They treated the other animals with respect and that respect was returned allowing the kingdom to run peacefully. Scar, on the other hand, had a different agenda’ he just needed to instill fear in his subjects to receive respect. But in actuality, it made them hate him, this did not help him in the end, when Simba returned, his subjects were eager to fight against Scar.
If an enemy undermines a leader sometimes he doesn’t realize the leader’s support system. A prime example exhibited in the movie is when Scar undermined his brother Mustafa. Scar assumed all he had to do was kill Mustafa and the kingdom would just come to him, but he undermined Mustafa’s support system, his wife, Simba, Rafiki, and the rest of the kingdom, once Simba came back the entire kingdom rebelled. An organizational leader should use all three of the skills that they need to posses to their utmost ability. An organizational leader should always keep their enemies close. The worse the enemy the closer he should be kept so you can know what they are up to.
As anyone who has experienced life knows it is not wise to run away from your problems. It is always best to confront them. If you do not confront or resolve they will eventually catch up with you. The same holds true for a leader. A leader must never run from their problems, because all they are doing is prolonging the problem. This makes it worse because when you prolong a problem now the likelihood of others being influenced negatively increases. Such is the case in this movie. When Simba fled his homeland eventually his problem caught up with him because he did not nip it in the bud, (confront it). Instead he chose to run from it. When his father was killed he should have stayed and told his people what really happened. When Simba ran he actually made the problem worse because it allowed his uncle, Scar (who was actually the problem) to lie to the people and claim the throne. The people did not trust or respect Scar and his bad leadership showed in the famine that spread through the kingdom. When Simba finally went back and confronted his problem, (his uncle) the kingdom was restored.
Just as in the movie, effective leadership is seen as being positive and ineffective leadership is seen as being negative; the same applies to leadership in business organization. The analogous outcomes in business organization that are associated with effective and ineffective leadership respectively are financial success and growth of the company especially global expansion and the company being in financial debt and downsizing.