NURS 6053 Power Dynamics DQ

NURS 6053 Power Dynamics DQ

NURS 6053 Power Dynamics DQ

 

There is no graded Discussion Board assignment this week;
however, a Week 6 optional discussion board is available for your voluntary
participation. Bring to mind a nurse whose words, behaviors, or reputation
convey power. What is it about this individual that suggests power? How does
your perception of this person relate to your view of yourself as a nurse
leader and the image you associate with nursing?

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Power Dynamics Definition

Power dynamics is:

Power dynamics refers to the science and analyses of power negotiation among people and groups, as well as the personal strategies that facilitate the achievement of goals

And I will define power as:

Power is the ability to achieve predefined goals

This definition also shows that power, in and on itself, is agnostic, and it’s neither good nor bad.
It’s all about how you use it.

Both the definitions of power dynamics and power are very broad, and purposefully so.
As such, power dynamics includes the study of:

• Strategies to reach an end or goal
• The negotiation of conflicting interests
• The cooperation among individuals to reach goals
• Influence and persuasion, as well as manipulation
• The negotiation of status between individuals and within groups
• The formation and acquisition of rank-titles within structured hierarchies

Here is how power dynamics are applied to some of the major areas of human socialization:

1. Leadership Power Dynamics

The study of power relations among leaders and followers

Leadership is all about power dynamics.

As a matter of fact, it’s power dynamics that differentiate between great leaders, and poor ones.

Poor leaders solely rely on rank and formal authority (hard power, or “power over”), while better leaders acquire power by virtue of their personality and people’s skills, making others want to follow them (“power through”).

Great leaders would acquire social status within groups even if they had no rank and formal power over others.
Once they also get the rank, they then also acquire the formal power, which just serves as addition and formal recognition of their already existing power.

Also read:

• How to be a leader (with power dynamics in mind)
• Power over VS power through

2. Social Power Dynamics

The study of power dynamics among people, either in group interactions, or in 1:1 interactions

Social power dynamics and social skills are similar, but this website believes the following:

You are not really going to become socially skilled unless you learn power dynamics.

Why?
Because:

• People respect more those whom them to be “high power”
• You can only be effective with others when you learn how to persuade
• Unless you learn power dynamics, you can easily become a victim of manipulation

Social skills courses and books address the basic level of “social skills”.
For the advanced level, you need power dynamics.

Of course, some social skills teachers scoff at social power dynamics.
They think of it as the “sociopath” approach to social skills. They’re not fully right, but they’re not fully wrong, either. But to me, that’s exactly the reason why people must learn power dynamics.
If you don’t, the sociopaths of this world will always move ahead of you –and they are already doing so!-.
You lose, and we all lose.

I repeat, yet again, one of the mantras of this website from “The Prince”:

A good person is ruined among the great numbers who are not good

So wake up and smell the coffee of life, “nice guys”.
You can’t go through life as a lamb, hoping that you will never meet a wolf. Don’t be a lamb instead.
Or, even better, keep being a friendly lamb but carry concealed.

Also read:

• Social power dynamics: start here
• Basics strategies of social power
• Mix power with warmth

And of course, just get the full overview:

• Power University

3. Seduction Power Dynamics

The study of mating negotiations, as well as strategies to gain sexual access to potential mates

Dating is an interesting arena of social interactions.

Men and women have both converging and diverging interests, which also vary depending on what point of the interaction they’re at.

For example: men have historically gained from quick sex with multiple partners. But women haven’t necessarily gained in being one of those many women.

Also read:

• Dating strategies for him
• Dating strategies for her

And valid for both:

• Sexual conflict
• The sexual marketplace
• Sexual market value

Or get the full overview (plus more than what’s in any single article):

• Dating Power Dynamics – the ebook

4. Relationship Power Dynamics

The study of how power and influence is negotiated within close relationships and intimate relationships

First of all, let’s get this out of the way:

One of clearest signs of a toxic and potentially abusive relationship is a partner that within the context of an intimate relationship focuses mostly or solely on power

That being said, power dynamics are present and crucial in all relationships, including the best relationships.
As a matter of fact, the knowledge of mastery of power dynamics supports healthy relationships.
And the opposite is true: it’s the lack of knowledge of power dynamics, coupled with a lack of personal power, that allows abuse to exist.

The way I see it is this:

Focusing on power dynamics only, is toxic. Living as if power dynamics didn’t matter, is naive. And dangerous.

In the social sciences, relationship power dynamics is one of the weakest areas of study, having received limited attention within formal academia.

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Also read:

• Phases of power in intimate relationships
• How women control relationships
• How to maintain power  in LTRs

And:

• Healthy relationships: an overview of the best literature on relationships

5. Workplace Power Dynamics

The study of power dynamics in workplace environments, including the strategies to gain unofficial status and win official promotions

Workplaces the whole world over are a hotbed of politics and (hidden) Machiavellian power moves.

Why hidden and Machiavellian?
Because workplaces tend to be somewhat schizophrenic.
On the surface, there are the company’s values that almost always stress cooperation, teamwork, and the “whole” over the individual.
But deep down, most people know that there are plenty of diverging and conflicting interests all over the workplace (them VS their bosses, them VS their teams, and, most of all them VS their employers).

Workplaces are also hotbeds of hidden power strategies because they are unnatural.
Think of it this way:

1. It’s a place where groups of people congregate unnaturally. The typical social dynamics are exacerbated by the high-school-like sense of “having” to be there
2. People go to work to get resources. We care deeply about resources since they confer power and sexual advantages. That makes work a crucial aspect of life’s success.
3. Competition is high, but masked. The resources are limited, which fuels competition. But in many workplaces competition is also frowned upon in favor of teamwork. Power moves and strategies are secret and aggression is covert.
4. People are ranked by titles, not necessarily value. Titles confer authority and power. But titles only loosely overlap with personal value and true leadership skills. That fuels resentment, and gossiping.
5. There are written guidelines and unwritten ones. Promotions are theoretically based on merit, but in reality, they are also based on politics, appearances, liking, and more or less illegal or immoral exchanges.

Power dynamics in the workplace are often referred to as “politics”.
And since politics are embedded in the very structure of the workplace, the sooner you can accept you also must get good at politics, the sooner you can start thriving in it.

Also read:

• Career strategies: start here
• Mastering office politics
• Executive skills
• Women’s guide to reaching the top

Power Dynamics in The Social Sciences

Are power dynamics a recognized discipline?

Yes and no.

No in the sense that, as important as power dynamics are in our daily lives, not to mention in our personal success and self-development, there is no recognized branch in the social sciences going by the name of “power dynamics”.

On the other hand, power dynamics are embedded in the very fabric of most of the recognized social sciences.
Think of political science studying the different types of regimes, for example. At the core, that’s the study of how power and decision making is structured.
So albeit there is no “power dynamics” university course, power dynamics, when done well, is still a scientific discipline. It’s scientific because the different branches of the social sciences all contribute with papers and researches to our understanding of power dynamics.

For example:

• Psychology: understanding people is the foundation of any strategy that involves other people
• Dark psychology: focusing on the applications of psychology to control and manipulate others
• Organizational psychology: provides insights on the dynamics of business organization and, to a smaller extent, on office power dynamics, politics, and career strategies (albeit there is little actual research on the latter)
• Political science: the end game of top power players is to run things. And running countries is the apex. Also see “political persuasion“
• Evolutionary psychology: with abundant research on what people find attractive in a mate, evolutionary psychology sheds scientific light on how people negotiate mates, plus helps us understand the most common mating strategies and their effectiveness
• Game theory & economics: provide insight on the exchange and transactional aspects of human relations, both in social settings (see: theory of social exchange) and in dating (see: sexual marketplace)
• History: shows us what strategies peopled deployed across the millennia to acquire and maintain power, and what has worked -or failed- over and over. Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws of Power” and one of the most popular writers on power dynamics, based almost all of his work on history