ntroduction power refers to possession of an authority and the influence over other people power is considered as a tool which depends on usage which could lead to either a positive or a negative outcome in an organization there are five sources of power namely coercive referent legitimate expert and reward power 5 sources of power in organizations 1 coercive power coercive power is obtained from a persons skills to influence the others through threats sanctions or punishments use of coercive power since i would be in a position to demand the work from them and since they are required to report to me i could use coercive power to force the people to perform up to the mark else they would get a bad rating from my end at the time of appraisals this would make them work as per my instructions 2 reward power reward power grows out from the ability of an individual to influence allocation of incentives within an organization the incentives can include salary positive appraisals increments and promotions use of reward power since i am not at a position to decide their increase or decrease in pay i cannot directly use this source of