Power, Character, and the Junior Officer

Abstract

French and Raven’s venerable taxonomy of power (French & Raven, 1959; Raven, 1992, 2008), and in particular their construct of referent power, are presented here as useful tools for building the character of the junior Air Force officer. Referent power has theoretical links to major leadership theories, but also contains distinctions from this literature that bear further investigation. Definitions of power and character are offered, and a strong relationship between the two is proposed, in which referent power appears to be the power construct from French and Raven’s taxonomy most uniquely tied to character. Links between leadership theories and referent power are addressed; referent power is acknowledged as conceptually tied to transformational leadership, but also different because it is situated in a taxonomy of alternative power sources. Referent power is recommended as a parsimonious and productive tool for investigating and building character in the junior officer, who is identified as belonging to a somewhat vulnerable population.