Power And Powerlessness Essay

When I hear the word power many thoughts come to mind, but I feel power has many different forms. We could assume that power means more money, a bigger title, a corner office, a more generous budget, or â€Å"a seat at the table†. But that may not be true for everyone. For some, power may mean having the ability to control one’s career destiny in keeping with personal values and interests. Or power could mean having the opportunity to be creative as a project lead without too much interference from others. Or power could mean making decisions with trust and autonomy, such that no one can easily override your decisions. To me, power is control and the capacity to bring about change. For example, the United States government, they control everything and also other countries. Our government has the power to create and print money, regulate interstate and international trade, make treaties and conduct foreign policies, declare war, provide an army and navy, establish post o ffices, and make laws necessary to carry out these powers. In addition to their elusive powers, both the national government and state governments share the power of being able to; collect taxes, build roads, borrow money, establish court’s, make and enforce laws, charter banks and corporations, spend money for general welfare, and take private property for public purposes. Power is also acquired through possession or acquisition of the following resources: authority, money, status, knowledge, professional degrees, goods, services, votes, public support, information, ability to influence the media, and relationships with powerful people. Power can be derived from one’s authority to make decisions in organization s or by virtue of one’s gender, ethnicity, social class, or personal attributes, such as appearance and charisma. People often acquire power by establishing alliances and coalitions with others to support or oppose various policies or decision-making options. Workers in social service organizations also acquire power because they often decide whether individual clients receive services, resources, or referrals. But how would it feel to not have power, a sensation of being out of control with no apparent solution to help you to regain control, powerlessness. When the lack of capability to affect the realities of life that you can’t control such as; how others act towards you, if you will get a job you want, what the weather will be like, or if an accident will occur. Powerlessness can be simply defined as the absences of power resources. However, the â€Å"Mother† of empowerment practice, Barbara Solomon (1976), defines powerlessness as a product of the interaction between individuals and the social structures that limit life opportunities for them: Powerlessness is defined here as the inability to manage emotions, skills, knowledge, and/or material resources in a way that effective performance of valued social roles will lea d to personal gratification. The power deficiency so often seen among minority individuals and communities stems from a complex and dynamic interrelationship between the person and his relatively hostile social environment. When you feel powerless, you feel afraid to express your needs because you fear that what little you have will be taken from you. You may have learned powerlessness if you were kept in powerless positions repeatedly and/or over long periods of time, possibly during childhood, by those who used external forces (money, physical strength, legal status, and/or military force) to control you. You may have been abused as a child, a partner or spouse, an employee, a soldier, or you may have been the victim of racial or ethnic attacks. Such prolonged abuse can cause you to become afraid to feel even your own needs, to admit to yourself that you need something, you become immobilized and in certain critical ways you stop growing, you cease to thrive. When powerlessness is â€Å"learned†, it becomes self-perpetuating, even if the external forces are no longer there. An abused child may grow up to feel permanently powerless as an adult, even though his or her parents no longer have physical or economic power over him or her. One may then enter into a situation that repeats childhood experiences such as; living with or marrying an abusive partner, and therefore keeping oneself in externally imposed danger. Or one may keep oneself down through self-abuse, compulsive behaviors, and depression because the powerlessness has become internalized. The first step to overcoming learned powerlessness is to learn to feel entitled to your personal rights. You have the right to live a life free from physical, emotional, sexual, and financial mistreatment. You have the right to be treated with respect, to earn a livable income, to be informed of matters that affect you, and to express yourself freely, without harming others. Most importantly, you have the right to ask for what you need, even though you may be turned down, and to fight for what you need and want, even if you are turned down. Most people who have learned powerlessness barely feel entitled to speak, let alone to speak freely. Often professional therapy is necessary to overcome the ingrained patterns. Never the less, to overcome learned powerlessness, you must gradually, but persistently lay claim to each and every human right, one after the other. The purpose of the empowerment approach is to help people overcome feelings powerlessness by acquiring power. Mondros and Wilson (1994) differentiate power from â€Å"empowerment† by arguing that this second concept is actually a psychological state that â€Å"allows one to pursue concrete activities aimed at becoming powerful.† The literature on empowerment in organizations focuses on two distinct categories of organizations actors: program beneficiaries and staff members. Rapp, She ra, and Kisthardt (1993) define empowerment in individual clients as; confidence, control, decision authority, influence, autonomy, and self-trust.† According to Shera and Page (1995), empowerment of employees in organizations can be defined as, â€Å"a process of enhancing self-efficacy among organizational members through the identification of conditions that foster powerlessness and through their removal by both formal organizational practices and informal techniques that provide efficacy information.† Empowerment in the social services can take place within the context of relationships between workers and clients, within the organization’s formal decision-making structure, and within the contact between the organization and institutions or groups in its external environment. It should be noted that empowerment in organizations involves the redistribution of resources such as decision-making authority or goods and services. Therefore, in addition to producing specific outcomes, empowerment is a political process. Staff members may feel they will lose power and authority to make service decisions if clients are treated as equal partners in the decision-making process. Because one of the primary assumptions of empowerment in direct social work practice is to reduce feelings of powerlessness by increasing personal self-perceptions of one’s own power, the model focuses on facilitating the acquisition of leadership skills and actual political power among agency clientele. Staff members also acquire power through participation in organizational decision-making and by advocating for improvements in organizational policies and services. The organization gains political power as constituents become empowered to advocate for changes in government policies and campaign for meaningful social change. In conclusion, power, powerlessness, and empowerment all have a different meaning and serve a different purpose but each one has a powerful meaning in its own way.