Relative power and influence strategy: the effects of agent/target organizational power on superiors' choices of influence strategies
研究上级如何根据自身与下级的相对权力选择不同的影响策略，发现上级更常用温和理性策略，但相对权力大小会影响具体策略选择。
Abstract The present study examined superiors' tendency to utilize different top–down influence strategies according to their evaluation of their own power relative to that of their subordinates. Four hundred and fifty‐five subordinates (schoolteachers) from different schools described the extent to which their superiors used each item of the influence strategy questionnaire to influence them, while their immediate superiors evaluated superior's power and subordinate's power. Overall, superiors tended to use soft and rational strategy more often than hard strategy. However, regarding the parameter of relative power, the results indicated that the agent's power, as well as the target's power, affected the superior's choice of particular influence strategy. The results suggest that power should be discussed in relative rather than absolute terms. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.