THE EFFECT OF FIVE FRENCH AND RAVEN’S MANAGERIAL POWER BASES ON EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION: A REVIEW AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS IN TANZANIA

Abstract

Job satisfaction is an attitude of employees towards their job. It is important in business organizations because it increases individual and organizational effectiveness. Employee job satisfaction mostly is attributed to demographic characteristics, employee behaviours and psychological capital. The effect of managerial power on job satisfaction has not been explicit among antecedents of job satisfaction in management literatures. The paper objective was to explore the effect of five French and Raven’s managerial power bases on employee job satisfaction in organizations of various backgrounds. The paper adopted a qualitative methodology by reviewing 13 empirical literatures published online from different parts of the world. The paper found that referent, reward and expert power bases used by managers mostly had significant positive effect on employee job satisfaction. It was also found that coercive and legitimate power bases had mixed findings regarding their effects on employee job satisfaction. While coercive and legitimate powers had positive effect on employee job satisfaction in some few organizations, several others felt the negative effect of legitimate and coercive powers on job satisfaction. Based on the perspective of literature review, the paper concluded that reward, referent and expert managerial power bases lead in having positive effect on job satisfaction. The paper provided implication for managers in Tanzania to sustain employee job satisfaction through usage of power bases by French and Raven. KEYWORDS: Managers, expert, power, employee, satisfaction