Social power bases of marketing executives: The relationship with organizational climate

This research paper reports the results of a mailed questionnaire study of 343 marketing executives. The purpose of the research was to investigate whether or not a relationship exists between organizational climate (i.e., specific conditions in the organizational environment of the firm) and the particular social power base of the marketing executive. Results indicate that the three desirable power bases—expert, referrent, and legitimate—are correlated with all four of the organizational climate dimensions studied—reward orientation, personnel policies, MBO orientation, and status orientation. The undesirable power base—coercive power—was correlated with none of these dimensions.