The effects of gender and situation on external organizational consultants' use of power bases: An integration of theory with empirical evidence

This study analyzes the use of power by male and female external organization consultants for two specific consulting situations: a successful and an unsuccessful consultation. It was assumed that external organization consultants rely on expertise as the primary means of building a professional identity. From this foundational base of expert power and without the limitations of the traditional organization, it would appear that both male and female organization consultants have similar opportunities to exercise power. The analysis shows that gender and situation are significant for some uses of power.;Power use was analyzed according to the interpersonal power models, the organizational structural power models, and the gender and power theories. Richard Emerson's social exchange theory provided the perspective for integration between these theories and models. Social exchange is grounded in the notion of interdependency and enabled the examination of relevant but unrelated power theories. Power use was operationalized using previously defined power bases modified for this population. Pilot study findings supported the use of the six proposed power base categories.;The sample for this study consists of 164 external consultants, 89 men and 75 women, who responded to a mailed survey. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the survey for analysis.;Hypotheses predicted either significant male or female use for the six power bases: expert, referent legitimate, informational, position, and coping with uncertainty. There were no significant gender differences for referent, legitimate, informational, and position power. Women significantly used more expert and coping with uncertainty power than men for the successful situation. There were no interaction effects between gender and situation.;The value of this research is the potential to identify an organizational consultant power use model from multiple theories and to further differentiate a female consulting model. This research also importantly supports other findings that show no gender differences in some uses of power.