ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a descriptive model of the power act from the point of view of the powerholder. This model is basically an attempt to describe the chain of events that culminates in the decision of the powerholder to invoke his resources as a means of influencing others. The chapter focuses on the individual who has access to institutional resources, such as money, law, and military force. The relations between resources and means of influence have far-reaching consequences for the kinds of social relations that evolve between powerholders and targets. A. Etzioni's classification of institutions in terms of the means of influence available indicates that institutions whose representatives can only rely on coercion produce hostile and destructive forms of interpersonal relations. The chapter summarizes the results of a series of field and laboratory studies carried out by the author and his colleagues in order to identify the circumstances that affect the powerholder choice of means of influencing others.
