ABSTRACT
The concept of authority provides a useful tool to help people understand organizational behavior because it asks and suggests answers to the question of how the organization achieves its objectives. Authority can be defined as the capacity to evoke compliance in others. The process by which authority is accepted may be called legitimation, which is roughly synonymous with "sanctioned" or "validated." It usually occurs when the individual is integrated into a society or a group, when he accepts its norms and values. For a variety of historical and cultural reasons technical skill and professional attitudes are perhaps the most pervasive criteria for validating authority in the United States, i.e., many persons accept the authority of competent persons simply because they are competent. There are some indications that formal role is becoming more significant as a basis for the legitimation of authority. In big organizations, authority is structured to insure control.
