the right to make certain decisions gor others. It is the congressperson who represents our voting preferences, the department chairperson who represents us at the faculty executive committee, the foreman who supervises our work. It may also be the person we elect president of an organization, the observer we ask to process our behavior at today's sesion.
The legitimacy may be derived from a number of sources. It may be from a higher level of the organization, it may be by law, it may emerge from the group. However, the recipients of influence see it as legitimate that the powerful person has a right to make decisions for them (Goldman and Fraas, 1965; Julian, Hollander, and Regula, 1969). Additionally, leaders with legitimate power get more support from the group when there are other group members with personal power (Spillane, 1983)