The Theory was originally developed by Sieloff (1995) as the Theory of Nursing Departmental Power as part of Sieloff’s doctoral studies. Using King’s Interacting Systems Framework (King, 1981), Sieloff developed the Theory in order to assist nursing groups to both assess and improve their level of group power.
However, in the process of refining the Theory, the Theory was revised to be the Theory of Group Power within Organizations, and can be used by any group within any organization to estimate their level of group power within their organization.
Power is defined as the “capacity to achieve goals” (Sieloff, 1995, p. 54) and is seen as a positive resource that is available to all groups.
The first four components
· controlling the effects of environmental forces,
· position,
· resources, and
· role
are proposed to contribute to a group’s power capacity.
However, before a group’s power capacity can be actualized, four additional components effect the group’s power capacity. These four components are:
· communication competency,
· goal/outcome competency,
· nurse leader’s power competency,
· power perspective.