POWER IS THE GREAT MOTIVATOR (REPRINTED FROM HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW,MARCH APRIL, 1976)

What makes or motivates a good manager? This HBR Classic, the McKinsey Award winner in 1976 (March-April), attempts to answer that question by using the degree of a person's need for power as a measure of succe ss. McClelland and Burnham studied managers in large U.S. corporations who were participating in management workshops designed to improve th eir effectiveness. They also surveyed the managers' subordinates to de termine how effective the managers were and to isolate the characteris tics of those who created high morale. Their conclusions? The better m anagers tended to score high in their need for power - that is, their desire to influence people - and that need outweighed their need to be liked. The authors also found that the most effective managers, whom they call institutional managers, disciplined and controlled their des ire for power so that it was directed toward the benefit of the instit ution as a whole - not toward their own personal aggrandizement. In co ntrast to institutional managers, the authors identified two other kin ds of managers, both of whom breed low morale among subordinates. The first, affiliative managers, scored higher in their need to be liked t han in their need for power, and the second, personal power managers, have a greater need for power than for affiliation but display little self-control in their actions. In his retrospective commentary, David McClelland considers his earlier findings in light of his research int o two important changes that have occurred in the workplace since HBR first published this article 19 years ago: large hierarchical organiza tions have flattened out, and female managers have entered the workpla ce in full force.