Please read the following case and answer the question noted below, by choosing the appropriate option:

Karen Whitmore is going to be promoted in two months. She will be replaced by one of her subordinates, Jim Green or Lisa Fesco. Both Jim and Lisa know they are competing for the promotion. Their years of experience and quality and quantity of work are about the same. Below is some of the political behavior each used to help get the promotion.

Lisa has been going to night classes and company training programs in management to prepare herself for the promotion. Lisa is very upbeat; she goes out of her way to be nice to people and compliment them. She gets along well with everyone. Knowing that Karen was an officer in a local businesswomen$$s networking organization, Lisa joined the club six months ago and now serves on a committee. At work Lisa talks regularly to Karen about the women$$s organization. Lisa makes an effort to know what is going on in the organization. One thing Karen doesn$$t like about Lisa is the fact that when she points out Lisa$$s errors, Lisa always has an answer for everything.

Jim is good at sports and has been playing golf and tennis with upper$-$level managers for over a year now. In the department, especially with Karen, Jim refers to conversations with managers all the time. When Jim does something for someone, he expects that person to do a favor in return. Jim really wants this promotion, but he fears that with more women being promoted to management positions, Lisa will get the job just because she is a woman. To increase his chances of getting the job, Jim stayed late and made a few changes$$errors$$in the report Lisa was working on$.$ Jim sees nothing wrong with making the changes to get ahead. When Lisa passed in the report, without checking prior work, Karen found the errors. The one thing Karen doesn$$t like about Jim is the fact that, on occasion, she has to tell him what to do before he acts.

Question:

What kind of a power does Karen have $?$

a

Legitimate power

b

Connection power

c

Information power

d

Referent power