Leadership Analysis of Marks and Spencers: Power, Politics and Conflicts

This report is an academic analysis of the concepts like power, politics and conflicts which can help in the enhancement of the leadership skills. It focuses on the leadership techniques used by Marks and Spencers, a British multinational company. The report also includes a reflective statement evaluating the skills gained through the project.

INDIVIDUAL
ASSIGNMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Academic Analysis .....................................................................................................................3
POWER.......................................................................................................................................3
POLITICS ..................................................................................................................................5
CONFLICTS...............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFLECTIVE STATEMENT ...................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership can be defined as the ability which helps individuals or a group of individuals
to attract others to follow them. Effective leader is the individual who is having the ability to
influence other individuals to follow them. Leadership skills comes with proper communication
and initiation of activities. Leadership helps employees to move in a single direction and helps
them to get motivated. Leadership helps in maximising efficiency of employees and achieve the
desired goals and objectives. The report is about Marks and Spencers which is a British
multinational company (Arshad, Abid and Torres, 2021). Marks and Spencers is having its
headquarters in Paddington, London, England. The company is operating in various countries
and is specialized in selling beauty, clothing and home products. TESCO has diversified range of
products and is the market leader in United Kingdom. In this report various concepts have been
analysed which are useful for the leaders to enhance there skills. This report describes various
types of powers which can be exercised by the leaders to influence them to do better. This report
is the academic analysis of the concepts like power, politics and conflicts which can help in the
enhancement of the leadership skills. At last a reflective statement has been provided where the
skills used in this report have been evaluated.
MAIN BODY
Academic Analysis
It is important for an organization to analyse the various concepts which helps in strengthening
the leadership techniques.
POWER
Power can be defined as the ability which is possessed by the individuals which helps
them to influence other team members to do something. Individuals at the higher level posses
power which is helpful for them to delegate activities.
Leadership power described by French and Raven's Forms of power are-
 Coercive power- It is the power which involves forcing employees or individuals to do
something against there will. This power can be abusive and the leaders can misuse this
power. So it is important for the leaders at TESCO to see whether they are not forcing
there employees to do something against there will.

 Reward power- In this power the leaders tend to give rewards and benefits in exchange
of doing something. In this power the rewards and benefits tend to motivate employees.
The reward power tends to decrease with time (Bakar and Connaughton, 2022). At
TESCO the leaders focuses on providing rewards and benefits to the employees so that
they can feel motivated. Reward power also helps in increasing productivity of the
employees and will have a positive impact on the employees.
 Legitimate power- It is the power which is derived from a given position in the
organization. It is a formal power and is given to the individuals in hierarchies. With the
help of this power the employees get influenced by the leaders and will follow what they
are told to do. This power comes with the position, and if the individual is not having a
powerful position in the organization they can loose their power. At TESCO the leaders
use legitimate power to assign tasks to the employees and create a formal environment in
the organization. This power can be exercised when the individuals have any position in
the TESCO.
 Expert power- It is the power which is exercised by the individuals having specialized
skills and techniques. These type of individuals influence other employees to do better.
This power can only come from personal skills and this power is having high influential
power. TESCO is employing individuals who are having specialized skills. This will
enhance the business operations and productivity of the company. The expert power can
also help the leaders at TESCO to influence other employees.
 Referent power- This power is totally dependent on the nature of an individual. This
power is derived from the nature and values pertain by an individual. This power can be
exercised by the people like social media influencers. The individuals with strong
influencing power can have referent power. The leaders at TESCO do not use this power
very often as this power is not that strong in the workplace.
 Information power- This power is exercised by those individuals who have access to
confidential information or have control over the flow of information. Information power
is very strong in organizations as there are many informations which are not available to
low level employees (Coleman and Donoher, 2022). This power is with the top level
managements as they are the one who have access to all the information.

POLITICS
Politics can be defined as the series of activities which are involved in using the power
and networking at workplace. Organizational politics are the behaviours which are used by the
employees to increase the outcomes. Organizational politics can lead to decrease in the output of
employees if used negatively.
 The Weeds – This is a type of politics where the individuals use there personal influence
and informal networks to perform business operations. In this type of politics the
employees cover the mistakes of each other and try to handle the situations. In this type
of politics the informal alliance save the business operations and helps in great
productivity. To deal with weeds the leaders at TESCO have to realize the informal
alliance between the employees. Managers can also try to eliminate the hurdles and try
to strengthen the relationship between the employees.
 The Rocks – This type of politics is followed by the persons holding any title or position
in the company. This politics is completely formal in nature as it is exercised by the title
holders. This type of politics can help in stabilizing the base of organizations at time of
difficult situations (Gorst, 2021). The leaders at TESCO do not usually use the rocks until
it is necessary as this type of politics can sometimes create negative effects on the
employees. Negative environment can decrease the productivity of the employees which
will effect the business operations.
 The high ground – This type of politics helps in combining organizational systems
with the formal authorities. This type of politics is mainly followed through the rules and
the guidelines decided by the organization. This type of politics is having benefits as it
helps in monitoring the changes at individual level. Excess use of rules and regulations
can lead a company to become bureaucratic. The managers at TESCO can use feedbacks
from the customers and clients to evaluate the problems involved in business operations.
 The woods – Organizations also have hidden norms and assumptions which are known
by some members of the organization. This type of politics can help in providing safety
for the employees in the organization (Hurwitz, 2018). Some organization tend to focus
on the issues rather than the unseen practices which are the cause of the problem. The

solution to this problem is the leaders at TESCO can ask there clients and suppliers about
the problems they have faced or experienced in the organization.
CONFLICTS
Conflicts in organizations can be defined as the issues or disagreement created between
the employees (Kelemen and et. al., 2022). The conflict arouse when two or more individuals try
to interact with each other and do not have same set of thoughts and beliefs. Organizational
conflict is simply the outcome of human interaction when one employee develops negative
attitude or beliefs.
Nature of conflict
 Conflict is a process- Conflict can be said as the layer of misunderstandings, interests,
and differences. It can be called as a process as it starts when one person or employee
opposes with the thoughts of other employees. Conflicts can negatively effects the
interests of employees and tend to lower there motivation (Low and Ayoko, 2020).
Conflict can often lead to competition among the employees as well as compromising in
various situations.
 Conflict is inevitable- Conflict exists when two people with different thoughts interact
with each other. Conflicts can be minimized or can be resolved if the individuals
involved in this process deal with there attitudes. Conflict depends on the way individuals
respond on the outcomes, they can be constructive or destructive.
 Conflict is a normal part of life- Individuals have different needs and wants but the
resources provided are limited. So it is normal that the employees will have a conflict
between each other to fulfil there needs and wants. Having conflicts is not a problem but
if the conflicts are not resolved they can create more misunderstandings and it can
become problematic for the organization.
Impacts of conflicts within the organization-
 Decrease in productivity- Conflicts within an organization decreases the productivity of
the employees as they create negative environment within the organization (ÖZTÜRK
and ŞAHİN, 2020). The members spends there time in dealing with the conflicts, so they
get distracted from the goals and objectives which they have to achieve. Conflicts create
negative environment which causes employees to focus less on the business operations

and more on gossips and stress (Tang and et. al., 2020). Thus the organizations
productivity decreases and it affects the overall profit.
 Improve future communication- Conflicts can help in improving the communication
between the employees as conflict resolution can bring the team members together.
Conflicts helps the team members to learn more about the ideas and thoughts of the
individuals which helps in organization growth and productivity.
 Identify new members- Conflicts can also help in identifying new members in the
organization as the members actively participate in informal meetings (Zaar, Van den
Bossche and Gijselaers, 2020). Conflicts can help in inspiring the members which are
introvert and help in offering meaningful outcomes to the individuals.
CONCLUSION
This report concluded that there are three concepts which have to be analysed by the
organizations to increase productivity in there business operations. It is important for
organisations to have expert leaders which have influencing power to achieve organizational
goals and objectives. Leaders must have influencing power which helps them to make use of
other individuals for the organizations productivity. There are various concepts like power,
politics and conflicts which effects the behaviour and productivity of the individuals. So it is
important for the leaders to make sure that they are using appropriate leadership style which
helps them to motivate other employees. Leaders can also provide rewards and benefits to the
employees to motivate them to do better. It is the responsibility of the leaders to make there team

members happy and motivated by providing them with monetary rewards or non- monetary
rewards. It is in the nature of every human being to do better when they have to fulfil there needs
and wants. In this report leaders are using power, politics and conflicts to enhance there
leadership skills. If leaders are pertaining creative thinking skills then they can influence other
employees do to work with better productivity and efficiency. Leaders also require strategic
thinking skills to work in dynamic environment and adapt themselves with the changing
preferences of the customers. Strategic thinking also helps the leaders to make decisions quickly
with better understanding. Thus it is analysed from this report that it is important to have good
leadership skills.
REFLECTIVE STATEMENT
This exercise has helped me to get the deeper description of academic skills as well as
professional skills. This reflective statement is the evaluation of the skills I have enhanced by
doing this report. This report is the academic analysis on the various concepts which helps in the
enhancement of leadership techniques. I have realized that organizational power is important for
the leaders. I have analysed that if I am having a certain position or title in the organization I can
influence other employees to achieve higher productivity and performance. If I was a leader it is
important for me to be creative and have new thoughts and ideas. Creative thinking can help me
and the company to open up to the new opportunities and also helps in solving critical problems
with ease. In this report I have analysed that conflicts play a vital role in enhancing creativity and
get engaged with the employees. For me as a leader it is important to resolve conflicts as soon as
possible because they tend to create misunderstandings between the employees. I have analysed
that I have good researching skills as I have been involved in doing research about this project.
This project gives a overview how the power, politics and conflicts are important for the leaders
in the organization. I can tell from this report that power is the element which is responsible for
ensuring that the employees are committed towards the organization and are loyal. Power can
also bring harmony, which helps in increasing productivity in the business operations. In this
report I have stated that with power, politics is also an important factor which have to pertained
by the leaders so that they can retain there power and try to achieve the desired goals and
objectives. In this report my academic skills as well as the professional skills have been
enhanced. This report requires researching on various topics which have helped me to with my

writing skills. It is important to have good writing skills as it helps me to communicate my
thoughts better with the receiver. Along with writing skills, reading skills are important for
leaders to do better research on the projects so that they can be done effectively and efficiently.
Good reading and writing skills helps me to connect with other employees or members at
personal level and also improves my communication skills. I have analysed that I have gained
knowledge through this report about the concepts used in the organizations by the leaders to
enhance there leadership skills. Through this I have gained the professional knowledge and
experienced professional skills. By doing this report I can tell that I can use various types powers
like reward power and expert power in my career. I have expertise in communication skills and
also in finance so I can influence other employees to do better with there job and learn new
skills. Good communication skills can help me communicate better with other employees as well
as team leaders. So it is important for me to have the academic skills such as proper
communication skills, writing skills, reading skills and critical analysis so that I can excel in
dynamic environment.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arshad, M., Abid, G. and Torres, F.V.C., 2021. Impact of prosocial motivation on organizational
citizenship behavior: The mediating role of ethical leadership and leader–member
exchange. Quality & Quantity, 55(1), pp.133-150.
Bakar, H.A. and Connaughton, S.L., 2022. Ethical leadership, perceived leader–member ethical
communication and organizational citizenship behavior: development and validation of
a multilevel model. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Coleman, R.A. and Donoher, W.J., 2022. Looking Beyond the Dyad: How Transformational
Leadership Affects Leader–Member Exchange Quality and Outcomes. Journal of
Leadership Studies, 15(4), pp.6-17.
Gorst, L.R., 2021. “It is so Open-ended”: Teachers’ Views, Perceptions and Experiences of
Leadership and Leader Identity in Early Childhood Education (Doctoral dissertation,
ResearchSpace@ Auckland).
Hurwitz, M., 2018. Exploring distributed leadership: A leader–follower collaborative lens.
In Distributed leadership (pp. 1-25). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Kelemen and et. al., 2022. Humble leadership: A review and synthesis of leader expressed
humility. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
Low, J.J. and Ayoko, O.B., 2020. The emergence of spiritual leader and leadership in religion-
based organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 161(3), pp.513-530.
ÖZTÜRK, N. and ŞAHİN, S., 2020. Organizational culture and teacher leadership in educational
organizations: mediation role of leader-member exchange. Elementary Education
Online, 16(4), pp.1451-1451.
Tang and et. al., 2020. Antecedents and consequences of empowering leadership: Leader power
distance, leader perception of team capability, and team innovation. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 41(6), pp.551-566.
Zaar, S., Van den Bossche, P. and Gijselaers, W., 2020. How business students think about
leadership: a qualitative study on leader identity and meaning-making. Academy of
management learning & Education, 19(2), pp.168-191.