Power, Politics, and Conflicts in Sainsbury: An Academic Analysis

Leadership and Leading

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Academic Analysis..........................................................................................................................3
Power...........................................................................................................................................3
Politics-........................................................................................................................................5
Conflict........................................................................................................................................6
Reflective statement.....................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is referred as the act of leading a group of people or employees in an
organization. The success of an organization directly depends on the leadership it has. Effective
leadership ensures that the employees within the organization gives their best, leading to better
achievement of overall organizational goals. Sainsbury is the second biggest chain of
supermarkets that operates in the UK. In this report the concept of power in context of leadership
and power will be highlighted. The French and Raven theory will be used to describe the concept
of power. The report will outline the meaning of organizational politics with the reference to the
social exchange theory. Further the report will discuss the nature of conflicts with the different
types of conflicts that happens within an organization. Real life examples of Sainsbury will be
used to demonstrate the theory of power, politics and conflicts in business. The findings will be
concluded. Lastly the report will produce a reflective statement, divided into academic, practice
and personal, to explain the learnings from the report.
MAIN BODY
Academic Analysis
Power
Power is used every day in organizations by the leaders to get the things done. The
concept of power is linked with the concept of leadership. Often power is considered as the
ability of oneself to influence others. Leaders with the use of power aims to accomplish the goals
of the groups. The knowledge of how power operates in an organization within the leader creates
the leadership effective.
French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power
In 1959 a remarkable study regarding power was conducted by two social psychologists,
John R. P. French and Bertram H. Raven. Considering that power and leadership are closely
linked French and Raven stated that power is divided into six different parts. The concept of
power conceptualised by French and Raven is used in organizations (Kovach, 2020). The power
in the organization depends on the conditions of organizational structure. The six basis of power
are as follows:
Coercive Power: In this base of power the work is get done by the others by forcing
them to work for something against their choice. This type of power is commonly exercised by
punishing someone for not doing something or not compliance by someone in relation to certain