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

This report analyzes the concept of power, politics, and conflicts in Sainsbury, the second biggest chain of supermarkets in the UK. It discusses French and Raven's Five Forms of Power, organizational politics, and the nature of conflicts within an organization. Real-life examples from Sainsbury are used to demonstrate the theories. The report concludes with a reflective statement.

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

rules or procedures. Excising this form of power work just get done at a minimum level. By
getting things done using force work can never be done above the minimum level (Fay and
Reindfleisch, 2021). In short power is derived by the leader emphasising its ability for punishing
or giving penalties to the team members.
Reward Power: The reward form of power by French and Raven involves giving some
rewards, gifts or benefits to someone for getting the desired work done by them. This form of
power is opposite to the previous form of power. Rewards are used for influencing someone to
work. At Sainsbury leaders use reward form of power to get things done from the workers at
faster speed during the occasions of heavy workloads.
Legitimate Power: This form of power comes from the position or formal relationships
within the organizations. Hierarchical leaders and officials that are elected owns legitimate
powers (Bolin, Ouellette and Applegate, 2019). In this form of power people are influenced by
the power of legitimate leaders or officials as a result of rules that prevails in the society or
within the organization.
Expert Power: This form of power comes from the expertise possessed by an individual.
The level of skills, experience and competence that a leader holds makes them capable of having
influence over other on the basis on trust one can have on them. This type of power comes from
the personal characteristics of an individual irrespective of their organizational position. In short
the power is assumed by the followers based on their perception regarding the capabilities of
their leader.
Referent Power: Referent Power is further categorised as informal power as it does not
require any formal position of authority. It is sometimes known as personal power. The base of
power is based on the respect and admiration that an individual earns over time from the other
individuals in the organization (Kovach, 2021). This power is basically derived from the value,
worth and attractiveness that is perceived for an individual.
Informational Power: This form of power is possessed by a leader based on their ability
to control the flow of information. Information is perquisite of getting things done by others. It
comes from the fact of someone having confidential information. Someone have this base of
power when they have some information that is not known by others. Summarizing in short the
power is with the person having information.

Politics-
Organizational politics refers to the self-serving behaviours that is followed by the staff
and managers of the organization which helps them to obtain the positive outcome. This term
used to describe the negotiation and the settlements in the organizations that makes to have the
contrasting perceptions of the people working (Ferris and et.al., 2019). The organizational
politics of the Sainsbury helps them to build the coalitions and have the development of the
resources and power. The politics used to have impact on the team and individual in order to
have the good profitability in the market. If the Sainsbury's used to face the negative politics it
may affect the growth of the employees. As if the organization is having politics it will
discourage the employees and have great impact on their work. In the cited organization are
various types of activities have direct link with the goals of organization but sometimes politics
affects those goals. The company must have the better planning its helps the company to have
proper working and have better production without getting affected by negative organizational
politics. It is basically depending on the organization's Politics which helps them to grow or to
get defeat in the different market of the world.
The organizational politics can be further described by using the Social Exchange
Theory. This theory used to state that the employee will get the high cost of social interaction by
having the reward of the social interaction. The fundamental concept of social exchange theory is
the cost and rewards. This used to state that the cost and rewards the two factors which used to
create politics and have effect the behaviour of people (Hochwarter and et.al., 2020). The main
purpose of this theory is to maximize the benefits by reducing the costs. The cited organization
can use this theory which helps them to have more benefits in the market by minimizing the
costs. If the employees are doing better than the company will provide them good compensation.
This helps them to have good productivity in the market.
Organizational politics are basically the natural part of the organizational life. If the
organizational politics is not there it will have great impact on the organizational commitment,
job satisfaction and leads to have job anxiety and depression. For example, if the Sainsbury's is
having the positive organizational politics it will encourage the employees to have better
productivity. This factors also have the negative impact on the organizational goals as there is
continuous change in the external and internal environment (Landells and Albrecht, 2019). There
is the presence of both formal and informal groups in the organization that used to have great

impact on the organizational politics. The company must know do the politics among the
employees in the organization based on their background, experience, knowledge, etc. This will
affect the work of the staff and will have impact on the productivity and profitability of the
organization. The company should have the better planning as it helps the company to have
proper working and have better production without getting affected by politics in the company.
The positive political activities in the cited organizations will helps them to survive in the
competitive market. The real life example of the cited organization is that the company has
announced that they are changing the way to manage the stores across UK. This has led to affect
the performance of thousands of employees working in the stores.
The Niccolo Machiavelli theory of power politics
The Machiavelli has defining the theory as by acquiring and attaining the state of
maintaining the evil and it is based on three principles which states about the leaders in the
company must be feared not loved. Further leaders in the company must be supported by various
individual for taking various decisions and action with intelligence. In his views good political
leader is not the one who is kind, honest and gentle to others instead a good political leader is
someone who knows and can defend and bring honor to the state. A political leader according to
his theory can not be disobeyed easily. The political leader must have a cruel side and must be
strict to the people he rules.
Conflict
The nature of the conflict is the process that used to polarize and reduces the opportunity
in order to grow. The conflict is basically happening when two or more parties are not agreed
upon something in order to make the decisions in the company. The conflicts used to affect the
organizations as this used to affect the decision-making of the company. This is basically the
state of discord that is caused by the perceived opposition of the needs, interest and values
among the people working in the workplace. In the company there may be arisen of the conflicts
which may have great impact on the profitability. The conflicts arise on the situations like
distribution of profit, how the work can be done, working hours etc. There are four types of
conflicts that can be there in the organization (Mikkelsen and Clegg, 2018). This includes the
personal conflicts, intra-group conflicts, inter-group conflicts and inter-organizational conflicts.
The most happening conflicts is the personal conflict, as the employees of the organization used
to have different opinions on the working. This used to have bad impact on the production of the

company and have the ineffective management in the company. As there are teams in the cited
organization which helps them to have better functioning of work. But sometimes these teams
used to do not work on the taken decisions which used to have conflict in the market. The team
members also have the disputes among them which make them to have ineffectiveness in their
work.
The cited organization mostly used to face the inter-organizational conflicts as it is the
one of the leading supermarket in the market of UK. As there are many competitors of the
Sainsbury which used to have impact on their work. These competitors used to do innovations
which used to have impact on the growth of the company. As sometimes the company may have
impact on the work as there are different types of employees working in the company. For
example, the competitors of the company used to affect the decisions making and thus result in
conflicts in the working in the organization. As the employees are doing better than the company
will provide them good compensation (Chon, Tam and Kim, 2021). This helps them to have
good productivity and productivity in the company. The company must be ready to manage the
uncertain situation which will result in having the fewer conflicts and have better productivity of
the work. By doing the innovations in the company it helps the company to reduce the workload
and conflicts and helps the company to grow in the market.
Reflective statement
In the beginning of the module I have researched about the organization for studying the
context of the power, politics and conflicts affecting the business operations. With designing the
module I have learned various things and facts related to the power politics and the conflicts
occupying in the company. In the context of the politics, I have learned that politics mainly
influences the behaviour for working and achieving the workings and its task results in optimum
manner. As while applying it in the Sainsbury, it mainly impacts the behaviour of employees and
individual in the company while working and achievements for the task. Also, it mainly affects
the profitability and impact the productivity of the company. As this helped me in analysing that
the negative politics influences behaviour and results in impacting the growth and achievement
of the business objectives. More over the political behaviour in the company impacts in defeating
the competitors. Further more while in the context of power I have learned about the influence
of power on employees for better working (Sepuru, Musonda and Okoro, 2021). As providing
rewards motivates for working better in achieving the gaols of the company. With the self self-

fulfilment with the rewards generally motivates individual for getting benefits in terms of the
rewards, perks , extra bonuses. Further in th context of the conflicts I have learned about
conflicts in opinions and between to individual at the workplace mainly hinders in growth and
greatly impacts the individual behaviour with the personal conflicts. Also, the conflicts mainly
arises in the workplace due to various factors many including the personal conflicts, inter-
personal conflicts, intra personal and organizational conflicts due to different I opinions and
backgrounds. Further more while designing and developing this module I have learned various
skills including the researching skills, as for searching about various concepts, theories which
helps in supporting the conflicts, power and political behaviour and its impacts into the
Sainsbury company. Also, I have developed the leadership skills with learning the influences of
power in the workplace. Further this has also developed my knowledge related to the power,
political behaviour and the conflicts impacts the working practices and the employees for
achieving the goals of the business. While developing this module I have acquired good writing
skills by explaining all the academic concepts and knowledge related to the power , political
behaviour the conflicts impacts the sainsburry operations and its workings in achieving the
business objectives. Thus , by analysing this whole module it helped me in addressing the details
related to power , politics and the conflicts in the company. Moreover, various measures for
resolving the conflicts and reducing the political behaviour helps in achieving the business
objectives while operating the supermarket in the dynamic environment. with learning about
power I will use thus in my career by taking the leadership position in the company and using
this as for learning the employees and motivating therm with using the reward power this mainly
helps in properly engaging the individual for achieving the business goals.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of this report the meaning and importance leadership within the organization
has been cleared. The report has chosen the Sainsbury for better understanding of the concepts.
In this report the concept of power in an organization is explained using the French and Raven
model. The French and Raven conceptualised the concept of power on the basis of six forms of
powers. The impact of organizational politics over the organization has been discussed in the
report. The social transform theory has been used in order to understand the concept of
organization politics in context of the chosen organization, Sainsbury. There are different types
of conflicts that creates within an organization when individuals with different set of attitudes

and mind set interacts and disagrees with each other. The impact of organizational conflicts over
the organization have been discussed in this report. The report has linked the theories used for
understanding of different concepts like power, politics and conflict with the chosen organization
to support the relevance of theories in context of the real life organization based examples.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bolin, R. M., Ouellette, H. M. and Applegate, B. K., 2019. Managing Compliance: Types of
Power in Juvenile and Adult Probation and Parole Supervision. Corrections, 4(1), pp.1-
18.
Chon, M. G., Tam, L. and Kim, J. N., 2021. Effects of organizational conflict history and
employees' situational perceptions of COVID-19 on negative megaphoning and turnover
intention. Journal of Communication Management.
Fay, I. and Reindfleisch, C., 2021. Disclosure, Twitter, and the Power of# WhyIDidntReport:
Applying French and Raven’s Bases of Power to Tweets from Victims of Sexual
Violence. The Journal of Social Media in Society, 10(2), pp.402-422.
Ferris, G. R. and et.al., 2019. Reorganizing organizational politics research: A review of the
literature and identification of future research directions. Annual Review of
Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. 6. pp.299-323.
Hochwarter, W. A., and et.al., 2020. Perceptions of organizational politics research: past,
present, and future. Journal of Management. 46(6). pp.879-907.
Kovach, M., 2020. Leader Influence: A Research Review of French & Raven’s (1959) Power
Dynamics. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 13(2), p.15.
Kovach, M., 2021. Cinclusion: Female Leaders Using Coercive Power Motivate
Subordinates. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership. 14(2). pp.17-44.
Landells, E. M. and Albrecht, S. L., 2019. Perceived organizational politics, engagement, and
stress: The mediating influence of meaningful work. Frontiers in psychology. 10. p.1612.
Mikkelsen, E. N. and Clegg, S., 2018. Unpacking the meaning of conflict in organizational
conflict research. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. 11(3). pp.185-203.
Sepuru, M., Musonda, I. and Okoro, C.S., 2021. An assessment of factors influencing
collaboration impacts on organisational performance: a review. Collaboration and
integration in construction, engineering, management and technology. pp.321-325.
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