Role of Power, Politics and Conflicts in Organizations: A Case Study of Tesco, UK

Leadership and Leading

Table of Contents
Introduction:..............................................................................................................3
Impact of power, politics and conflicts in the organization:.....................................3
Role of power in organization:..............................................................................3
Role of politics in the organization:......................................................................5
Role of Conflicts in an organization:.....................................................................8
Conclusion:................................................................................................................9
Personal Learning:.....................................................................................................9
References:..............................................................................................................11

Introduction:
This report focuses on the role of power, politics and conflicts in the
organization. This discusses various types of power which top level management
executes in order to get things done by people. Moreover, it discusses various types
of power used in the businesses such as legitimate, reward, coercive, referent, and
expert which ultimately helps to accomplish goals of the organization. Besides this,
it discusses the role of politics in the business concern and how it can be well
managed to increase the profit levels of the business. This report also explains
reasons of conflicts in the organization and how it can be reduced to a large extent.
This report takes Tesco, UK as an example and how this organization uses these
related concepts to improve the productivity of concern.
Impact of power, politics and conflicts in the organization:
Role of power in organization:
In relation to organization, it is the ability of getting things done from
others. It is beneficial from the business perspective where managers assigns tasks
and responsibilities to others and make them perform those activities. It is the role
performed by leader to guide employees what to do to achieve the organizational
objectives. An organization uses various sources of power such as legitimate
power which means top level executives have power over juniors working under
them. So, basically an employee who gets expertise in certain field have enough
knowledge on subject matter which gives them power over the ones who lacks in
that knowledge. (Bollens, 2021) It is ensuring employees fulfilling their
commitment and compliance in the business organization. Moreover, it helps in
avoiding resistance among coworkers and make sure they work in harmony which
would lead to productivity in the organization.
There are various types of power used in the organizations as suggested by John R.
P French and Bertram Raven:
 Legitimate power: Here, managers and top level executives are having
certain powers with respect to employees working under them due to
having expertise in the particular field. As per this, manager assigns

projects, framed certain policies and procedures to be followed by
workforce and many more. Besides this, employees do have certain rights
which are granted by federal laws such as employees can straightaway
refuse to take on unsafe work or tolerate harassment.
 Reward power: It is a type of power which is assigned to the leader to give
rewards on the basis of performance. It means manager will give reward for
good performance and punish in case if they failed to fulfill their
obligations. They give monetary or non monetary rewards to their
employees for their good performance.
 Coercive power: It means management has power to punish the employees
in the organization if they haven’t accomplished the task or have not
performed according to the norms. It is not generally practiced in
organization or rarely used at the times of crisis.
 Expert power: It is a type of power which comes with getting expertise in
subject matter. It is achieved by getting experiences and trainings in
relevant field. For instance, inventory manager has knowledge regarding
sales repetitive needs which gives power over another one. When one has
knowledge which other seeks, this gives the power to lead over others.
 Referent power: It means likability of the person as a leader. It is ability to
influence and inspire others. It comes from the personal qualities and traits
which a leader possesses. Moreover, one should have charming personality
to attract others and become role model who deserves to be admired and
respected by others.
Advantage of using power in an organization:
Changes: Managing the information becomes challenging when organization
increases in size, so for managers allow power structures to play role in
organization. Otherwise, it becomes difficult for the business to grow and improve.
It is important for the businesses to make changes as per market trends otherwise
they would not be able to survive for long term. So, power of top management
comes in play. As people working in lower positions respects top executives
advices and behavior due to which they get easily convinced to accept those
changes. So it is used in many ways and management uses it the best to
company’s advantage. (Bryson, 2018)