An In-depth Report on Power, Politics, and Conflict in Leadership

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership, power, organizational politics, and conflict within business organizations. It examines the concept of power in leadership using models like Machiavelli’s 'The Prince' and French and Raven’s 6 Bases of Power, highlighting how leaders use power to influence personnel and achieve business goals. The report defines organizational politics, relating it to theory and providing examples of both positive and negative political behaviors within companies like Sainsbury and Asda. Furthermore, it explains the nature of conflict, analyzing its creation due to factors like poor communication and differing values, and evaluates its outcomes, both positive (increased creativity) and negative (increased stress), on organizational performance. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective power usage by leaders and managers to foster a positive working environment.

LEADERSHIP & LEADING

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Discussing the concept of Power in leadership and business by using different module for
study e.g. Machiavelli’s The Prince, French and Raven’s 6 Bases of Power.............................3
Defining organizational politics and relating to theory, also describing roles of organizational
politics by giving examples.........................................................................................................6
Explaining the nature of the conflict, analysing creation of conflicts and evaluating its
outcome on organization..............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFLECTIVE STATEMENT.........................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is considered as one of those strategic elements that provide a lot of benefits to the
organizations, whether they are small or large, public or private. With this element, a leader felt
capable to lead team of skilled and talented candidates, who are able to achieve strategic aim and
objectives. Leadership is defined as capability of an individual such as a leader, which enable
them to influence others and enhance their performance level, which in turn provide key
advantages to everyone in bulk. This form of capability allow leaders to motivate others and
enhance their productivity level which is quite important for them to do so in systematic and
effective manner. The current assignment will be based on real examples of companies. The
study will explain concept of power in business and leadership with implication of strategic
model. It will also define organizational politics and their impact on specific example of a
company. Furthermore, the report will justify the nature of conflict and how was it created and
what affect does it have on results for firm. Lastly, it will define reflective statement that is based
on learning related to power, politics & conflict on current module.
MAIN BODY
Discussing the concept of Power in leadership and business by using different module for study
e.g. Machiavelli’s The Prince, French and Raven’s 6 Bases of Power
Power is considered as the important part in leadership for running various business
organizations. Leaders use power for influencing the personnels in company. It helps in
enhancing the ability of the leaders. Leading individuals of company use power as it helps in
attaining business goals effectively. In organizational context leaders use the power for achieving
individuals team, better and greater performance, which helps in making important decisions
ensuring the vital concept of company (Tian, 2021). Leaders have following power in
organization at various aspects of working it mainly includes :power of position, power of
relationship, information, expertise, punishment, and rewards. These all are the general power
which influences the followers. The leaders power help in encouraging and building self-
improvement and team building which promotes positive work culture. Power in business helps

in functioning organization which influences behaviour, attitudes and relies on contribution
which helps in dealing with changes. The role of power in corporates relates to the ability for
getting things done by others. There are various power being used by manger in organization and
managing day to day activities of business which comprises legitimate power, reward power,
coercive power, expert power and referent power.
French and Raven’s 6 Bases of Power
This model explains the effective power categorized in 6 concepts which shows that
influence of power o leadership affects success of business. This model mainly specifies the
social power as the key influencing component which influence others.
 Coercive power : this power is induced by leaders , as they have the potential ability
which forces the employees for operating something and threatening them for not
performing according to expectations (French and Raven’s Forms of Power, 2021). With
this power the mangers influence individual personnel and giving punishment for
motivating employees for complying with the power.
 Rewards power: This power is also used by mangers and leaders, where the additional
monetary and non monetary benefits are given to employees as it can also be promotion,
bonuses, within company.
 Legitimate power: This power is induced by the higher position held organization . In
this the individual is given authority for holding a particular position in company in
which gives right to decision regarding business issues and concerned system.
 Expert power: This power is exercised with the person ability and expertise in particular
skills and competence which helps in influencing others which is not acquired by others.
 Referent power: This power is derived from the perceives value and worthiness (Dirik,
2021). This is exercised by leader as he has the ability for influencing follower by
administration, and resect as a part of leader. Where the leaders moulds the behaviour of
individual according o hid liking and conduct the activities of followers.
 Informational power: It is the power ascertained about the information , where if the
person have certain information related to some concepts, that individual has the access
to the other according to the power of information.
Examples : Tesco supermarkets retailer company, the leader is following reward and
referent power which influences and guides the company employees for performing better

working as a referent person (Importance of Leadership in Tesco, 2021). Moreover, leader of
Tesco also provides various monetary incentives as a reward such as annual bonus, share
incentives to employees) which promotes and motivates the company worker by providing
various incentives as bonus, additional profits for Over time-work, also providing additional
reward for better working by employees which help in engaging personnel and performing
actively and induces more engagement in work.
Also the coercive power is being followed by the various big companies leraders , one of
them is bill gates where he uses to visits various new stores for tracking products and
questioning continuous;y until satisfies with team members and also punishes team for not
performing with expectations. Further more, whewlett-packard, the company leader has mainly
known for using extensive use of management system, where the leader of the forces employees
for working, also punishes them for not operating according to desired expectations , These are
called as a transactional leader.
Machiavelli’s The Prince
The book name with the prince Machiavellian devotes the extended analysis for acquiring
and maintaining the political power to the political leader, who is mainly devoted towards
politics and worked on various principalities by giving proper information about the politics
according to Machiavelli’s prince, power is defines as the political activity which is necessary
for being as successful and established leaders, prince also believed that by proper applying
power individual can achieves and obey to the leader and also maintains the taste of safety and
security (Lafta, Hassan and Al-Manaseer, 2021). The prince has also believes that the goodness
and thoughts are not enough for win the and maintain political department. The prince political
they explain that good laws are regarded as the foundation for applying well-ordered political
system also by concentrating with force. For the prince people are induces to obey purely with
the defence power of superior state. Also, with the view point of Machiavellian that politics can
only be designed in terms with coercive power, as the right for commanding has no independent
status. Thus, prince is simply the realistic person which describes matters and ethics and politics.
Defining organizational politics and relating to theory, also describing roles of organizational
politics by giving examples.
Organisational politics refers to informal ways for influencing the company management.
Mainly concerning the individual which impact company in achieving the desired objective for

reaching to the desired gaols. Politics of company mainly influences the tactics and activities
pertaining in organization. Most time employers in company uses the politics for misusing the
authority, for gaining popularity and impact . Is generally started by the employees for many of
reasons as for not working hard, cannot resist to changes and adapt them , because of some
personal concerns, lack of clear information, jealous, trust issues and blame game, nor proper
rewards system.
The politics in company has major effects on business operations performance : as it
decrease the productivity of employees as employees are engaged in gossiping, rumouring,
criticizing other which will leads in lowering productivity for achieving targets within stipulated
time frame. Also, it creates negative surroundings for everyone working in organization which
impact the efficiency level of employees. The politics also demotivated the employees for
performing the demotivated things by the employees. The organization politics resulted to the
intentional enhancement of the self-interest which will affect the decision related process .
Examples of different organization in context of politics : as related with the positive
politics includes the enhancing the image professionally, accomplishing the tasks voluntarily in
company also complementing other achievement willingly. Some negative politics mainly stated
by individual for achieving the personal gain by just spreading rumours, back bitching,
interpreting wrong information. As for instance the employees of retail company Sainsbury, is
positively building and enhances the brands image, establishes better relations the customers and
establishing the healthy relations and creating high quality of products by discovering the better
opportunities and helps in achieving vision of company (Organisational Politics – Definition,
Meaning, Reasons And Effects, 2022).
Further more if the employee of company plays good deeds for influencing others will
give positive advantage and build better interpersonal relations with other employees which will
improves efficiency and morale. Whereas with the negatively politics in company example of
Asda company, one of the employee is gossiping to other employee for harming and spoiling the
image of co-worker in crucial way for spoiling image in front of everyone considered as a
manipulative way of politics . Also, watching the co-worker making mistake for competing
project then complaining directly to the boss for errors made by co-worker for correcting error.

Explaining the nature of the conflict, analysing creation of conflicts and evaluating its outcome
on organization
By its nature, conflict is defined as procedure of receding and polarization chance. It can
be said that when two individual or parties are in conflict, they may characteristically move to
opposite directions of a problem (Marcinkowski, Bell and Roma, 2021). Perspective differences
is also considered as the main reason behind conflict at workplace among employees and
management may lead to decrease productivity and performance level. Conflict in a firm might
be constructive for a venture, it may affect negatively upon individuals effectiveness and their
work as well.
Conflict arises between two or more person for some disagreement and for controversial
power distribution, also arises because of some clashes with the opinions and ideas. Conflicts in
organization are created because of following reasons: The poor communication regarded as
lack of information, incorrect information between two or more persons results in conflicts of
opinion between the employees and the management. Also, vales conflicts results in the changes
in personalty and values will arise conflicts as the individuals with different values and
personality will not agree on the working with shared and common goals and tasks (Ahmed and
et.al., 2021). Further more when the roles and responsibilities of an individual are not clear for
performing the job assigned will result in conflicts with the opinions and miscommunication of
information. Also, the conflicts in organization arises because of employees behaving in
unethical ways, by using abusive language, violating policies and rules and discriminating other
individual will arise conflicts between employees and personnels performing task.
Outcome of various conflicts in organization includes : conflicts are the disagreements of
opinions, values, between two or more individual which will cause the dissatisfying the opposite
individuals. The positive conflict between individuals will increase the creativity and decision-
making ability for solving issues will also provide better solutions for problems. Moreover,
enhances the group performance, team work and provides new approaches to solve various
issues (Ferine, Aditia and Rahmadana, 2021). Negative outcome of conflicts in organization
includes increasing in stress level and anxiety which will diminishes performance and
productivity of personnels, also the conflicts will hinders trust.

CONCLUSION
By summing up above discussion, it has been summarized that by using their power in
effective and systematic way, leader and manager has created positive working environment in
the organization. They had taken varied approaches to retain and acquire skilled people, who are
working with them and for organization, for purpose of achieving set aim & objectives. The
utilization of power regarding any activity and practice affected positively upon candidates
performance. They had taken pleasure of working within such an amazing company where
management had conducted their efforts to resolve conflict in the work area and focused on
boosting employees morale. Furthermore, from above analysis, it has been identified that French
& Raven model implication has provided 6 different types of power that has been utilized in a
company by the leaders in specific manner. By implementing or applying this model, leader in
the organization has taken initiative to use their power in appropriate manner, instead of
misusing that because it had affected negatively upon business growth and success. Moreover, it
also determined that by understanding the reason behind conflict creation, they had taken
approaches to eliminate the factors, which is important and beneficial for brand as well as
candidates success.
REFLECTIVE STATEMENT
On a specific module, individual person learned varied things as they are accountable to
take part in it. Like them, I have also learned several things and develop my understanding
regarding certain concepts. For example, I have gained knowledge about power, which falls
under the list of those factors or forces that put direct impact on success, practices and current
activities of individual candidate that may take approach to achieve organizational aim and
objectives. Power is specific force that allow leaders to put impact on business, workers and
other stakeholders (Ocasio, Pozner and Milner, 2020). The usage of power in a company
depends on user, who are accountable to utilize that such as leader, manager, high authority and
others. Along with above term, I have developed my understanding about politics that also
influence the way people work in an organization, with whom and in which manner. When a
leader appraise or motivate specific group of candidates, instead of those who deserve that, it
may put negative impact on their efficiency, morale and confidence level (Yang, 2017). It is the
best example of politics that played by the leaders or other stakeholders in varied companies
either private or public. I have developed comprehending about conflict that arise mostly

between management or high authority and candidates whether they are new or existing, because
of perspective differences and other reasons. It can be said that there are varied form of factors
accessible in the world of business that has created conflict in the organizations and put direct
impact on their growth in negative manner.
On the current module, I had conducted research based on multiple concepts and topics,
for purpose of collecting useful and appropriate information. While taking initiative to do that I
had developed or learned varied skills. For instance, I have learnt critical analysis as a skill that
most of the learners have and utilized in order to achieve strategic aim and objectives, whether
they are short, long or medium. Along with this, I have also learnt academic writing skills,
because I am accountable to write the context in systematic and understanding way, which allow
reader to comprehend overall information about certain concepts. I will use these two form of
skills in effective manner further to reach desire outcome.
With above learning, I have also learnt about myself in relation to what I have studied on
the module. For example, I had learned effective communication skills that I have and able to use
appropriately. With this skill I had gathered info about the impact of power, politics and conflict
upon those who are working in a company and play vital role in their growth more than the
rivals. While taking initiative to collect data about conflict and other factors, I felt that I have
increased my confidence level. I felt able to share my knowledge with other who will use that
according to the situation and effort to solve any conflict. I will use power in my career and job
ethically, without making any differences between current and new employees.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmed, S.S and et.al., 2021. IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE ON CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT ON JOB SATISFACTION. PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of
Egypt/Egyptology. 18(09). pp.1396-1400.
Dirik, D., 2021. Leader power bases and perceived leader effectiveness: conservation of gender
stereotypes. Current Psychology.40(12). pp.6175-6186.
Ferine, K. F., Aditia, R. and Rahmadana, M. F., 2021. An empirical study of leadership,
organizational culture, conflict, and work ethic in determining work performance in Indonesia's
education authority. Heliyon. 7(7). p.e07698.
Lafta, H. T., Hassan, H. and Al-Manaseer, F. A. J., 2021. A Critical Discourse Analysis of Bases
of Power and InfluenceTactics in Trump's 2018 Speechat the UnitedNations. Annals of the
Romanian Society for Cell Biology. pp.6692-6706.
Marcinkowski, M. A., Bell, S. T. and Roma, P. G., 2021. The nature of conflict for teams in
isolated, confined, and extreme environments. Acta Astronautica. 181. pp.81-91.
Ocasio, W., Pozner, J. E. and Milner, D., 2020. Varieties of political capital and power in
organizations: A review and integrative framework. Academy of management annals. 14(1).
pp.303-338.
Tian, M., 2021. Power Bases and Power Tensions: A Critical Analysis of Education Inspection
Policies and Practices in China. Leadership and Policy in Schools.20(1). pp.6-20.
Yang, F., 2017. Better understanding the perceptions of organizational politics: its impact under
different types of work unit structure. European Journal of Work and Organizational
Psychology. 26(2). pp.250-262.
Online
French and Raven’s Forms of Power. 2021. [Online] Available Through
<https://worldofwork.io/2019/08/french-and-ravens-forms-of-power/>
Importance of Leadership in Tesco. 2021. [Online] Available Through:
<https://eduzaurus.com/free-essay-samples/importance-of-leadership-in-tesco/>
Organisational Politics – Definition, Meaning, Reasons And Effects. 2022. [Online]. Available
Through: <https://www.marketing91.com/organisational-politics/>