Examining Leadership, Power, Politics, and Conflict in Organizations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership, power, politics, and conflict within organizations, using Tesco as a case study. It explores the concept of power in leadership and business, detailing French and Raven's 6 Bases of Power (coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, expert, and informational) and their application within Tesco. The report also examines organizational politics through metaphors like 'the woods,' 'the high grounds,' 'the weeds,' and 'the rocks,' highlighting how politics can be used for personal gain and how Tesco manages these situations. Furthermore, it addresses the nature of conflict within the workplace, its causes, and its impact on employee performance, suggesting strategies for conflict resolution. A reflective statement summarizes the key learnings from the module, emphasizing the importance of understanding power dynamics, organizational politics, and conflict management for effective leadership and business growth.

Leadership & Leading

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Concept of power and leadership in business..............................................................................3
Politics.........................................................................................................................................5
Conflict........................................................................................................................................6
Reflective Statement....................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is an ability in an individual to guide and direct group of people and
individual from where people can perform the tasks in effective manner and can result
accordingly. Leader has a responsibility and a duty of leading people from where they can be
able to understand the tasks in definite manner and can empower and accelerate the growth of the
particular company in respective manner. Tesco is a multinational grocery organization which is
headquartered in United Kingdom. The company is operating in different countries and has
number of stores approximately 4670 over the world.
However, the report will illustrate the role of power, politics and conflicts within the
Tesco and how the company manage these areas in definite manner and leads the company to
grow and develop at successful level (Scholvin and Wigell, 2018). A brief analysis of these
concepts will be performed and discussed where it will explain the concept of power in
leadership and business along with organizational politics and what roles it plays. Moreover, it
will mention the nature of the conflict and how it was created and what impact does it have on
the outcome. Also, a reflective statement will be performed in relation to learnings and abilities
which will be grab during the analysis.
MAIN BODY
Concept of power and leadership in business
The power of leadership can be described as the influence of leaders on the minds and
hearts of the followers (Kovach, 2020). If the leaders are efficient and courageous enough, they
can easily influence and encourage the employees of an organization or their followers to work
effectively within the company and help the organization in achieving their organizational goals
and also enhance their personal growth and development as an individual. The French and
Raven’s 6 Bases of Power in relation to the Tesco Plc. have been explained below:
Coercive power
This power can be defined as the pressure or force used by the leading authorities and
people that are in the superior position in the company. The power that is used by the
organization over their employees in the form of threat or force so that they could comply with
policies and boundaries of the organization. This kind of force might include physical, political,
social, economic, and emotional means. The brand image of the companies that makes use of
Coercive power is not good within the market. However, it has been determined that the Tesco

Plc. may use this power only when they feel that their employees have been involved within an
activity that is not suitable for the company or they have been involved in misconducts.
Reward power
A power which provides the company with an authority to offer someone or their
employees with certain kinds of rewards. This kind of power if used by an organization is
appreciated by their employees within the company (Parmer, and Dillard Jr, 2018). It is to be
noted that this power is practiced within the Tesco Plc for the purpose of encouraging and
motivating their existing workforce. The Tesco Plc. introduces different kinds of rewards which
includes promoting the employees, recognizing and rewarding the efforts made by the workforce
in order to encourage them to achieve the organizational objectives of the company.
Legitimate power
This power can be divided into different categories which includes position, equity,
dependence, reciprocity. The position power is developed and asks the employees at lower level
management to be obedient to employees who are in the superior position within the company.
The reciprocity is used so that the company can get the returns from the employees just as they
are providing the needed to their employees. The equity includes providing the employees with
the required compensation for the efforts that they have put within the company. It has been
determined that all of these powers are used by the Tesco Plc. so that they can motivate their
existing workforce for the organizational benefit. Also, use of these powers helps them in
enhancing the performance of the organization within the market.
Referent power
This kind of power is used for the purpose of referring or affiliating someone within the
group or the company in which the person belongs. The use of this power can be either positive
or negative impact on the performance of an organization. The positive outcome of this power is
that it uses the personal connection among the employees in order to enhance the organizational
development of the company (Enslin, 2020). On the other hand, the negative outcome might
include a person that has joined in the company on the basis of someone’s reference might not be
able to achieve and contribute to the organizational success. It has been identified that this power
is practiced within the Tesco Plc but only those references are considered that are actually
capable for carrying out the assigned task.
Expert power

This power refers to those individuals who have certain level of skills, expertise and
relent in the required field. When an employee who is the higher position within an organization
uses his skills and knowledge for the purpose of guiding the workforce or the new joiners within
the company, it helps the company in the attainment of their organizational growth and also help
the company in boosting the knowledge and morale of the fresher’s in the organization. Also, it
helps in the personal development of individuals. The Tesco plc. has the culture where the
employees that have the required skills and experience within a particular department guides the
fresher’s so that they could learn the same immediately.
Informational power
This is the last base of power that can be used by the company in order to bring the
necessary changes within the organization. In this base of power, the management of the
company provides the employees with the information that they are going to change within the
company as a whole (Dirik, 2021). This is done so that the employees can get the tome to
prepare themselves for the changes that will be taking place within the company. Same is done
within the Tesco Plc.
Politics
Organizational politics can be described as informal and unofficial efforts made by the
employees within a company externally in order to achieve their targeted goals with respect to
the company. The organizational politics is practiced within different companies by individuals
in several situations. The 4 metaphors of the organizational politics have been explained below:
The woods
Each and every organization has its own process of carrying out the organizational
activities, hidden assumptions, unsaid routines that are not informed to the employees when they
join the company. Therefore, there are times when the employees join a company with a positive
intent, however, gets lost within the woods i.e., the burden of the company.
The high grounds
The high grounds refer to the rules, policies, structures, and guidelines of the company.
These policies and procedures that are formulated within the company that helps the organization
in in controlling the management of the company as a whole (Ferris, Rand et.al 2019). Here, the
company makes use of rules in order to align the activities with the goals of the company.
The weeds

This includes the relations of an organization with the people that do not belong to the
company but might have significant impact on the position and market reputation of the
company in the market.
The rocks
The rocks can be defined as the power an individual hold within the company among the
other employees with respect to the title, position, expertise, knowledge or the access to the
company’s resources. This helps the company in stabilizing their position in the market during
the tough times.
However, it has been determined that the politics is practised within companies including
the Tesco Plc. for the purpose of the personal benefit and advantage of an employee and not the
organizational benefits (Khuwaja, and et.al 2020). For instance, there are times when an
employee might steal a creative idea that was shared by one of his colleagues to him. In this case,
the employee who stole the idea has done so because of his own personal advantage in the
company. In order to avoid happening of such cases, the management of the Tesco Plc. makes
use of rules and regulations and use coercive power and the high ground politics so the interest
of employees can be protected within the company.
Conflict
A disagreement between two individuals or a difference the opinions presented by two
people can be defined as a conflict. It has been determined that the conflict can take any form or
shape within a company. The conflict might take place between two colleagues, or the employer
and employee or the senior or subordinate with respect to the interpersonal or intrapersonal
reasons.
For instance, it has been observed that within the Tesco plc., there are times when the employees
have a conflict with their senior at the workplace (Crawford, and et.al 2019). The major reasons
behind this is that the employees with a leading and reputed position try to order and ask the
subordinate to carry out the assigned tasks in a manner in which they specifically want it to be
done. Therefore, it has been observed that this affects the working environment as well as the
performance of the employees working within the company.
It has been analysed that here, the management and the employees on the leading
positions needs to become a little flexible and allow the subordinates to work in a way that helps
in achieving the company’s goals and objectives within a stipulated timeframe. This in turn will

help the higher level management in improving the performance of their employees and
enhancing the overall profitability of the company. Also, the employers and other superior level
management needs to be always available for their lower level employees in order to provide
them with the required guidance and help them in achieving goals and targets that have been set
by the company. For the same, the company also needs to conduct training and development
programs so the employees can be guided and trained with respect to the policies of the
company.
Reflective Statement
During the module, I understand the concepts of power, politics and conflicts within the
organization which plays an important role in the growth and development of the business.
Within the organization leadership is the important factor which needs to be considered by an
individual organization from where they can acquire the effective results and outcomes
(Savolainen, 2022). In the module, I learned that company's need to adopt different kinds of
leadership styles from where they can implement that particular power within the company at
specific situation and can obtain the effective results as well. The module has been mentioned the
power which makes me learn about the different styles such as coercive, reward, legitimate,
expert, referent and informational power. These all power provides delivers the different
meaning and suitable for different situations within the workplace (Mishra and Kodwani, 2019).
By adopting the knowledge about the model French and Raven's form of power will help me a
lot in my future career and growth and can implement these power at the workplace from which I
can be able to improve my leadership abilities and skills as well.
Along with this, I learned about the organizational politics which also leads me to grab
the knowledge in effective manner and can grow the company. It simply refers as a variety of
activities which is associated with the use of influence from where the organizational interests
and personal interests can be improved in definite order (Jensen, 2020). By keeping focus over
the politics which has been performed within the company will let me know about the areas of
improvements and how it can be reduced in effective manner and can save the company
environment to get filled with negativity and inappropriate surrounding. I understand the factors
which affects the productivity of the company and how to control the workplace politics and
build a positive working environment which will help me to lead the company to grow and
develop at successful level. Along with this, I was able to grab the knowledge of the conflicts

which takes place within the workplace in regard with different situations and leads the company
to obtain negative outcome (Bettiza and Lewis, 2020). For overcoming the conflicts at the
workplace I will identify the issues and problems and figure out the appropriate solution for the
conflicts and also motivates the employees to get connect with each other as it will also reduce
the conflicts in the organization.
Throughout the module, I learned the different factors and its role and impact over the
business and able to understand the importance of the skills like leadership, patience, confidence
and knowledge which will help me a lot in my future career and growth. There are different
leadership styles where I learned that in different situations it is my duty to analyse the problem
in effective manner and create an environment where employees can directly connect with me
and I can resolve their issues and problems in effective manner (James and Bennett, 2022).
However, in my career I will use the power in definite manner by understanding the
circumstances and will find out which particular power will be suitable for the particular
situation and can benefit the people and workplace accordingly. It is important for an individual
leader to understand the different types of power from where they can handle and control the
situation in definite manner and can also motivate the people accordingly which overall put the
great impact over the performance of the organization.
CONCLUSION
The above mentioned report has concluded the importance of leadership and its role and
responsibilities within a workplace. Leadership plays a crucial role in the growth and
development of the organization and delivers the profitable outcome and results. In this report, a
brief analysis of the theories and concepts has been performed and provided the definite
information and knowledge in the appropriate manner. It focuses on the three factors which are
power, politics and conflicts in regard with the business and how essentials these factors are for
the betterment of the firm. However, an academic analysis has been done in the above mentioned
study and discussed the concept of power in leadership along with the appropriate theory. Also,
an explanation of organizational politics also takes place highlighting its role and duties within
the business enterprises. In addition, it described the nature of the conflict and its creation and
impact on the outcome for the organization which overall affects the business performance. At
the last of the report, a reflective part has been mentioned which includes the learnings and skills
which have been learned from the analysis.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bettiza, G. and Lewis, D., 2020. Authoritarian powers and norm contestation in the liberal
international order: Theorizing the power politics of ideas and identity. Journal of
Global Security Studies. 5(4), pp.559-577.
Crawford, W.S., and et.al 2019. Organizational politics and deviance: exploring the role of
political skill. Human Performance. 32(2). pp.92-106.
Dirik, D., 2021. Leader power bases and perceived leader effectiveness: conservation of gender
stereotypes. Current Psychology. 40(12). pp.6175-6186.
Enslin, D., 2020. An Exploration of the Various Power Bases and their Influence on Employee
Motivation. The IIE.
Ferris, G.Rand 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 behaviour. 6. pp.299-323.
James, A.H. and Bennett, C.L., 2022. Power, Politics and Leadership. Clinical Leadership in
Nursing and Healthcare. p.385.
Jensen, J.L., 2020. The Medieval Internet: Power, politics and participation in the digital age.
Emerald Group Publishing.
Khuwaja, U., and et.al 2020. Leadership and employee attitudes: The mediating role of
perception of organizational politics. Cogent Business & Management. 7(1). p.1720066.
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.
Mishra, P. and Kodwani, A.D., 2019. Moderating role of employee engagement on conflict–
politics relationship. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Parmer, L.L. and Dillard Jr, J.E., 2018. The way employees are treated predict power
feelings. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Savolainen, R., 2022. Cognitive authority as an instance of informational and expert
power. Libri. 72(1), pp.1-12.
Scholvin, S. and Wigell, M., 2018. Power politics by economic means: Geoeconomics as an
analytical approach and foreign policy practice. Comparative Strategy. 37(1), pp.73-84.
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