MN5009: Power, Politics, and Conflict: A Tesco Case Study

This report provides an academic analysis of power, politics, and conflict within organizations, focusing on the British multinational retailer Tesco. It begins by defining and exploring various types of power in leadership and business, including coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, expert, and informational power, and their impacts on organizational dynamics. The report then delves into organizational politics, examining its role in influencing employee behavior, performance, and decision-making processes. It highlights how political tactics are used to achieve individual and organizational goals, using examples from Tesco's operational strategies. Furthermore, the report investigates the nature of conflict, differentiating between positive and negative outcomes and linking these to organizational performance and employee morale. The analysis integrates theory with practice, illustrating how different forms of power and conflict management strategies are applied in real-world scenarios. Finally, the report concludes with a reflection on the author's learning experience, highlighting key insights gained and the development of relevant skills and abilities.

BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
Concept of Power in leadership and business....................................................................3
Organizational politics and its role in the company...........................................................5
Nature of conflict and its impact on the outcome of the company.....................................6
Linking theory to practice..................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................7
REFLECTION.............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business and Management are the disciplines devoted to organizing, analyzing, and planning
various types of business operations. These degree programs teach the fundamental skills that
are required to efficiently run or manage a business. Tesco is a British multinational groceries
and general merchandise retailer with headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire,
England, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross
revenues and the ninth-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues. This report covers
issues such as types of power in leadership and business. Role of politics and what it means in
the company and nature of conflict and how it reflects on the outcome of the company. Other
than all of these aspects are linked with a real company that is Tesco in order to achieve the
aim and objectives of the report. Reflection has also been covered in the report which
highlights the learning, importance, abilities of the reporter which is useful. Overall the
reflective statement includes academic, practice and personal.
Concept of Power in leadership and business
Coercive Power-
This type of power is linked with the idea of coercion. This power forces someone in
the company to force someone to do things against their own will. This type of power has its
own objective which is compliance. This type of power is concerned with the obtainment of
compliance. This type of power can be used in many different situations. For instance holding
the rewards and threaten the employees of the company for social exclusion. The power in this
force is associated in a negative manner in relation with the factors such as situation of
conditional reward. On the other hand some of its attributes also lead to positive manner such
as punitive behavior. This power is considered as a power which leads to create problems in
the company. The reason behind that is the personnel in the company who has this form of
power is abused and used in the wrong manner. Most often this power leads to dissatisfaction

among employees at work or an unhealthy environment (Erasmus, Strydom and Rudansky-
Kloppers, 2016).
Reward Power-
This type of power states that ability of individuals matters to the company. Managers
of the company rewards them for their performance as it is believed that employees will work
harder if they get something in return. This form of power helps to maintain the positive
culture. Rewards, appraisals and compliments are the aspects which are included under this
form of power. This power involves one negative factor for the company that if the reward,
compliment is not consist of value then then it will not be considered as valuable form of
power. This form of power has a drawback that if they want to keep this type of power
valuable then they will have to increase the value they offer to their employees so that the
effect of the reward matters to them. If it is offered on a continuous basis it will loose its
effectiveness in the eyes of employees.
Legitimate power-
This type of power is concerned with considering that reward and punishing the
employees of the company is essential. Management has a responsibility to link the feelings or
obligation of employees. Reward and punishment is considered as legitimate. Many of the
managers of different companies use this theory in their company as they believe that it plays
a role in the company. People pursue and take orders from those which position they are fond
of. This form of power has its own drawbacks that is when the individual has lost its power
then he will loose the power too (Nuthall, 2018).
Referent Power-
Individual who has this type of power is often considered as the role model of the
company. The power is perceived by many people in the company. This power begins when a
group of people likes or admire an individual in the company. Leader who possess this type of
power appreciates the environment and culture of the company which is why they easily
influence a lot of changes. This form of power is consist of easy level of responsibility which
can be easily lost. For instance celebrities are the ones who possess this type of power.
Expert Power-
This type of information is related with the information of a topic, knowledge or area
of expertise. Leaders in the company who possess this power is intelligent and they are trusted

which is why companies depend on them to accomplish the roles and responsibilities of the
company. The ability they possess allows them to combine the power of reward in the right
manner. If someone is expert in their job then they can easily persuade other employees who
respect them to take their task and achieve it (Barry, 2017).
Informational Power-
This aspect of power states that individual in the company has information which helps
them to make them think in a different way. Information holded by an individual in the
company must be believable and accepted by others so that others can change in the company.
They need to provide them with reasons so that they can believe the information (Adekola and
Sergi, 2016).
Organizational politics and its role in the company
Organizational behaviors are concerned with the behavior of employees which is self
serving and which helps to increase the power, profitability and achieving the outcomes which
are positive. Sometimes it is informal and sometimes it is unofficial. The influence that the
politics bring on employees of the company leads them to path where they serve their own
interests without being concerned about the effect on the company (Uhl and Gollenia, 2016).
There are several areas by which politics helps the company to identity tactics for
increasing the performance of employees so that they can group or function.
Sources of functional and divisional power is tapped which helps them to recognize who has
the power who can control the factors. This is the reason why Tesco is working on building
alliances and coalitions with the help of outside experts. Managers of the company use the
tactic to be irreplaceable by working on increasing their own skills and abilities such as
knowledge of using the computer or how to make a relationship with their customers so that it
will be easy for them to solve the problems or issues of customers. Mangers of Tesco who are
working at the top level focuses on rising above the position so that they can work on
impressing the directors of the company and be loyal to them so that they can get things
according to them. Apart from this there is another factor which affects the working of the
company. Managers who want to be on committee as they want to influence the decisions
according to their suitability and do not consider those issues which are out of their interest.
Managers work with each other in order to make a coalition so that they can increase the

power, purpose or position of influencing the process of making decisions. The level and state
of political behavior varies from one person to another in Tesco (Parris and et.al., 2016).
Nature of conflict and its impact on the outcome of the company
It is considered as a moment of truth, a test in a crisis that can make the relationship
weak or strong. It is concerned with resentment and psychological scars. Only a few persons
accept the fact that it is not bad and is linked with a life of a person. Conflicts has different
possibilities that is positive and negative. If the outcome of a conflict is positive then it will
help the company to take creative decisions which are better for the company. For instance
manager of Tesco may learn new technologies and gain the knowledge of their working from
employees so that they can solve the problems in new way which is not predicted (Buil,
Catalán and Martínez, 2016). Outcomes which are positive-
 Idea with a broad thinking helps to develop a strong and better idea.
 Assumptions and predictions which may not be accurate.
 Rise in the stages of creativity and participation (Maunder, 2019).
 Clearing the view of every employee in the company so that they can increase the level
of learning.
There are conflicts which involves attacks and tactics which are underhanded which leads to
negative outcomes such as
 Increase in the level of anxiety and stress in the employees which leads to decrease in
the sum of production and level of satisfaction in work.
 This leads to develop feelings in employees which is linked with defeat, demeaned and
affects the morale of the employees.
 Rise in the level of conflicts will lead to mistrust among employees which will affect
the teamwork and cooperative thinking so that they can get the work completed
(Foster, O'Reilly and Dávila, 2016).
Linking theory to practice
There are many forms of power and different companies choose it according to their
suitability. Tesco implements reward and expert power in their culture. They believe that with
the help of reward power they will remain motivated and with the help of expert power they
can rely on experts in the company and assign them the task to accomplish them which will

help them to increase their productivity and profitability. Politics in the company is used so
that an individual can influence someone in order to attain high power in the company and
take decisions which are best for his own interest. This will reflect a negative influence on the
business of the company. Nature of conflict relies on the moment of truth. It is considered as it
leads to positive as well as negative outcomes but mostly it leads to negative outcome which
makes the culture of the company negative and makes the job unsatisfied for the employees of
Tesco. It will create difficulties in mistrusting the employees of the company which will
create difficulties for them to achieve their goals and objectives (Davis and Comeau, 2020).
CONCLUSION
From the above studies it has been concluded that all the aims and objectives are achieved in
this report. The aim and objectives of the report was to highlight the nature of the conflict and
its impact on the outcome of the company. Politics in an company and its role which was to
work for the benefit of their own instead of working for the benefit of the company. This
report also highlights a reflection which includes the learning and enhancement of skills which
has been made possible with the help of the report. The project has helped to understand that it
is important to work for the interest of the company instead of working for their own. Other
than this it is necessary that the employees are ethics and morale. It has also helped to
understand that in which areas the skills and abilities of the researcher has been enhanced and
how it has helped him to boost his confidence.
REFLECTION
I have learned that there are six different types of power such as coercive power,
reward power, referent power, legitimate power, information power and expert power. I
analyzed that these theories has a huge impact on the working of the company. If the right type
of power is not implemented in the culture of the company according to their nature of the
company. If the right type of power is not implemented in the company then the managers will
misuse it for their own interest and company would have to go through less amount of profits.
I have learned that an individual in the company will loose his power when he looses his
position and that reward power is considered as weakest of them all. Politics in a company
sometimes leads to increase in production but it affects the internal department of the company
as mostly politics in an organization is concerned with fulfilling those needs which is for the
interest of their own rather than what things will help the company to achieve their expected

outcomes. I learned that conflicts has both positive and negative impact in the company which
can twist the outcome of goals and objectives. I learned that positive conflicts can lead to
increase in turnover but negative conflict can lead to drastic changes in the performance of
employees such as increase in level of stress and anxiety which distracts them from focusing
on the work. In order to reduce the amount of conflicts managers of the company need to have
an effective control which states that any conflict ill not be formidable and strict actions will
be taken.
It is because of the politics in the company that I was able to improve my skills of
communication which has helped me to engage in a conversation with other people and solve
their queries so that customers remain a part of the company for a long period of time and they
get a chance to serve them for a long period of time. I have learned how to critically analyze
the subject and what measures are needed to be taken so that they can easily attain the
objectives of the task. While conducting and encrypting this report I improved my skills of
writing which I thought was not possible for me. I had to form sentences again and again and
proofread the whole draft in order to take out all the errors which made me realize at which
point I was wrong and this has helped me to reduce the errors that I was making at some
stages.
I have learned that these three topics has increased my knowledge as know I know the
culture and working of an internal department which has helped me to understand where to
make the necessary changes when I pursue my career because I believe that it will help me to
take forward in my career. I believe after analyzing all this I will be a leader with morale who
believes in ethics and follows the code of conduct of the company. All the practice which are
unethical will be avoided by me. I will try my best not to misuse any type of power which I
will be getting and work for the interest of the company so that my work gets recognized and I
can be a role model to my fellow employees. I believe that more my work inspires them more
the company will be able to achieve their goals and objectives. It is important for me to follow
the power in the right manner as I have learned that it reflects the whole personality of an
individual and if it is not used in the right manner then the day I lost my position I will loose
my power.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
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outcomes of a capstone ERP-based undergraduate e-business management
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Routledge.
Nuthall, P.L., 2018. Farm business management: the human factor. CABI.
Erasmus, B., Strydom, J.W. and Rudansky-Kloppers, S. eds., 2016. Introduction to business
management. Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Uhl, A. and Gollenia, L.A. eds., 2016. A handbook of business transformation management
methodology. Routledge.
Maunder, W.J., 2019. The human impact of climate uncertainty: weather information,
economic planning, and business management. Routledge.
Foster, G., O'Reilly, N. and Dávila, A., 2016. Sports business management: Decision making
around the globe. Routledge.
Barry, W.S., 2017. Airline Management: Business Management in Transport 3. Routledge.
Parris, D.L., and et.al., 2016. Exploring transparency: a new framework for responsible business
management. Management Decision.
Buil, I., Catalán, S. and Martínez, E., 2016. The importance of corporate brand identity in business
management: An application to the UK banking sector. BRQ Business Research
Quarterly, 19(1), pp.3-12.