Five types of Power which can be applied at Tesco
Write about the Leadership in Business for Services Industries Journal.
Power is usually considered to be the authority of the individual to influence the decision and activities that are performed with the organisation (Seaton & Waterson, 2013). It is also understood to be as the ability to impact others and it is usually illegitimate or not need to be legitimate. In any organisation there are several ways in which an organisation has distributed power within the organisation. It has a great relationship with the organisational structure that is used within the Tesco. There are various kinds of powers that exist in Tesco as classified by John French and Bertram Raven. All this type of power can be utilised by the managers of Tesco so as to bring efficiency in the work process. It also helps in making sure that no kinds of conflicts arise among the stakeholders of the firm because of unrealistic distribution of power. In many ways it is also seen that there are many people who enjoys power sitting at the top of the Tesco management. Raven and French have properly descried and differentiated the type of powers (Daft, 2014). They both suggested that manager draws power from five distinct sources. They described that there are five types or sources of power that can be used by the managers of Tesco are as follows:
Reward power: It is usually understood to be as the ability of manager or agents to control the rewards that employees expects from the company. It is usually considered as the ability to ensure benefit for the organisation by limiting the price that has to be paid in terms of rewards that is usually demanded by the employees (Samantara & Sharma, 2015). For example Tesco’s managers could use it for controlling the additional costing on rewards in terms of bonuses, promotions or increase in salary. It is usually found that workers demand for extremely high salaries and bonuses and managers of Tesco can use their reward power to limit it.
Coercive power: It is another kind of power that is usually considered to be somewhat opposite from the reward power. It is usually understood to be the ability of the manager to bring an unpleasant experience for its employees. This kind of power is usually used in almost all the organisations. In the organisational situation, it can be in the form of taking certain kind of action against anything wrong or threatening him with suspension and demotion for the individuals that are working in firm (Samantara & Sharma, 2014). For example the managers of Tesco can use it in the case when employees do not work as per the guidelines or are very unprofessional towards conducting operations within the firm. This is used by the Berian who is a bakery manager at Tesco to make sure that people work in the way their management wants them to work. Coercive power usually is a negative power but is highly efficient in getting things done on time.
Leading Change in an organization
Legitimate power: This is understood to be the power that is based on the mutual agreement as well as position they are in within the organisation. The higher the position of the manager in the firm, the higher the legitimate power he or she has. It is a kind of mutual consent where the agent and the target agree that the agent has the right to impact on the workers (Barratt, 2013). This power is generally in the form of authority that is delegated to the organisational position of the members of the Tesco. For example when a person becomes general manager at Tesco, it is the mutual consent between him and the workers below him that he is capable of influencing all other stakeholders below them.
Referent power: It is a power that is usually considered to be elusive and is based on the interpersonal attraction. This kind of power is very hard to be described as it is present but cannot be directly or indirectly felt. The individuals that are charismatic in nature are often understood to have the referent power. This is because they have the charisma to influence the people by different modes such as their speech, thoughts, business and decision making skills as well as other kinds of skills. People usually understand them to be ideal and hence get influenced by the things they want to do. When they understand anybody to be ideal they start behaving accordingly up to certain stages. This is a kind of power that is not forced on the targets, they themselves comes under the influence of others (Mason & Evans, 2015). Their behaviour gets shaped in the same way as their influencer behaves. For example the personality of John Allan is very influential as he is known for one of the best strategist. He is also known for person who asks difficult things from their employee. Such kind of management skills also motivates other individuals to do their task accordingly. His rapid approach towards his work also motivates other people to follow the same while doing their task.
Expert power: It is a very unique kind of power that can be used inside the Tesco. This gives the power to the managers or agents to have information and knowledge that is needed by the target. It usually revolves around the fact that Knowledge is Power. There are three conditions that need to be fulfilled when this power can be utilised. First is that the target must have trust that the information provided by the agent is correct and accurate. Second is that the information that any agent has must be relevant and useful to the target people (Barret, 2015). Third is that the target must understand the agent to be the expert in that area. For example at the retail store if the employee faces any kinds of problem in managing the sales or any dispute arise then they can take the help of Stephen who is a store manager at Tesco as he has an experience of working there for 10 years.
All these powers are necessary at various stages of organisational structure and must be used to bring smoothness in the work process. It’s the position of the people that decides who will enjoy how much power of these kinds.
As mentioned in the case study Tesco is one of the biggest retailers present in the international market. In order to properly manage the activities of the organization, the company requires using adequate measures of leadership to develop its organizational structure in the environment. Further, it should be noted that the leadership structure in an organization influence many aspects including the culture of the organization. The leaders of Tesco plays major role in influencing the employees of the company and building good relationship between them. Furthermore, four ways in which the company adequately used the leadership style to organize activities of the business are discussed below:
Leadership influencing equality: The leaders of the company initiate their leadership skills in such a way that it increases equality in the business. The leaders of the company plays the role of treating the employees in such a way that a way it generates equal opportunity for all of them to work in the organization. The company does not believe in discrimination the people on the basis of their age, sex, religion etc. Resulting to which, the leaders treat each and every people with respect in the organization so as to ensure that the organization is a great place to work. So, the leaders at Tesco similar kind of approach at all levels and encourage the employees to work for their benefits so that subsequently the motive of organization is improved (Mason & Evans, 2015).
Leadership influencing positivity: The leaders of the company aim to increase positivity in the company as well. The leaders of the organization use this approach in such a way that all the problems are solved easily and productivity is maintained. The employers use this approach to introduce positivity in the organization. The leaders adequately identify the skills and capabilities of the employees and aims to eliminate issues that results to increase in positivity for the organization.
Leadership influencing democracy in business: democracy is the best way to satisfy the employees in the market. While implementing a decision in the organization, the leaders at Tesco ask for the advice of all the employees so that they can easily gain more innovative opinion and implement the best suited decision for the company. Thus, with the use of democratic approach of leadership, the leaders in the company implement good organizational culture activities (Yukl, 2013).
Leadership in influencing commitment: The leaders in the organization commit to the employees and ask the employees to commit to the organization to always work for their betterment. Resulting to which, a bond of trust in increased in the company. This bond initiates good workplace environment. With the act of commitment, the employees start to trust on the organization due to which their satisfaction subsequently increases that give rise to positivity in the organizational culture.
From, the above mentioned examples mentioned above, it should be noted that adequately make use of leadership in business to influence good organizational culture. The leaders at the workplace environment aim to increase positivity, democracy, commitment and reduces indiscrimination and issues in such a way that the environment become and positive and healthy for employees to survive.
Four resistances to change are described here. There are various types of changes that are going on inside Tesco and most of the time the changes are resisted by the employees. These resistances to change that can be affected by leadership are illustrated here.
Surprise and fear of unknown is one of the most common resistances to change. Most of the time employees resist changing as they have the fear that what could happen. Leaders by communicating with their employees and stating the objectives can easily resist these changes (Tanner, 2018). The fear generally arises due to the confusions that get generated in the minds of the people working there. It is generally cause because they are very uncertain about the things that are associated with it. It is always crucial that an employee has the confidence that the change will not affect their future.
Job security is another reason for resistance to change. Employee resist changes as they feel that there can be job loss due to the changes that are made within the organisation. In Tesco it happens when there is new technology adoption as technologies generally reduces the workforce. The leaders can ensure this as they can apply different means so as to ensure that all people would lose their job while the changes are made. This can be done by making plans for the people who are generally replaced while the changes are taking place. For example training can help the employees to learn the things that could help them in gaining knowledge regarding something else so that they can be placed at some other place.
Faulty Implementation Approach: faulty implementation approach is one of the biggest reasons that make the leaders to resist towards change in an organization. The implementation approach in the organization are created and implemented by the leaders of the organization, and at times the leaders also face difficulty to apply these approaches in the organization due to which they fail in applying these correct decisions or approaches. Resulting to which faulty implementation approaches in the past resists them to initiate changes in the organization. The leaders’ faces this threat that what if they again implement an approach for change in the organization and it becomes ineffective due to their faulty implementation. Resulting to which they feel that they might lose the current position as well due to which they do not initiate to make changes in the organization. As change is the only constant, so it should be noted that the leaders at Tesco should overcome their threat of change otherwise it will make them incompetent in the target market. An organization needs to implement changes in order to maintain their position in the market (Pioch, & Gerhard, 2014).
Climate of mistrust: This is the most common reason for resistance to change in the organisation. It should be noted that a leader becomes a leader only when they gain the trust of the employees in the organization. So, the company Tesco might face failure in future prospect if the employees will not trust on the activities of the leader in the environment. As if the leader is not trusted then they will never initiate changes in the organization because they will feel that they are not being heard by the employees which will make them insecure as well.
There are various kinds of leadership style that exist within the organisations like Tesco who have to face a lot of situations on their daily basis. Style of leadership has a great potential to influence the behaviour or person working at the firm.
Transformational leadership is usually considered to be as the leadership style where the leaders utilise his or her influencing power and enthusiasm for motivating the people under them. This leadership influences them to work for the benefit of the firm (Ebrary, 2018). On the other hand in transactional style, leadership takes use of punishments and rewards for achieving the objectives and goals set by them previously. It emphasize on enhancing the current situation of Tesco (Henson, 2016).
Their differences can be understood by following points:
Modes used for doing work
Both the type of leadership uses various modes or activities so as to influence the people and hence completing their task on time. Transactional leadership is generally understood to be as the type of leadership where the leaders are using various kinds of rewards and punishments for getting things done. On the other hand transformational leadership is a leadership style in which leaders use their own charisma or the enthusiasm for influencing the people under them.
Transactional leadership is generally stresses on his relationship with the people under them (Toolshero, 2018). It is very essential for maintaining the healthy employee relations. Tesco also use it for getting things done at their stores without any conflicts. On the other hand transformational leadership lays stress on the beliefs, values and requirements of the people under them. It is also very beneficial as it avoids any kind of conflicts between the employees.
Transactional leadership is usually understood as the style in which leaders are generally reactive i.e. they react over any situation that gets arisen within the firm. This is helpful in the case when any specific kinds of problems arise in the workplace. On the other hand transformational leadership is considered to highly proactive in nature (Surbhi, 2015). It can be understood by the fact that in transformational leadership, store managers of Tesco thinks about the problems that may arise in future hence they are proactive in avoiding any kind of situation.
There are various types of environment that is present within the organisation from time to time. At various situations different kind of leadership is used by managers. Transactional leadership is good in the case when there is settled environment. For example the day to day activities carried out at the Tesco Stores. On the other hand transformational leadership is better in the case when there is turbulent environment at the workplace. For example if there is staffing problems persisting at the workplace on daily basis then they can effectively plan for managing the human resource (Iqbal, Anwar, & Haider, 2015).
The leaders in the transactional type of leadership focuses on planning and executive the events or the objective prepared by them whereas in the case of transformational type of leadership, the leaders focuses on promoting innovation in all the activities that they perform in the organization. The transactional leaders are focused on completing the event successfully whereas the leaders who use the transformation type of leadership aim to complete the task by using innovative activities in the environment. Talking about the company Tesco, the leaders uses the transactional type of leadership under this case as they are not interested in initiating all the activities innovatively. They only rely on completing the task successfully.
There is presence only one transaction leader in the organisation whereas there can be more than one leader in the organization using transformational leadership style. The work that a transactional leader perform do not require other leadership for support in the company where in the case of transformation leadership style, just like the leader at Tesco, all have different groups, work and style according to which they work in the organization.
The leaders using the transactional type of leadership works for improving the present condition of the organization whereas, the leaders using the transformational type of leadership work for changing the present condition of the environment. There is a huge difference between changing and improving the environment. Relating both the types of leadership style to the styles used by the leaders present at Tesco, it should be noted that the leaders of the organization believe that they do not have an environment that they need to change completely instead improving the environmental conditions of the company can help them in a better way (Cushman, & Burke, 2014). The leaders at the organization work to improve the present workplace environment and bring positivity in it. Thus, it should be noted that the leaders who are working at Tesco works with an objective to improve the environmental conditions of the company using the transformation type of leadership.
Under the transactional type of leadership, the leader focuses on motivating the followers to put self-interest first in the organization. Whereas in the case of transformational type of leadership, the leader motivates the employees to put the interest of the organization at first place and then motivate the employees to fulfil their self-interest out of the outcomes received by the organization. The leaders under the transactional type of leadership motivate the employees to work until their objectives are fulfilled whereas under the transformational type of leadership, the leader in the organization focuses on helping the employees to collectively grow so that the company along with the employees receive the benefits. The leaders of Tesco use this type of leadership in the organization (Ndungu, 2014).
References
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