Q1. Karen Jacob is the CEO and founder of Jacobs ice-cream company.

She has her own way to run the business. In the first ten years the business expanded a lot. But as the market increased, the load of debt was also increased. In the recession period the company lost lots of its customer and in result, closed 80 stores to reduce cost. As her leadership was not that effective in the large market, she was forced down by the bank and lost operational control of the company. The concept of power helps to understand that how the leader influences his/her follower to do any job. In other words power indicates the capacity of one person or group to influence others. Power can come in ways. There are several types of power. According to French and Raven, main five types and sources of powers are legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, referent power and expert power. Legitimate Power: This is the power which comes with the position of the person in an organization or in the society. The position gives him/her the right to say the subordinates what to do or what is needed to be done. The target person complies with the leader because he/she believes that the person has the right to request because of the position. The target person is also thinks that this is an obligation to the company to do a job according to the superiors decision. The amount of the legitimate power depends on the authority of the manager. This is usually documented by the company. The company also make policy guideline about each positions power and scope about what the position holder can do and what they cannot. In this case Karen has the legitimate power because she was the founder and CEO of the company. She used that power the control her store managers and expected full commitment. She has the power to make unannounced visit to all the stores and check the daily operational effectiveness by which she can ask questions to the manager and also can change the process of operation. Her position gave her that kind of power and this a kind of legitimate power. Reward power: This is one of the most common ways to influence people. Reward power is an effective way to motivate people. If a person has the power to give his/her subordinates a reward (bonus, pay rise etc.) based on the commitment he/she showed to the company, the person can influence him/her easily to do a job. If the subordinate knows that the reward is controlled by Mr X, normally he/she will always try to comply with the request of Mr X.

In this case, there is no information about using reward power by Karen to influence her managers or workers. But it is a good way to motivate and influence the employees to comply with the rules and regulations of the company. Coercive power: Coercive power is that kind of power which gives someone the authority to punish the subordinate if he/she does not comply with the order. It is kind of a negative power but in some cases it is necessary to use that kind of power. This kind of power is more used in controlling rather that influencing or motivating. Suppose an employee is always late to work. So the manager can use the coercive power to give him/her ultimatum about he/she will be late next time, the company will cut the salary. But the leader should always be careful to use this power. Every company should have proper guideline about how to use this kind power. As an example, the first warning should be verbal; if the same mistake happens again then it should be a written one and in the third time it should be the final one which clearly define why the punishment has been given and the what it is. The punishment should always relevant with the fault. In the case of Jacobs Ice-cream, there is no information that Karen has used coercive power. In one of her colleagues speech if Karen is not satisfied about the way a store is running, she just rolls up her sleeves and does the job herself. This shows that Karen prefers to lead by example rather that setting up many rule and regulation about employees compliance. Expert Power: In the case of expert power, the subordinates comply with the request because they believe that he/she has special knowledge about the job and that is the best way of doing that. Knowledge is power in the case of expert power. If anyone knows every aspect of a job, he/she can influence others to comply with the decision to complete the job by using the knowledge. An experts opinion is always valuable before implementing a plan. In the case of Jacobs Ice-cream, Karen is known as a business icon. She writes into many business and management journals about how to manage a business. She also invited as guest speaker in many well known business schools all over Europe. She produced a self-helped DVD and invited as guest in many TV programs about how to do well in business. She also believes in womens power and works as an aspiration for many young women to enter into the business entrepreneurship and build their carrier. All these indicate that Karen is a very

expert person in the field of business and management. So when she ask her manager to do something and expects full commitment, the managers cannot deny that because they that she is an expert and she knows better than the others. Referent Power: Referent power comes from admiration, loyalty and affection. Every person always want to do a special favour to a friend and they also more likely comply with the request made by somebody he/she greatly admire. The admiration for someone can come from many situations like the persons behaviour, attitude, interpersonal skills, expertise, dealing with colleagues etc. The strongest form of referent power comes from desire of gaining personal identification from the superior. To gain the attention the target person tries to do what the boss has been asked to do and agree with him/her. Referent power increases by showing concern about their needs and appreciation. Recognising every staff is another thing because when a lower level employee knows that the top manager know him/her, he/she feel admiration to the manager and tries to comply with each request. Karen liked to make unannounced visit to her stores where she could quickly assessed the effectiveness of her orders. According to Mike Varsity, she can go into any store and recognise any staff by their own name which indicates that she can demand aspiration from the employees. She used this referent power and expects full commitment from all her employees. At last it can be said that, Karen was the founder and CEO of Jacobs Ice-cream which gave her the ultimate legitimate power to influence her staff to comply with her decisions. She had her own way to run the business and she tried to use an autocratic leadership style to manage her employees. If something was not according to her mind, she did not hesitate to do it by her own which indicates that she used her expert power. Power involves the capacity of managing people and it is not an easy job because every people think differently and a leader must know to use his/her power to combine them and go ahead for a common goal.