What is ORGANIZATIONAL
POLITICS
The term ‘organizational
politics’, also known as workplace politics or office politics, refers to the
agenda of each employee within a company and the activities they engage in to
acquire, increase, and wield power and resources to gain a desired outcome.
Organizational politics
is present in most organizations. Every business has a hierarchy, and with this
hierarchy comes an uneven distribution of power. Certain employees are more
likely to pursue this power than others, which is considered political behavior
in the workplace.
All employees experience
the impact of organizational politics throughout their careers, whether
positive or negative. For some, it means engaging in office gossip or acting as
part of a clique, while for others, it means climbing the career ladder and being
as productive and efficient as possible at work.
Understanding political
behavior in organizations helps reduce the negative or dysfunctional effects,
support employees, and engage in positive political behaviors that benefit the
entire organization.
TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL
POLITICS
Organizational politics
in the workplace can have many forms, ranging from subtle maneuvers to overt
power plays. These actions can significantly impact the culture, effectiveness,
and morale of an organization. Understanding the different types of organizational
politics can help professionals navigate and manage workplace dynamics more
effectively.
Self-promotion
When an employee acts to
further their career without regard for the impact on others around them. This
includes things like taking credit for the ideas of others and putting
coworkers down to build themselves up.
Office politics
When one employee or
group attempts to influence another employee or group through persuasion,
manipulation, influence, or pressure. This can be positive if it means getting
a group of skeptics on board with an organization’s vision or project, but the
downside is that it can lead to tension and arguments if someone believes that
the win is coming at their expense.
Factionalism
A group becomes split
based on common tasks and common interests, and these smaller groups form
alliances that align with their goals. In larger organizations, this can help
to increase innovation and agility. However, it will often have negative
consequences as each faction commits to winning at any cost.
Gatekeeping
An employee or group of
employees who already have a certain degree of power block other employees and
ideas. They do this to maintain their power and avoid being challenged.
However, this stifles innovation and prevents talent from rising through the
organization.
Territorialism
An employee becomes
extremely attached to a certain role or task and will not allow anyone else to
undertake it. For example, a manager who refuses to hand over the reins of a
project.
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO
POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR
There are several
factors, for instance, in the form of traits that influence political
behaviour. Individual and organisational factors influence political behaviour
and result in favourable results for the entire organisation.
Individual factors
A particular set of
factors at the individual level reflects a higher engagement in organisational
politics.
1. Individuals who are
high self-monitors exhibit more skills when it comes to political behaviour.
This set of individuals is more sensitive when it comes to cues of the external
environment and indulge in higher political behaviour since they manipulate
situations according to their self-interest. High self-monitors usually believe
they can control their setting and might use manipulative tactics to soothe
their interest.
2. An employer’s
investment in the organisation also shapes how the employee indulges in
politics. The more the desire to reap future benefits from the organisation,
the less likelihood of indulging in illegitimate means.
3. An employee with a
high expectation of success from legitimate means is less likely to indulge in
politics. In the same way, a person that has a low expectation of success from
illegitimate means is less likely to use polished political skills.
4. If an employee has
alternative job opportunities and possesses a specific skill set, it is more
likely that the employee is to risk illegitimate political action.
Organisational factors
Employees operate in a
social context that shapes their work and function in an organisational setup.
Evidence suggests that more than how individual factors influence politics, the
organisational factors in the form of cultures and situations play a considerable
role. In the case of scarcity of resources, offers for promotions and changing
priorities, it becomes crucial to bring politics into the picture, where
politicking surfaces. Politicking thus refers to the activities that people
might engage in when they face paradoxical situations full of ambiguity. They
will utilise all their influence to cater to their goals and interests. Any
organisation can turn into a politics-free zone if there is no scarcity of
resources and clear-cut outcomes one strives for.
1. Cultures, for
instance, influence the level of politicking, especially where there is
mistrust, unclear roles, self-focused managers and rising pressures to perform.
Therefore, high trust should be able to minimise political behaviour.
2. Role clarity is
another way by which engaging in politics can be minimised. Employees usually
engage in politics when there are unclear roles; that way, the ambiguity
increases, and thus, the scope expands to engage in any form of political
behaviour.
3. Performance evaluation
criteria help employees stay motivated toward the organisation’s goals. Since
different departments have conflicting goal priorities, engaging in
differential objective criteria that encourage employees to work with
tremendous enthusiasm becomes essential. Therefore, a subjective performance
criterion might give rise to organisational politics since the win-lose
approach in the middle of conflicting and differing priorities might create
situations that involve winning at the expense of others losing.
ADVERSE SIDE EFFECTS OF ORGANISATIONAL
POLITICS
Increased stress:
Constant fear of the unknown and the threat of losing an important task or a
job is always there.
Decrease in employee
productivity: Due to the constant fear of office
politics, employees focus less on the work. This eventually leads to less
satisfaction for the employee and employer as the output gets heavily affected.
Less concentration:
The urge to get engrossed in political tactics often leads to less engagement
at the work front. The focus on the satisfaction of personal agendas results in
a shifting of priorities.
Cynicism:
Constant manipulative tactics and the urge to drive personal satisfaction can
lead to lower productivity and satisfaction levels. High employee turnover: The
employees who are creative and passionate about work may often leave a highly
politicised organisational setup due to a lack of focus on tasks.
Demotivation:
Often, employees with no experience in politicking suffer because they get
dragged into messy work politics. Seeing manipulative employees getting raises
often is a demotivating factor for the hardworking employees lacking political
tactics.
Miscommunication:
The effective communication channel gets distorted when the manipulation by
some employees leads to miscommunication by spreading edited versions of events
and situations.
Resentment and decrease
in overall productivity: The organisational politics will
eventually make few employees, especially low selfmonitors, suffer. These
employees will drift away from the manipulative employees and the company
itself. With all the negativity around the workplace, the employees will have
less satisfaction in the workplace. Finally, the productivity levels will get
hampered, damaging the entire workplace culture.
