Office politics and how to rise above it
Organizational politics is something that not going to go
away. Whether you like it or not , you can use office politics to your
advantage. However, you need political skills to be competitive within your organization.
Politics at work place represent a unique domain of interpersonal relationships
in the work place (Vigoda, 2013). Its main characteristic is the readiness of
people to use power in their efforts to influence others and secure personal or
collective interests or alternatively, avoid negative outcomes within the
organization (Bozeman et al., 1996).
However, most of the times office politics naturally expressed the negative perspective that equates organizational politics with the dark side of human behavior, such as manipulating, coercive influence or other subversive and semi legal action. Relation between the organizational politics and the organizational performance is important because employee of an organization has power and exercises its in a unique way of benefit them in the work place.
Indeed, organizational politics can be explained as tactics
use by some of management to improve personal or organizational interests
(Vigoda, 2013). However, most of the time it reflects the fairness and justice
in resources distribution within the organization. As a result, employees may
tend to violate the “Phycological contract” between them and leadership
team.
For an example, if some of employee are rewarded or promoted because of what perceived as a success of political maneuver, may other employees look at it as unfair decision. The result will be increased distrust between the leadership team and the employees which negatively impact for the organizational overall performance.
Negative Impact of politics at work place
- Waste of organizational resources
- Damage to the reliability
- Increase in negative attitude within the organization
- Negative impact for uncompromised integrity
- Impact for organizational performance
- Negative impact of the organizational image
However, office politics is not necessarily bad. It can be
used as a tool that employee and management for promoting the goals that cannot
be achieved (Randolph, 1985) which help influence on employee behavior and
performance.
Tactics to handle politics at work place effectively
- Be consistence, honest and communicate openly
- Be positive! Avoid negative feedbacks about ex employees, the projects or wrong decisions
- Avoid gossips or rumors
- Avoid cliques; be aware of who is loyal to whom
- Respect confidential matters
- Do your job
Harvard Business Review Home. 2021. Don’t Ban “Politics” at
Work. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hbr.org/2021/07/dont-ban-politics-at-work.
[Accessed 8 December 2021].
ProQuest. 1999. Handling Office Politics. [ONLINE] Available
at:
https://www.proquest.com/openview/35c5d734a28f7c1230b65bedd68776d6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=30765.
[Accessed 8 December 2021].
thirst.sg. 2019. Office politics and how to rise above it.
[ONLINE] Available at: https://thirst.sg/blog/office-politics-rise-above-it/.
[Accessed 7 December 2021].
Dear Manoj, Office politics subsist in virtually all work places. They are the activities performed by individuals to ameliorate their status and advance their personal agenda – sometimes at the expense of others. These self-accommodating actions are informal or unofficial and could be the reason why politics in the workplace comes with a negative connotation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as you mentioned there are good aspects of the activities commonly referred to as office politics as well which strengthens networking and stakeholder relationships. Thanks for bringing out the topic Manoj.
Good article. Office politics is something better to be avoided. Because office politics comes with negative gossip as well. It ruins employees personality, trust and transparency.
ReplyDeletePolitics reduces individual productivity and organizational achievements. People spend the majority of their time at work pulling each other's legs and playing nasty politics. Office politics enhances workplace conflicts and tensions. Employees dislike their jobs and regard them as a burden.Office politics promotes negativity in the work place.
ReplyDeleteAny organisation has internal politics when it comes to work. However, it is solely an individual responsibility to do the right thing, ask the right questions and escalate as and when required, if there’s any unethical behaviour which is being observed in an organisation. Further, on top of it, it is again upto the individual to ignore the internal politics and continue with learning new skills and performing well, through which at the end of the day, no politics can bring down what the individual has gradually improved in their skills and talents. A very practical topic which you have picked up for discussion. Thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteEmployees voice means people dealing and communicating their view and issues with the employer. It kind of a influence towards the employer to solve the thier matters within the organisation. It improves the relationship and interaction between both parties and brings organisational success. Unfortunately culture of many Sri lankan organisations are differed and the organizational success inversely proportional to voice.
ReplyDeleteRally food article. Most of the time suffering with political issues in during the working. Better explanation and it help to improve grey areas
ReplyDeleteEmployee and organizational performance are both negatively impacted by organizational politics. It may have a variety of negative consequences, such as affecting employee work satisfaction, organizational dedication, well-being, and productivity. In the end, it has an impact on the organization's performance.
ReplyDeleteThis people can be called as nasty minded. In my point of view, If we have proper grievances handling system in placed, We can control this people.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article. To win office politics, should not take Sides and should not get Personal.
ReplyDelete