Power and Politics
Organizational Politics
Learning Objectives
- Understand what organizational politics are.
- Examine political behavior within organizations.
Organizational Politics
Organizational
politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes
efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or
achieve other targeted objectives. Politics has
been around for millennia. Aristotle wrote that politics stems from a
diversity of interests, and those competing interests must be resolved
in some way. "Rational" decision making alone may not work when
interests are fundamentally incongruent, so political behaviors and
influence tactics arise.
Today,
work in organizations requires skill in handling conflicting agendas
and shifting power bases. Effective politics isn't about winning at all
costs but about maintaining relationships while achieving results.
Although often portrayed negatively, organizational politics are not
inherently bad. Instead, it's important to be aware of the potentially
destructive aspects of organizational politics in order to minimize
their negative effect. Of course, individuals within organizations can
waste time overly engaging in political behavior. Research reported in
HR Magazine found that managers waste 20% of their time managing
politics. However, as John Kotter wrote in Power and Influence, "Without
political awareness and skill, we face the inevitable prospect of
becoming immersed in bureaucratic infighting, parochial politics and
destructive power struggles, which greatly retard organizational
initiative, innovation, morale, and performance".
In
our discussion about power, we saw that power issues often arise around
scarce resources. Organizations typically have limited resources that
must be allocated in some way. Individuals and groups within the
organization may disagree about how those resources should be allocated,
so they may naturally seek to gain those resources for themselves or
for their interest groups, which gives rise to organizational politics.
Simply put, with organizational politics, individuals ally themselves
with like-minded others in an attempt to win the scarce resources.
They'll engage in behavior typically seen in government organizations,
such as bargaining, negotiating, alliance building, and resolving
conflicting interests.
Politics
are a part of organizational life, because organizations are made up of
different interests that need to be aligned. In fact, 93% of managers
surveyed reported that workplace politics exist in their organization,
and 70% felt that in order to be successful, a person has to engage in
politics. In the
negative light, saying that someone is "political" generally stirs up
images of back-room dealing, manipulation, or hidden agendas for
personal gain. A person engaging in these types of political behaviors
is said to be engaging in self-serving behavior that is not sanctioned
by the organization.
Examples
of these self-serving behaviors include bypassing the chain of command
to get approval for a special project, going through improper channels
to obtain special favors, or lobbying high-level managers just before
they make a promotion decision. These types of actions undermine
fairness in the organization, because not everyone engages in
politicking to meet their own objectives. Those who follow proper
procedures often feel jealous and resentful because they perceive unfair
distributions of the organization's resources, including rewards and
recognition.
Researchers
have found that if employees think their organization is overly driven
by politics, the employees are less committed to the
organization,
have lower job satisfaction, perform worse on the job, have higher levels of job anxiety,
and have a higher incidence of depressed mood.
The
negative side of organizational politics is more likely to flare up in
times of organizational change or when there are difficult decisions to
be made and a scarcity of resources that breeds competition among
organizational groups. To minimize overly political behavior, company
leaders can provide equal access to information, model collaborative
behavior, and demonstrate that political maneuvering will not be
rewarded or tolerated. Furthermore, leaders should encourage managers
throughout the organization to provide high levels of feedback to
employees about their performance. High levels of feedback reduce the
perception of organizational politics and improve employee morale and
work performance. Remember that politics can be a healthy way to
get things done within organizations.
Antecedents of Political Behavior
Individual Antecedents
There
are a number of potential individual antecedents of political behavior.
We will start off by understanding the role that personality has in
shaping whether someone will engage in political behavior.
Political
skill refers to peoples' interpersonal style, including their ability
to relate well to others, self-monitor, alter their reactions depending
upon the situation they are in, and inspire confidence and trust. Researchers
have found that individuals who are high on political skill are more
effective at their jobs or at least in influencing their supervisors'
performance ratings of them.
Individuals who
are high in internal locus of control believe that they can make a
difference in organizational outcomes. They do not leave things to fate.
Therefore, we would expect those high in internal locus of control to
engage in more political behavior. Research shows that these individuals
perceive politics around them to a greater degree. Investment in the organization is also related
to political behavior. If a person is highly invested in an organization
either financially or emotionally, they will be more likely to engage
in political behavior because they care deeply about the fate of the
organization. Finally, expectations of success also matter. When a
person expects that they will be successful in changing an outcome, they
are more likely to engage in political behavior. Think about it: If you
know there is no chance that you can influence an outcome, why would
you spend your valuable time and resources working to effect change? You
wouldn't. Over time you'd learn to live with the outcomes rather than
trying to change them.
Figure 13.10
Individual and organizational antecedents can both lead to political behavior.
Organizational Antecedents
Scarcity of resources breeds politics. When resources such as monetary incentives or promotions are limited, people see the organization as more political. Any type of ambiguity can relate to greater organizational politics. For example, role ambiguity allows individuals to negotiate and redefine their roles. This freedom can become a political process. Research shows that when people do not feel clear about their job responsibilities, they perceive the organization as more political. Ambiguity also exists around performance evaluations and promotions. These human resource practices can lead to greater political behavior, such as impression management, throughout the organization. As you might imagine, democratic decision making leads to more political behavior. Since many people have a say in the process of making decisions, there are more people available to be influenced.
OB Toolbox: Overcoming Ineffective Politics
Author
and consultant Patrick Lencioni recommends the following four steps for
overcoming ineffective politics due to turf wars. When members of the
organization are more concerned about their own area of operations than
doing what's best for the entire organization, in the long run you may
have a problem with turf wars. Taking these four steps can help overcome
this situation:
- Create a thematic goal. The goal should be something that everyone in the organization can believe in, such as, for a hospital, giving the best care to all patients. This goal should be a single goal, qualitative, time-bound, and shared.
- Create a set of defining objectives. This step should include objectives that everyone agrees will help bring the thematic goal to fruition.
- Create a set of ongoing standard operating objectives. This process should be done within each area so that the best operating standards are developed. These objectives should also be shared across the organization so everyone is aware of them.
-
Create metrics to measure them. Measuring whether the standard operating
objectives get done is a vital step in the process. Rather than someone
else pointing out what isn't working, all the people within the
department will have the information necessary to come to this
conclusion and correct the problem, because ultimately, everyone in the
organization cares about achieving the thematic goal.
Key Takeaway
Organizational politics is a natural part of organizational life. Organizations that are driven by unhealthy levels of political behavior suffer from lowered employee organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and performance as well as higher levels of job anxiety and depression. Individual antecedents of political behavior include political skill, internal locus of control, high investment in the organization, and expectations of success. Organizational antecedents include scarcity of resources, role ambiguity, frequent performance evaluations and promotions, and democratic decision making.
Exercises
- Do you think politics are a positive or negative thing for organizations? Why?
- Describe an example of a negative outcome due to politics.
- Describe an example of a positive outcome due to politics.
- Can you think of additional individual or organizational antecedents of political behavior?
- What political behaviors have you observed within school groups or your workplace? Were they successful? Why or why not?