SBenegaL

Category: Organizations

  • Political Behavior in Organizations 4

    In the last byte, we began looking at the various influence tactics used by people. We continue this discussion in today’s byte.

    The following table adopted from the reference book summarized the various influence tactics.

  • Political Behavior in Organizations 3

    In the last byte, we looked at the use of political behavior. In today’s byte, we list some of the influence tactics.

    Influence as mentioned earlier, is the process of affecting the thought, behavior, or feelings of another person. This person could be a Boss, a subordinate employee or a coworker. If it is the boss – the influence s called upward influence; if a subordinate employee then a downward influence and it is the coworker – it is lateral influence.
    The most frequently used tactics are:
    • Consultation
    • Rational Persuasion
    • Inspirational Appeals
    • Ingratiation
    • Upward Appeal
    • Coalition Tactics
    • Exchange Tactics
    We shall attempt understanding these in the next byte.

  • Political Behavior in Organizations 2

    In the last byte, we looked at the definition of organizational politics and political behavior. In today’s byte, we continue the discussion further.
    By its very nature, politics is a controversial topics; and more so for the managers. While some managers take a favorable view of it, others see it detrimental to the organization. Some workers perceive their workplace to be highly political and find using political behavior very satisfying when they engage into it! These people would then thrive in such an environment. The other section generally finds the office politics distasteful and stressful. It is common to find that most people detect political behavior at all levels of the firm.
    Organizational conditions could also encourage political activity – unclear goals, autocratic decision making, ambiguous lines of authority, scarce resources and uncertainty – all these favor political activity!
    Political behavior in organizations could affect the organization very negatively when it is strategically undertaken to maximize self-interest.  That is, if members of an organization quite competitively pursue selfish ends – it is unlikely that the concerns of others are paid attention to. The workplace thus would be seen as less helpful, more threatening, and more unpredictable.

  • Political Behavior in Organizations

    In the last byte, we looked at Korda’s symbols of power and attempted to understand what each symbol represents. In today’s byte, we begin our discussion on Political Behavior in Organizations.
     
    Organizational Politics refers to the use of power and influence in an organization. The term of politics could have a negative connotation, but this is not necessarily true.
     
    Organization is a setting where people have competing interest, an effective manager would need to reconcile these interests. Thus the art of managing necessitates organizational politics. There are various tactics and strategies that could be used to acquire and expand power base. While some of these are sanctioned (approved by) in an organizational setting, there are others which are done without a sanction.
     
    Political Behavior thus refers to actions not officially sanctioned by an organization but taken up to influence others and thereby meet one’s personal goals. While in some cases, the goals could be aligned to team or organizational goals; in other cases, the personal goals and interests of others collide with each other; individuals pursue politics at the expense of others’ interest.