Office politics not bad after all if well-tapped

What you need to know:

  • Office politics are all the activities associated with influence to improve personal or corporate interests.
  • Office politics may have a motivational effect on staff as it enables them to air their views freely.
  • Its dynamics are an excellent way for management to receive feedback as long as they have their ear to the ground.

Organisational politics or office politics has long been viewed negatively. However, recent research suggests that if well-harnessed, office politics can benefìt an organisation. The key is to learn how to deal with its negative effects while harnessing the good.

Office politics are all the activities associated with influence to improve personal or corporate interests.

Office politics may have a motivational effect on staff as it enables them to air their views freely. Its dynamics are an excellent way for management to receive feedback as long as they have their ear to the ground.

The wings of office politics can be used to drive a management agenda.

All management has to do is identify the pack leader and sell their agenda to him or her to influence the rest of the team positively. The pack leader is a two-edged sword as he/she can also use his influence to lead staff into resisting the management agenda. It is wise to keep the pack leader very close.

Office politics helps an organisation democratise and is instrumental in resolving grievances between staff and management.

In an article published in the Havard Business Review, there are four main types of organisational politics. One is the ‘weeds’. As the name suggests these are the informal groupings that spring up without any influence.

However, just like weeds, they can choke good ideas if not well managed. Today, WhatsApp groups by some staff can form ‘weeds’. However, ‘weeds’ with the organisation’s interest at heart can be very beneficial to its growth.

Take an incident where an informal grouping enhances staff welfare by supporting workers through hard times by paying visits and offering a listening ear. The management should identify the power brokers in every informal grouping and use them to influence others positively.

Where the power brokers are negatively influencing staff, they can be isolated and their powers clipped. Some examples include transferring or giving them a less influential role in the business.

‘Rocks’ are the second type of grouping. They are formal and have more power due to their affiliation to the top. For example, a grouping of executive secretaries affiliated with the top decision-makers. Rocks can keep the organisation steady during tough times.

‘High ground’ is the third and highly formal group. They derive their power from titles, organisational structure and policies. For example, the chair of an organisation has power due to the title and the policies accompanying the position.

This category is easy to manage as its powers are formal. In the event of abuse of power, rules, laws and policies can be used to clip their powers.

For example, the Companies Act allows for the removal of a director due to abuse of power. However, an organisation is discouraged from using too many formalities to control office politics as this will lead to bureaucracy.

The law can be used to maintain office politics. First, all office politics must operate within the limits of the employment laws and human resource policies. For example, a staff who insubordinates his supervisor in the exercise of politics can be disciplined.

Formal committees ought to have clear terms of reference and clear roles and responsibilities.

Even so, the limits of authority are supposed to be clear to avoid situations where they overstep their mandate. This will also enhance proper team relations with other teams.

The ideal is a balance between a democratic institution with proper checks, balances and remedies to clip certain powers and control office politics.

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