26 Power and Politics-II

Prof.Mahabir Narwal

1. Learning Objectives:

Basic objectives of this module are: 

• To understand the concept of politics
•  To understand the characteristics of politics
•  To know the causes and techniques of political behaviour To know the types of political activities
•  To know the ethics of power and politics

Introduction

Politics refers to the way people gain and use power in organisation. Power and politics are closely related to each other. When employees in organisations convert their power into action, they are described as being engaged in politics.

Definitions

According to Tushman, “politics refers to the structure and process of the use of authority and power to affect definition of goals, direction and the other major parameters of the organisation.Decisions are not made in a rational way but rather through compromise, accommodation and bargaining.”

According to Farrell and Peterson, “politics in an organisation refers to those activities that are not regarded as part of one’s formal role in the organisation, but that influence or attempt to influence the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the organisation.”

According to Pfiffner and Sherwood, “politics is endemic to every organisation, regardless of size, function or character or ownership. Furthermore, it is to be found in every level of the hierarchy and it intensifies as the stake become more important and the area of decision possibilities greater.”

Two key points emerge from this definition: (1) Political behaviour is outside one’s specified job requirements, and (2) efforts to influence the goals, criteria, or processes used for decision making that will result in the distribution of advantages and disadvantages in the organisation.

3. Characteristics of politics

Following are the characteristics of the politics:

Basically, political behaviour is self serving in nature. Attempts are made to use organisational resources for personal benefits or to give some benefits to others.

Political decisions may not be rational from the organisational point of view. They are usually made to acquire more power.

Political behaviour is outside one’s specified job requirements. It involves getting things accomplished that are not formally recognised practices or procedure.

Organisational politics involves the use of some kind of authority, power or pressure over other person or groups. Rewards and punishment are commonly used for this purpose.

4. Negative aspects of politics

Following are the negative aspects of politics;

Effect on managers. Research proves that those managers who engage in more political activity are relatively more successful in terms of promotions but also relatively less effective in terms of subordinate satisfaction and commitment and the performance of their unit.

Inequitable distribution of power. Some people may be able to acquire a major portion of the organisational power, because of organisational politics. The power may be used to promote self interest, exploit other people and displace organisational goals.

Organisational conflicts. Organisational politics may generate organisational conflicts due to which organisational time, efforts and energy may be wasted.

Self interest. The political behaviour is guided and motivated by self interest. If there is conflict between self interests and organisational goals, and self interest obstructs the organisational goals, politics is said to have negative effects.

Functions of organisational politics

Organisation politics helps the people in the organisation to adapt to the organisational goals and helps the organisation to succeed in ways that the formal structure alone cannot guarantee. Organisational politics adds life to the otherwise lifeless skeleton of the organisation.

Some important functions are:

To ensure full debate. The system of politics should ensure that all sides of an issue are fully debated, whereas the other system of influence tends to promote only one.

Execution of decisions. The system of politics can pave the path for the execution of decisions.

To substitute for formal authority. When the formal authority fails and it causes problem then the political behavior may be used by the managers to attain the task or goals and to continue operations.

To cope with change. Changes in the environment and technology are the main problem for an organisation. To meet unanticipated problems, people and resources must be moved into place quickly before minor problems become catastrophes. Organisational politics can help in identifying such required problems and move ambitious, problem solving managers into the crisis before minor problems become catastrophes.

To channel personnel contracts. Managers need to influence the individuals working throughout the organisation, though in larger organisations, it becomes very difficult to know each and every person working in it. The political network can provide the necessary access.

To overcome personnel inadequacies. Between people and positions in the organisations, there are several inadequacies in personnel and consequently mismatches occur. To avoid inefficiency organizational politics process plays an important role and it is helps to complete the job.

6. Techniques of organisational politics

The technique and strategies of politics vary with the situation at hand, there are certain guidelines which can be adopted to gain and use political power. Some of these techniques are as explained below:

Try to be popular. A good political person talks good of everybody especially behind their backs. All this make the person extensively popular. Whenever such person is in need for support, everybody will like to assist him.

Be persuasive without being arrogant. An individual should be persuasive in a friendly sort of way. Forceful persuasion when made eloquently is highly effective in influencing others as well as gaining respect for intelligence and ability. The returns can be very substantial in this case.

Build up a preferred image. A preferred image consists of being well dressed, having a charming and pleasant smile, being attentive, honest, sociable and loyal to the organisational interest. A preferred image also consists of being competent and self assured.

Control the agenda of the meeting. The items at the beginning of the agenda are generally, discussed in greater detail and in broader consideration of empirical information as compared to the item which are placed at the end of the agenda.

Control the information. The more critical the information and fewer the people who have it, the stronger the power base of those who possess such information. Salary information, quality reports, confidential reports are some of the items of information which are frequently treated as important information in order to increase the political power of those possessing the information.

Control communication. People may be in lower level of hierarchy, but they may have political power because of this factor. People who have some control over lines of communication can yield considerable political power.

Use outside experts. It is particularly obvious in jury trials, where the names and reputation of experts are more important than the substance of the testimony. Individuals can influence the outcomes of the decisions by carefully selecting the right outside expert and providing a forum for that individual to express as opinion.

From the right alliances. The more people you have on your side, the more politically powerful you are. A political person will always like to have an alliance with a person who is rising up the corporate ladder, rather than a person whose career is on the decline. It is always necessary and useful to the allies with upper level management or with people who are close to the powerful people.

7. Types of political activities Following are some political activities:

Reciprocity: in society this technique is used. An individual who has helped someone in the past might expect or ask that person to do the same in future. It is not general in nature. Some people help others with their heart without expecting something in return. But on other side some people keep this in mind and whenever they feel requirement to do something they try to reciprocate it.

Networking: to achieve the goals, people can establish social relationships with others. Through this network, an individual can get important information. Referent power of the employees can be increased by networking.

Coalitions: coalitions create pressure on others to change but it has not always negative intentions. A coalition influence person outside the group and it is an informal group. An individual cannot influence alone a common objective but a coalition can do because it can gather power of many people.

Blame games: attacking or blaming others is the most common form. In this a bad image of someone is created in the eyes of management in the organisation. People give blame to others of their own failure. For example, a subordinate convey to his boss that the report is late because of other subordinate.

8. Causes of political behaviour

If there is no opposition, there is no need for politics. The basic reason for the political behaviour is to overcome resistance or opposition. Individuals resort to politics in organisations because of the following reasons:

Psychological factor. Employees who are authoritarian, have a high risking propensity or posses an external locus of control exhibit political behaviour with less regard for the consequences to the organisation.

Organisational culture. It characterized by role ambiguity, low trust, inequitable performance evaluation system, reward system, communication methods and participative decision making processes will create opportunities for political activities to breed.

Saturation in career. To rise in one’s career, a person needs competence, but when a person does not have the requisite competence, he cannot rise above a certain level. In such case, he may resort to political behaviour to move up in the organisation hierarchy.

Lust for power. People want to acquire and enhance power in the organisation. They aim at increasing the area of their influence.

Technology and external environment: the more complex the internal technology of the organisation, the more politics there will be. Politics will be more if external environment is highly volatile.

Scarcity of resources. In the organisation there are limited resources. There is power in the hand of unit or person, who has full control over the resource allocation. If there is political influence in the distribution of resources then the resources would not be distributed on the basis of rational needs.

Ambiguous goals. If there are more politics, the goals of the organisation will be complex and ambiguous. But if the goals are defined properly, every individual will be aware of these goals and they will know that about their role in contribution towards achievement of organisational goals. Then there will be less political activities in the organisation.

Non-programmed decisions. Unique problems which cannot be solved by structured procedure or method, known as non-programmed decisions. These problems may include many variables and factors that are equivocal in nature and leave space for those political maneuvering who has knowledge of that technique or that problem.

Organisational change. Whenever there is rearrangement of policies in the organisation or change in the structure of the organisation, there are opportunities for the people in the powerful positions to play the political games.

Discretionary authority. In case of emergency, there are few positions that use their discretionary powers in the organisation. Use of that power depends on the only judgement of holder of that position. This is reason, people in the organisation wants to grab that position so that they can play their political activities. If people in the organisation do not get that position, they used to stay close to such position holder.

9. Managing Political Behaviour

In the organisation it is impossible to eliminate the political behaviour therefore, to restrict the political behaviour in the organisation efforts should be made. Politics has negative aspects when it is extreme. Following are some steps to manage the political behaviour in the organisation:

Study the political behaviour: in the organisation there should be a study of psychology of the political behaviour. The study will help the management to take appropriate step to avoid political behaviour in the organisation to reduce the political behaviour. The effects of political behaviour can be reduced or minimized if management is aware with the causes of such type of behaviour in the organisation.

Open and honest communication: if there is honest and open communication in the organisation, the political behaviour can be reduced. If the confidential information of the organisation is known by an individual, he gets political strength. If the required information is available to everyone in the organisation, then people would not think to engage in political behaviour to obtain the information.

Elimination or reduction of uncertainty: if the changes made in the individuals goals and the objectives of the organisation are not known to people, then politics in the organisation will be more. Political game play can be reduced by participative decision making and all the information provided to subordinates and employees in the organisation.

Few devious political tactics

Following are some techniques that may be difficult to defend on moral ground:

Exclude the opposition: it is easy to influence the decision in your favour when the opposition is not present. To get opposition out of your way make sure that in important meetings opposition is absent.

Divide and rule: British ruled India by following this technique. In this technique it is assumed that the coalitions will not formed by divided people. By following this technique it is easy to keep them off balance and avoiding attack by your opposition against you.

Demolish  or  embrace:  to  demote  or  transfer  an  individual  are  some  unpopular  political decisions. The individual who is demoted or transferred will be your political enemy. To destroy an individual or make friends is the motto of the politicians.

10. Ethics of power and politics

Ethical issues emerge when the use of power stretches into the realm of political behaviour. It is in this context that a manager must stop and seriously consider the ethical issues involved in every action. Power is considered to be non-political in use when it remains within the boundaries of formal authority, organisational policies and procedure and when it is directed towards ends that are sanctioned by the organisation.

A person’s behaviour must satisfy three criteria if it were to be ethical. These are:

Criterion of utilitarian outcomes. In an organization and outside the organization, if the behavior is good then it increases the satisfaction and it gives contentment to more and more people.

Criterion of individual rights. Basic human rights like privacy, freedom of conscience, free speech and free consent, all of these rights of parties are respects by the behavior of the individual.

Source: http://www.clipartkid.com/images/278/social-studies-free-presentations-human-rights-illustration-L2QSXB-clipart.gif

Criterion of distributive justice. Rule of justice gets appreciation from the behavior and it always behave same with all people. Also the justice treats the people in the fairways

It may be stated that behaviour may fail to satisfy the three criteria but can still be considered ethical in the given situation. This special case must satisfy the criterion of overwhelming factors, a criterion that justifies a failure to satisfy one or more of the prior criteria of ethical political behaviour.

It must be understood that, though, some political games and behaviour is unavoidable in any organisational climate, ethical considerations become very important in the long run. Every manager has to use power and politics to get his work done, but he must use it in ethical and socially responsible fashion.

Limiting the effects of Political Behaviour

To reduce or minimize the effect of political behaviour and dysfunctional consequences of politics, efforts should be there. For this purpose some main strategies are: 1. reduction of uncertainty, 2. open communication, 3. awareness, 4. watch game players, 5. be a good role model.

Reduction of uncertainty. Organisational change, ambiguous goals, technology, non-programmable decisions and unstable environment, these are some types of primary causes of political behaviour. These primary causes should be removed from the organisation.

Open communication. For limiting political behaviour, open communication is effective. Open communication reduces tendency of people to involved in political manoeuvring because open communication clarify the accurate techniques for allocating scarce resources. Open communication also helps in limiting the coalition or persons ability to control channels of communication and information.

Creating awareness. It can limit political behaviour in the organisation. Awareness about consequences and causes of political behaviour in the organisation helps organisational members to resist temptations of resorting to political manoeuvring.

Watch game players. Watching and correcting game players immediately is another way for reducing political behaviour in the organisation. A subordinate must be stop if he or she is found involved in any political behaviour which is unethical. He or she should be told that such type of act would not be bear in future. Ignoring the political activities of an individual will encourage him to repeat the political tricks again.

Role model. Subordinate  behave  in  same  manner  as  their  managers  behave.  If  the managers involve in political activities then their subordinates follow them and will do the same. It is very difficult for the managers to stop their subordinates from doing political actions. If the managers in an organisation set an example of honesty, it will be easy to constrain political actions of their subordinates.

11. Summary

When employees in organizations convert their power into action, they are described as being engaged in politics. Politics refers to the way people gain and use power in organisation. Basically, political behaviour is self serving in nature. It involves getting things accomplished that are not formally recognized practices or procedure. If there is no opposition, there is no need for politics. The basic reason for the political behaviour is to overcome resistance or opposition. Reduction of uncertainty, open communication, awareness, watch game players, be a good role model are few main strategies to reduce political behaviour in the organisation. If the managers involve in political activities then their subordinates follow them and will do the same. A subordinate must be stop if he or she is found involved in any political behaviour which is unethical.

REFERENCES:-

• Organisational Behaviour by K Ashwathappa, published by Himalaya Publishing House.
• Organisational Behaviour by Shashi K Gupta and Rosy Joshi, published by Kalyani Publishers.
• Organizational Behaviour-an evidence based approach by Fred Luthans, published by McGraw Hill Education, 12th Edition.
• Organisational behaviour-foundation, realities and challenges by Debra L. Nelson and James
• Campbell Quick, Published by South-Western Cengage Learning, 5th Edition.
• http://bankofinfo.com/importance-of-organizational-politics/
• http://www.managementstudyguide.com/effect-of-politics.htm
• http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-consequences-politics-workplace-20176.html
• http://www.managementstudyguide.com/ways-to-reduce-workplace-politics.htm#