Workplace politics, and how to deal with politics
Harold Lasswell, as a political scientist, points out in his own theory that workplace politics can be understood as unwritten rules: these rules determine when and how employees get promoted, or deserve a budget to do a project, and who should not receive these benefits.
Politics has become established as a negative word, but using it at work is unavoidable. In the view of many organizational-behavior scholars, political behaviors are not inherently negative; they can even be useful for members of an organization or for the organization itself. Just as Aristotle pointed out that part of human nature is as a political animal. Whether you take part in political affairs or avoid taking part in them, these affairs have a large effect on your life and activities. So it will be hard to be indifferent to them.
The nature of political behavior
One of the most interesting facts about politics in organizations is its two-sided nature. This verbal or non-verbal contract — “if you help me, I will help you” — forms the foundation of a political power base until the parties become directly hostile to each other. Experts believe that political behaviors are acquired and at first may conflict with a person’s behavioral justifications. But when they are warned away from these tactics, they will use them.
Individual and organizational reasons for political behaviors
Political behavior both comes from people’s own traits — for example someone in the organization who has a strong need for power, freedom of action, security, and administrative rank, and tries to resort to political behavior — and from organizational factors. When organizational resources are declining, or when existing resource patterns are changing, specific political behaviors are very likely to appear.
Individual level
At the individual level, researchers have identified particular traits (such as needs and other individual factors) that are likely associated with political behaviors. Employees and members of the organization who are autocratic have a very high tendency to accept risk, or have an external locus of control. It has been observed that these people act politically in a way that pays less attention to the results of their actions on the organization. It has also been seen that if someone has a strong need for power, freedom of action, security, or administrative rank, they try hard to take a political approach.
Organizational level
Naturally, political activity is a characteristic of organizations, because most organizations employ a large number of people who have different individual traits. But the type of political behavior present in the organization varies widely. Although we accept the fact that individual differences can play an important role on political stages, existing evidence more strongly confirms that some particular conditions and cultures cause certain political behaviors to appear and be reinforced.
More precisely, we should say that when the organization’s resources decline, or when existing resource patterns are changing, particular political behaviors are very likely to appear. In addition, cultures whose distinctive features are a lack of trust, role ambiguity, an unclear performance-evaluation system, and popular decision-making provide opportunities for people to display political behaviors. When organizations reduce some of their activities to improve efficiency (so-called tightening up), they are also forced to reduce their resources. People, afraid of losing resources, take political actions so that whatever they have is not taken from them. But any kind of change, especially changes that require reallocating resources inside the organization, likely creates and increases conflict and therefore intensifies political activities. In an organization, the less trust there is, the more intense political behavior will become, and people will more often take illegitimate actions. So a high level of trust outweighs political behavior and prevents illegitimate actions.
How do we deal with politics?
When our fate is tied to unwritten rules, especially when these rules conflict with official, stated rules and make those official rules harder and more hypocritical, and these rules seem absolute and inappropriate. That is why research in this area shows that when employees feel the atmosphere in their workplace is overly political, their activity decreases and as a result they stay more silent.
Still, an effective approach toward workplace politics is employing people in an appropriate way and doing the relevant work instead of complaining about it. Fortunately, not all of these politics are bad and inappropriate, and there is a way to do the relevant activities without a guilty conscience.
Most of the positives we get from a culture of collaboration provide ways to understand workplace politics. A type of culture called tapestry determines the methods and approaches we should do every day. Some cultural dimensions are desirable traits that organizations proudly announce: (“As a high-performing organization, we welcome diverse views and varied methods”) and other organizations do not operate this way (“We are against fighting and argument”). The word politics is used to describe particular, half-dark dimensions of a culture. By learning to discover and talk about it, this hidden language in organizations acts in an essential way to keep your job and is considered a main factor at work.
What is the difference between bad workplace politics and good workplace politics?
Bad politics at work is easy to recognize. These politics include using business consulting, discussion, maneuvering, innuendo, and rumor-spreading that people use to advance their own affairs. Bad and inappropriate politics are inherently about promoting one person’s position in any necessary and suitable way, and highly inappropriate politics are inefficient methods that may even depend on political or unethical beliefs and intentionally harm employees’ income from another person.
Good politics at work include increasing a person’s interests while considering other people’s rights or the desirable legal cases of that same organization. Good politics include acceptable methods for recognizing your collaboration, taking ideas seriously, influencing other people’s thoughts, and using business advisors, and what decisions are made in this domain. These politics may also include rumors about narcissistic, lazy, or untrustworthy colleagues that destroy appropriate methods. This approach also follows a higher goal and provides the ground for progress in domains related to your interests. Appropriate phrases for doing appropriate politics include being understanding and having mutual understanding, proper networking, and gaining the skill needed for living in large cities related to people’s presence in society and managing officials. The social sciences include information about practicing appropriate methods in the domain of politics. Research by Gerald Ferris and colleagues shows that political skills are divided into four different methods:
Social astuteness
The ability to understand and accept other people, and self-awareness to understand this, is that these people how they treat you. Most people think of self-awareness as an introverted (innate) trait, but in fact its necessity is other-awareness. The issue is knowing how other people treat you and how your behavior affects them.
Interpersonal influence
Interpersonal influence is an ability to persuade people in order to influence how other people think. At first this method includes understanding people and their priorities and the related discussions, and then presenting your request to examine reactions.
Networking ability
Networking ability forms the capacity and potential to create useful connections with a wide range of different people. It may be said that there is only a one-letter difference between the two words networking and not working, but having an important effect often requires continuity and support, and as an old saying points out, contacts make contracts.
Apparent sincerity
It is important that apparent sincerity be honest, open, and fluid. Being honest is not enough on its own; sincerity is in the eye of the beholder. How honest you are in your own view matters far less than how honest other people think you are.
Comprehensive research shows that paying a lot of attention to these traits increases performance, its effects, and leadership and progress in jobs. In addition, these political skills will affect your job independently of your personality and intelligence. In other words, skills related to political affairs can reasonably compensate for how introverted people are and how little they socialize, as well as their level of participation. In addition, a deficiency in using workplace political skill can wipe out people’s intelligence, honesty, and hard work. Political skills also show the difference between an arrogant manager and another manager who has appropriate expectations of employees and gives direct feedback. Research has shown that managers who were understood very little politically had a significant effect when giving instructions to employees and gave employees feedback based on their performance. In contrast, employees acted in a smarter (more appropriate) way when reporting to their managers.
The domain of political activities
People in organizations usually use political behaviors in 4 domains.
Structural change in the organization:
Changing the organization’s structure comes with a reallocation of authorities; so changing responsibilities and duties affects the power base, and the result is a change in political behaviors to reach new power bases.
Coordination between organizational departments:
The relationship between the organization’s main departments is not specified precisely. At times when closer relationships are created for joint decision-making among them, these relationships usually take on a political color.
Replacing a manager:
To make this change you have to promote or transfer people and hire a new manager; so political behaviors form among employees at high levels.
Allocating resources:
Given the importance of resources such as salaries, operating budgets, benefits, and so on, allocating them comes with political behaviors.
How to do politics at work
In short, these items include not only the things you do as a manager but also how you do them, and political astuteness will be without using a harsh or dictatorial method.
The important point about this, that you appear as an effective person and not a selfish or controlling one, is to equip yourself with skill related to political affairs, which is considered part of apparent sincerity. There is a classic television series called Leave It to Beaver, created around Eddie Haskell. He tried hard to attract parents’ attention to this series. In apparent sincerity, people will trust you more and will be more willing to consider your ideas appropriately, and they will not feel anything hidden about this, and this is because of the main difference between good and bad politics.
If you belong to a particular party, or have not taken part in any political affairs, choosing this method of not using any political behavior in your workplace will not only show your inexperience but will also prevent your progress in that environment. As Plato said, the danger of avoiding taking part in political affairs is that the large decisions that affect you are made by people who are less experienced, have weaker insight, and have fewer appropriate goals. There is a method for using unstated rules (unwritten, the same as workplace politics) to rise to higher stages and progress in your interests, and to keep your position and rank.
Some political techniques and methods
Political tactics in the organization are those acts that people at every organizational level use to reach their goals. (Regardless of whether these methods are appropriate or not.) We name a number of these tactics here:
Attacking others or blaming them
Disagreement and criticism at work is a natural issue, and not everyone thinks and views the same way, but among the different personalities you encounter at work, some people create conflict for their personal goals. Sometimes their goal is personal profit and benefit, and sometimes their goal is attracting attention and power, although they do not exist in every organization.
Using information as a political tool
Holding back or deliberately distorting information is among them.
Hiding an undesirable situation and creating a desirable image of yourself
This politics is in a way managing how others picture us. There are many cases for carrying this out. For example having a smile on your face even when you are upset, or choosing your type of clothing and grooming according to other people’s taste, and so on.
Creating a support base
Gaining prior support for a decision, committing others to a decision by involving them in decision-making
Praising others (giving attention and favor to others)
When we encourage and praise someone and praise them for having a trait or doing something, we have in fact satisfied their inner feeling. This act creates attraction and affection and also motivation or reinforcement for them, but praising people does not mean making empty compliments. Telling an employee they are wearing a beautiful shirt is a compliment. But when your employee handles an angry customer’s complaint and sends them away satisfied and happy, if you praise them you have made a valuable investment.
Of course in some people’s view, praising others in a group, or doing work that influential people like, is a kind of flattery.
A power coalition with strong allies
The main type of collaborative strategy is a strategic alliance. A strategic alliance is a partnership of two or more companies or business units that jointly pursue important strategic goals, and all of them benefit from this partnership. In today’s business world, alliances among companies or business units have become common and customary.
Forming a team with strong people who can get work to a result, associating with influential people or even appearing connected to influential people, and creating a support network inside and outside the organization are all politics that can be used in organizations.