Politics of Backstabbing
The Politics of Backstabbing
John C. Student
Strayer University
Instructor Kenneth Elliott
Principles of Organizational Behavior – BUS 105
March 7, 2010
Introduction
Legitimate political behavior applies to normal everyday politics, as illegitimate political behavior applies to extreme political behavior that violates the implied rules of the game. Betrayal in an organization also known as backstabbing. It’s an act of breaking or violation of trust that creates moral and psychological conflict within a relationship among two parties (“Betrayal”, 2010). There are many factors in this case incident that lead to illegitimate political behavior. This case incident involved Scott Rosen and his colleague, assistant manager of a financial-services company. Scott believed that he was a productive assistant manager until one day he realized that he was being backstabbed by his colleague. He’d observed strange behaviors between his colleague and his manager, also inappropriate and negative comments made by his colleague toward him. Sometimes, his manager and his colleague would have an unusual meeting behind closed doors. On other occasions, his colleague would asked a question that Mr. Rosen wouldn’t know the answer and make an inappropriate comment in the presence of his manager, implied that Mr. Rosen was incompetent and mismanaging his job. Due to the result of such illegitimate political approach, Mr. Rosen was demoted while his colleague was promoted. Shortly after the incident, Mr. Rosen resigned with many questions unanswered (Robbins and Judge, 2007, p. 497).
Warning
These types of incidents are very common in the workplace as some people would use political games to move ahead. In my opinion Mr. Rosen needs to communicate with his colleague and solve this issue in a friendly kind of way, to avoid any complication in the future. Be straight forward about his concern and bring up the comments and the abnormal behavior that
John C. Student
Strayer University
Instructor Kenneth Elliott
Principles of Organizational Behavior – BUS 105
March 7, 2010
Introduction
Legitimate political behavior applies to normal everyday politics, as illegitimate political behavior applies to extreme political behavior that violates the implied rules of the game. Betrayal in an organization also known as backstabbing. It’s an act of breaking or violation of trust that creates moral and psychological conflict within a relationship among two parties (“Betrayal”, 2010). There are many factors in this case incident that lead to illegitimate political behavior. This case incident involved Scott Rosen and his colleague, assistant manager of a financial-services company. Scott believed that he was a productive assistant manager until one day he realized that he was being backstabbed by his colleague. He’d observed strange behaviors between his colleague and his manager, also inappropriate and negative comments made by his colleague toward him. Sometimes, his manager and his colleague would have an unusual meeting behind closed doors. On other occasions, his colleague would asked a question that Mr. Rosen wouldn’t know the answer and make an inappropriate comment in the presence of his manager, implied that Mr. Rosen was incompetent and mismanaging his job. Due to the result of such illegitimate political approach, Mr. Rosen was demoted while his colleague was promoted. Shortly after the incident, Mr. Rosen resigned with many questions unanswered (Robbins and Judge, 2007, p. 497).
Warning
These types of incidents are very common in the workplace as some people would use political games to move ahead. In my opinion Mr. Rosen needs to communicate with his colleague and solve this issue in a friendly kind of way, to avoid any complication in the future. Be straight forward about his concern and bring up the comments and the abnormal behavior that
References: Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T.A. (2007). Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Factors contributing to Political Behavior. (2008, August). Retrieved March 07, 2010, from http://www.citeman.com/3729-factors-contributing-to-political-behavior/ Wikipedia. (2010). Betrayal. Retrieved March 07, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backstabbing ----------------------- 6