Office Politics and When to Apply Them
OFFICE POLITICS AND WHEN TO APPLY THEM Office politics is the use of one’s behavior or assigned power within an employing organization for the purpose of obtaining advantages beyond one’s legitimate authority. These advantages may include access to tangible assets, or intangible benefits such as status or pseudo-authority that influence the behavior of others. Both individuals and groups may engage in office politics has also been described as “simply how power gets worked out on a practical day-to-day basis: Office politics differs from office gossips in that people, participating in office politics do so with the objective of gaining advantage whereas gossip can be a purely social activity. However, both activities are highly related to each other, office gossip is often used by an individual to place themselves at a point where they can control the flow of information and therefore gain maximum advantage. Office politics also refers to the way co-workers act among each other. It can be either positive or negative.
WHEN TO APPLY THEM Office politics a taboo word for some people. It’s a pervasive thing that at work place. In its simplest form office politics is simply about the differences between people at work. Differences in opinion, conflicts of interest are often manifested as office politics. It all goes down to human communication and relationships. To apply them, the following points needs to be considered: 1. Beware you have a choice: the most common reactions to politics at work are either fight or flight. It’s normal human reaction for survival in the wild back in the prehistoric days when we were still hunter-gatherens. Sure, the office is a modern jungle, but it takes more than just instinctive reactions to win the office politics. 2. Know what you are trying to achieve: When conflicts happens, its very easy to be sucked into funnel-vision and focus on immediate differences. That’s a self-defeating approach. The way to mitigate
WHEN TO APPLY THEM Office politics a taboo word for some people. It’s a pervasive thing that at work place. In its simplest form office politics is simply about the differences between people at work. Differences in opinion, conflicts of interest are often manifested as office politics. It all goes down to human communication and relationships. To apply them, the following points needs to be considered: 1. Beware you have a choice: the most common reactions to politics at work are either fight or flight. It’s normal human reaction for survival in the wild back in the prehistoric days when we were still hunter-gatherens. Sure, the office is a modern jungle, but it takes more than just instinctive reactions to win the office politics. 2. Know what you are trying to achieve: When conflicts happens, its very easy to be sucked into funnel-vision and focus on immediate differences. That’s a self-defeating approach. The way to mitigate
References: Office Politics, Marilyn Height Bigbad Boss.com “Games people play” Eric Beme.