Office Politics and Playing a Game
“It’s all political around here.” “You’ve got to play the game.” We’ve all heard some version of those quotes. Why do organizations have office politics and what, if anything, should be done about it?
The traditional view of office politics is a culture of back-stabbing and alliance building. Many managers, not knowing how to handle office politics, have changed the concept to a more positive concept: playing a game. And in this game the players, employees, form alliances and manage the culture to get ahead. Our society embraces this type of interaction so much that they leave the office and glue themselves to the television to watch reality shows where the same thing they despise at the
office unfolds on an island or some contained house with hidden cameras.
Office politics occur when employees have limited input with the decision makers or when outputs and results can’t be measured, causing individuals uncertainty about their value to the organization. This leads to insecurity, which in turn leads to self-protection but potentially damaging political behaviors.
In addition to not practicing office politics yourself, you as a leader can help alleviate office politics by helping your employees to understand the movement and make up of the organizational culture – who makes decisions that affect them, how are those decisions made, when are those decisions made, and how they can influence those decisions. Your culture needs to reward those employees who are team players because these people will sometimes take a hit personally if it is for the good of the team (not the political team, but the whole organization team).
Key Indicators that your organization has damaging office politics:
• Staff spends too much time protecting themselves with e-mails and reports.
• Too many meetings are devoted to dealing with internal issues instead of
improving business operations.
• Whining, complaining, undue caution, or passive-aggressive behavior by staff
members.
• Problems are never resolved or meetings are ended without making decisions
and holding someone accountable.
• Little cliques, which slow down the forward momentum of projects or
the company.
• Key information is “gated” by departments and individuals.
The traditional view of office politics is a culture of back-stabbing and alliance building. Many managers, not knowing how to handle office politics, have changed the concept to a more positive concept: playing a game. And in this game the players, employees, form alliances and manage the culture to get ahead. Our society embraces this type of interaction so much that they leave the office and glue themselves to the television to watch reality shows where the same thing they despise at the
office unfolds on an island or some contained house with hidden cameras.
Office politics occur when employees have limited input with the decision makers or when outputs and results can’t be measured, causing individuals uncertainty about their value to the organization. This leads to insecurity, which in turn leads to self-protection but potentially damaging political behaviors.
In addition to not practicing office politics yourself, you as a leader can help alleviate office politics by helping your employees to understand the movement and make up of the organizational culture – who makes decisions that affect them, how are those decisions made, when are those decisions made, and how they can influence those decisions. Your culture needs to reward those employees who are team players because these people will sometimes take a hit personally if it is for the good of the team (not the political team, but the whole organization team).
Key Indicators that your organization has damaging office politics:
• Staff spends too much time protecting themselves with e-mails and reports.
• Too many meetings are devoted to dealing with internal issues instead of
improving business operations.
• Whining, complaining, undue caution, or passive-aggressive behavior by staff
members.
• Problems are never resolved or meetings are ended without making decisions
and holding someone accountable.
• Little cliques, which slow down the forward momentum of projects or
the company.
• Key information is “gated” by departments and individuals.
Posted by Cal Tingey at 9/24/2011 4:52 AM 
Categories: Personnel, Management
Tags: Politics Office Politics political play the game Cal Tingey Cal Tingey cliques
Categories: Personnel, Management
Tags: Politics Office Politics political play the game Cal Tingey Cal Tingey cliques
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