Understanding and Managing Organizational Politics

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a basis for an understanding of organizational politics and provide various approaches to decreasing its presence and generally negative effects on the organization. Self-interest is a common component of organizational politics and is represented by members’ interests to preserve one’s career (Vigoda, 2000) and to advance one’s career (Randall, Cropanzano, Borman, & Birjulin, 1999). The negative effects of organizational politics can ultimately undermine the overall goals of the organization and include: the playing of favorites (Malik, Danish, & Ghafoor, 2009); poor organizational citizenship behaviors (Chang, et al., 2009); the decline in job satisfaction and increases of job stress (Miller, Rutherford, & Kolodinsky, 2008; an indifferent employee attitude, and poor job performance (Witt, Andrews, & Kacmar, 2000); disruption of return on employee investment (Hochwarter, Kacmar, Perrewe, & Johnson, 2003); and lower morale (Chang et al., 2009). Strategies found effective in reducing organizational politics include but are not limited to: involving employees in decision making, fostering teamwork, building trust and social support, hiring politically under-skilled employees, and basing personnel and program decisions on objective criteria. Politics’ omnipresence across organizations presents a challenge for managers in that it will never be eradicated but must be consistently addressed if organizational outcomes are to be achieved and maximized.