Office Politics

By,

Karishma

"Office politics" are the strategies that people play to get advantage, personally or for a cause they support. The term often has a negative implication, in that it refers to strategies people use to gain advantage at the expense of others or the greater good. In this context, it often badly affects the working environment and relationships within it. Good "office politics", on the other hand, help you fairly promote yourself and your cause, and is often called networking and stakeholder management.

Perhaps due to the negative implication, many people see office politics as something very much to be avoided. But the truth is, to ensure your own success and that of your projects; you must navigate the crisis of Office Politics. If you deny the 'bad politics' that may be going on around you, and neglect dealing with them, you may unnecessarily suffer while others take unfair advantage. And if you avoid practising 'good politics', you will miss the opportunities to properly further your own interests, and those of your team and your cause.

Why work politics are unavoidable:

1.Some people have more power than others, either through hierarchy or some other basis of influence.

2.For many people, getting promotion is important, and this can create competition between individuals, or misalignment between the team's objectives and those of individuals within it.

3.Most people care passionately about decisions at work and this encourages political behaviour as they seek to get their way.

4.Decisions at work are impacted by both work-related goals and personal factors, so there is further scope for goal conflict.

5.People and teams within organizations often have to compete for limited resources; this can lead to a kind of "tribal conflict" where teams compete to satisfy their needs and objectives, even when this is against the greater good.

 Making Politics Work FOR You:

•To deal with office politics and use it yourself in a positive way, you must first have to accept the reality of it.

•Once you've done this, you then need to develop strategies to deal with the political behaviour that is going on around you.

•The best way to do this is to be a good observer and then use the information you gather to build yourself a strong network to operate in.