Politics denominates the process of making decisions in which all members of a group are involved. Politics is present in every possible group – it can be a sports team, a department or a whole country.
What is office politics about? It doesn’t have to be perceived purely negatively. Of course, there may be people who suck up to the boss, colleagues who take all the credit for other people's work and colleagues who always only talk about topics that interest them during a conference call, leaving no room for others.
The good and bad outcomes of office politics
Examples of team dysfunction are not hard to imagine.
- Power beats thinking: Egos are the drivers of decision making, not reason.
- Special relationships, not merits: Egos are involved when it comes to promotions, too.
- Lack of appreciation: Good work is neither recognized nor appreciated.
However, an article on the management-issues.comwebsite claims that this is not the full picture. Politics can help us!
- It enables us to learn and know who we need to meet when we really want to make things happen (that is not always the same person as who is on the org chart).
- It also allows us to understand the tacit, unspoken reasons.
- It allows us to better understand what our manager means when we have our performance review.
Politics is a neutral force. It helps us to understand how we can assist others and get work done. So although dealing with all the hidden agendas can be exhausting, we can still live with politics – and protect ourselves from the negative consequences.
-jk-