Your career is at stake, you should know,
And you don’t want that guy as a foe.
Though his title ain’t fancy,
To mock him is chancy:
That fellow’s the president’s beau
So says a black-humoured limerick on office politics from Madeleine Begun Kane, a writer, musician and lawyer. There are differing views as to what office politics is and its role is in an organization. Says Shivani Singh (name changed), a manager with a large MNC , ” Office politics need not always be bad. It can simply mean securing a promotion or pushing one’s idea or gaining support for organizational change.” However, most of us do not tend to take such a benign opinion. Being pushed into corners, tricks, back stabbing, Machiavellian scheming is something we have all encountered at one point or the other.
Such politics can often have a negative effect on working environment hamper productivity or even lead to an exit of valuable talent from the company. It can also have financial repercussions. According to a reed.co.uk survey, negative effects of office politics cost British businesses ?7.2 billion every year. Yet another survey conducted by the research firm NFI Research over a base of 2000 senior executives found that top causes of negative office politics are personalities, gossip and a short-term view. Says an HP India employee on conditions of anonymity, “When HP India’s top manager quit, the repercussions were felt way down the command lines. Several other managers had to quit as they felt they would not share similar comfort levels with the new manager.”
The research also found that often the politics was fostered from the top. Top management does this by ignoring inconvenient facts and being short sighted. As a consequence employee productivity suffers with low morale. According to a survey respondent his CEO was clearly to blame. In this case, the CEO had achieved success during the dotcom boom and felt that he knew more than anyone else in the field. He set no clear priorities, roles and one had to get his approval on all matters. The respondent said that the company had lost several good people because of the same. “In some cases, if certain talented people feel that there will be no conflict resolution even after complaining to top people, they may even leave the organization,” says Dhruv Sawhney of Hewitt Associates. He also points out that a big negative effect of office politics is that it makes the energies within an organization focused inward rather than being customer centric.
Says JP Singh, managing director Bausch and Lomb India, “Miscommunication can make office politics flourish in an organization. If one perceives such behaviour to be rewarded, either consciously or unconsciously it can lead to problems. Whenever, I hear something at the “watercooler”, I make sure that I get all together and ensure that the rumour mill’s churning is stopped.
As per Roffey Park’s “Management Agenda 2007” survey office politics was ranked at the bottom by managers in a list of demotivators. In comparison, it has risen above issues of increased workload and management style to be the highest causes of stress today. HR mangers would do well to sit up and take note or be ready for political fallouts.