Organizational Behaviour - Sakural's Blog Entry #1—Power and Politics within Business

My first blog post on the Organizational Behavior course is based on the article "You Can’t Sit Out Office Politics, but you can use them to your advantage.", written by Niven Postma, and published by Harvard Business Review, on July 14, 2021.

Content Summary

In the author's opinion, office politics is based on how people interact at work and influence each other. It can be positive or negative, but it is unavoidable. Some people think they can avoid office politics by focusing on their work and being nice to everyone. Meanwhile, the author also points out that this strategy may lead them to lose trust, miss out on opportunities, and isolate themselves.

The article suggests four steps to deal constructively with office politics. First, get to know the political environment of our organization. Who are the key players, what are their goals, and how do they communicate? Second, identify our own political style and goals. Are we team players, networkers, self-promoters, or challengers? What do we want to achieve in our work and how do we want to be perceived by others? Third, build relationships with those who can help and support us, show interest, provide value, and ask for feedback. Fourth, manage conflict and disagreement with respect and confidence. We could achieve this by listening, empathizing and negotiating.

Overall, the authors believe that office politics should not be feared or ignored. Maintaining open lines of communication is an important part of working with others, and it can help us advance in our careers and improve our performance. Using these four steps, we may be able to engage in office politics in an ethical and positive way.

Personal Reading Sharing

I experienced office politics in my previous job. For example, when I worked as an online manager in the retail industry, I had to deal with dishonest, competitive and jealous coworkers. I have tried to use some of the strategies in the article above to deal with them in a respectful, confident and professional manner. I have to admit that it has been a very challenging experience.

I think office politics is a reality of working with others. If I had realized these were "office politics" at the time and sought guidance on how to handle them, I might have done better. Our ability to engage in constructive office politics cannot be avoided, as the article points out, but we can choose how to engage in them.

Reference:

Postma, N. (2021, July 14). You Can’t Sit Out Office Politics, but you can use them to
      your advantage. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from 
      https://hbr.org/2021/07/you-cant-sit-out-office-politics 

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and I would appreciate it if you would leave any comments.