Question

Explain how individuals navigate in health organizational politics .

Answer 1

Organizational politics means the atmosphere of the workplace wherein the individuals and/or groups try to promote their own needs and self-interests, sometimes even at the expense of others or the organization itself. People play politics in order to satisfy their own needs and satisfy their own interests.

People in health organizations navigate politics in following ways:

*The most important tool for navigation is Observation. Determine your own unit in the larger organization and see how it is perceived. Check how the decisions are made in your unit. Watch for the staff members who seem to be competitive or jealous. Check the formation of groups and social relations in your unit. Look who has the highest influence on decisions in your unit. Sometimes, the one with the authority is not the person with great influence. By observing you can get better idea of potential points of politics.

*Developing a strong self-awareness can better help you navigate the organizational politics. The staff members in highly specialized units may also have different opinions regarding professional topics and expertise of other staff members. So, try to be aware of who you are, how do you differ from other members in your group, what others think about your and how their perceptions may act as barriers to you.

*By building collaborative relationships with the members in your units and others in the organization, you can build a successful career. In the organization with high politics, one needs trustworthy members with whom he can share and discuss problems in the difficult situations. And even make sure that others will see you as someone who is trustworthy and capable of keeping confidential information safe.

*Self-promotion in a tactful manner can also be helpful. The workplaces are highly competitive and you need to perform well in a way that others see your performance in a measurable way. But this is risky, and it can make others resent your work that you are trying to achieve. So, give opportunity to others too.

Helping colleagues will bring you a good will. If you help your colleagues in difficult situations, they will return you a favor in the same manner.

Thus, if leaders in the organization promote honesty, transparency, open-debate and teamwork, political can be lessen. But, one cannot escape organizational politics completely. One has to navigate and manage the politics for the betterment.