Question

G1.1. Effective managers accept the political nature of organizations. Examine the individual and organizational factors that influence political behaviours at work.

**(This is a standard examination question for the graduate/masters class- 30 minutes given for question to be answered. Please some indepth answer is required. Same question was posted some few minutes ago but the answer was unsatisfactory. Please a Senior Examiner/Expert in Organizational Behaviour should kindly answer my questions.)**

Answer 1

The organizational politics at work place is influenced by both Individual factors and Organizational factors. Organizational Factors are:

The Equality aspect- Leaders have to engage in politics to achieve goals. But the question is why they use politics. If political tactics are used to advance causes in the organization that serve to benefit everyone equally, then they are more likely to be seen as purposeful and legitimate. Based on the equity theory and on the idea of social exchange and social reciprocity, the motivation to perform better and the development of positive employee attitudes and behaviours, depend on the display of similar positive attitudes and behaviours by four integral components of the organization such as peers, supervisors, the management and the organizations as a whole.

Promotional Avenue -According to Robbins and Judge (2010) promotion decisions have consistently been found to be one of the most political actions in organizations. The opportunity for promotion or advancement encourages people to compete for limited resources and try to positively influence the decision outcome. This implies that at the root of office politics is the issue of manipulation.

Use of Power-It has been widely recognized that both politics and power are significant part of human behaviour as they affect the ability to secure one’s goals and interests in a social system.

The Individual Factors are:

Job Satisfaction- The job satisfaction of an employee is also influences organizational politics. If an employee is doing well in his job and is getting rewads for his performance, he will always try to get closer to higher officials and will try to please them in order to get promotion, financial benefits etc.

Proximity with higher Authority-It has been observed that mediocre employees always try to establish good relations with higher authorities and influence them to get favors in the work place.