How to Handle Office Politics (Part I)

In one of my earlier posts, I had listed Ten Essential Attributes for a Successful Career. One of them is the ability to handle politics at workplace.

Politics is omnipresent at every workplace but in a varied degree. It is near impossible to expect a utopian workplace completely devoid of politics because it is a part of human behaviour. No two humans are alike in terms of their personalities – nature, temperament, likes and dislikes, principles, ethics and moral and so many other things.

So in an organization, when we work in a group of people of different personalities from different parts of the country who have been brought up under diverse environment, it is quite natural that not everyone is going to like you or dislike you. Some will develop camaraderie easily, few will take some time but another lot will perhaps never be friends with you.

(photo credit: click here) 

There are four key factors that determine the level of politics in any organisation. They are:

Work culture:  Each organisation develops its own work culture over a period of time and that becomes its hallmark. The work culture of an organisation influences the workers the same way the environment at one’s home does to the children when they grow up. A disciplined atmosphere at home imbibes the good habits in the kids and prevail over the individual traits which may be negative in some of them. Similarly, every employee that joins an organisation – his/her behaviour or conduct at workplace get well influenced by the work culture that the organisation has created over the years.

Leadership: Similarly a lot depends on the leadership quality of the individual who heads the organisation. The behavioural pattern in a group is hugely impacted by the influences from the top. It is a common human tendency to ape the leader. If he is someone who despises politics in office and handles it with an iron hand, be assured you will find very minimal negative energy in the office albeit the presence of some undercurrents. But if the leader himself thrives on politics, then god bless such organisation. Employees will be more focused on backstabbing others, settling scores, scuttling good initiatives by peers or even subordinates rather than working efficiently and sincerely discharging their duties.

Corruption: Perhaps no organisation is 100% corruption free consistently. When a company deals in millions of dollars of business and money transaction and it has thousands of employees involved in it in some stage or other, there is bound to be certain situations or moments when greed overcome the ethics of certain individual. They compromise with their core values to make few quick bucks. However, if such corruption is commonplace in an organisation, it severely impacts the work culture promoting politically vicious atmosphere due to the vested interests of the individuals.

Lack of Job Satisfaction: Imagine a group of employees who do not have clear directives on their deliverables, who are not taken care of by their employer in terms of career growth, training, reward and compensation. Basically, they work in an organisation which doesn't have healthy HR policies and practices. You can well imagine what to find on day one if you happen to join – grumpy and unwelcoming faces, lots of discouraging and demoralising inputs and advices, heavy and depressing atmosphere with negative vibes all around.

With the moral of the people reaching the nadir, they involve in a slugfest, extracting sadistic satisfaction by hurting other’s prospects and pulling down those who wish to do well. Like a bunch of crabs in a bucket, they madly try to pull each other down, whoever tries to climb out of it.

There can be several other factors influencing the presence of politics and its intensity in an organisation but to me, above are the four main ones which heavily impact. 

How to effectively handle and manage office politics and achieve one's professional goals? Here is the link to my next blog wherein I have tried to address the same. How to Handle Office Politics (Part II)

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