Organizational politics

I was told recently that “…a Strategic Management professor has to show SOME sense of politics” to get anything changed in an organization. “While you don’t have to be a great politician to teach strategic management, it doesn’t make sense to say you’re a strategy professor and then say you’re too innocent to think about how your goals can be accomplished.”

I disagree. I dispute the notion that organizational politics is inevitable if you want to get something changed.

It’s not that I’m completely innocent (well perhaps I am); its just that engaging in politics, however well intentioned, has at least three consequences (other than achieving the espoused goal which is anyway far from guaranteed), all highly undesirable.

First, it creates internal distrust and hostility, neither of which is, in my view, beneficial for any organization. Second, it drives those involved towards thinking about their own interests rather than those of the organization, and towards zero sum rather than positive sum calculus. Finally, it is time consuming, taking energy and effort away from other more productive endeavors.

I took a conscious decision some time ago to try, whenever I can, to avoid acting in a ‘political’ manner (being an ‘able player’ in Burt’s terminology). I tend say what I think, and say the same thing to everyone, even though it sometimes gets me into trouble.

I am an advocate of openness, transparency and full disclosure, rather than clandestine back-room deals and exchange of hostage bargaining. I believe in truth, not versions thereof tailored for the audience of the moment. That may mean that I will hang separately, but ultimately I would rather that than spending my time guessing what others’ ulterior motives might be and plotting schemes to undermine them.

Just a personal point of view…