Diversity at Work-Organizational Politics to Employees - Essay Example

? Diversity at Work-Organizational Politics to Employees Question: Do You Think It Is Necessary to Participate in Organizational Politics In order To Achieve Your Career Goals? Why or Why Not? Participation in organizational politics is usually undertaken for the purpose of pursuing an individual’s self interest along with agendas. This is done without any regard as to what effects their actions will have on an organizations effort of achieving its set objectives (Martin, 2005). According to the case study in discussion, I would suggest that it is of utmost importance to participate in organizational politics since they would greatly assist an individual in attaining his or her career objectives (Rainey, 2009). As the case study shows, Isobela intelligently participates in the organizational politics at TopNotch and eventually gets a promotion after the retirement of James, their CEO. Alternatively, participating in organizational politics can have adverse effects on the careers of various individuals as happened to Alexis and George in the case study under consideration. The main issue that Alexis, George and Chetan are facing is their participation in organizational politics in an effort of seeing their efforts at the organization recognized and in turn get promotions. Their participation takes place when Alexis discovers that a former minister in New Zealand plans on hosting celebrations for his seventieth birthday. Alexis sees this as an opportunity of advancing her own agenda through playing politics to assist the company in achieving their objective of attracting latent clients while strengthening their status (Schermerhorn, Osborne, Uhl-Bien & Hunt, 2011). Alexis relies on rumors that are circulating within the organization concerning their relationship with their competitors. This enables her to obtain vital information concerning their organization of the various parties they have contracted (Martin, 2005). On the other hand, the company’s CEO also utilizes organizational politics in eliminating his competition in the attainment of contracts. He is able to threaten the management of ExcelEvent with the possibility of cutting ties with their major catering organization that is run by his relative. It is this move that enables him to eliminate part of their competition leaving one company vying for the same contract as his company (Sievers, Long & Lawrence, 2006). This therefore implies that the organizational politics utilized by the CEO of TopNotch were beneficial for his company (Case Study 2, 2012). Isobella is also perceived to have begun the steady rise in her career through the use of organizational politics. She reportedly manages to get the promotions through having dinners with the company’s CEO and her family’s background. Isobella is said to be incompetent and leaves most of her duties to her assistant, a Mr. George. She utilizes the time she would have been performing beneficial duties for the company in blackmailing, gossiping and making negative reports concerning her subordinates to the CEO. This strategy enables her to propel her career to levels which other employees within her company only dream about. She additionally utilizes threats to damage the image of her subordinates who have not been complying with the organizations regulations (Champoux, 2010). For instance, she utilizes the pictures she had taken of George dating a colleague since the company has strict regulations concerning the relationships that exist between their workers. The types of organizational politics that are utilized by Isobella are meant to help her in pursuing her self-interests through the promotions she will get (Daft & Willmott, 2010). Alexis on the other hand uses her skills of negotiating directly with officials from other organizations in the pursuit of excellence for the company (Samuel, 2005). She uses her influence through positive organizational politics that would greatly have helped the company in achieving their desired objectives (Schermerhorn, Osborne, Uhl-Bien & Hunt, 2011). Isobella utilizes organizational politics in frustrating the efforts of her fellow employees through the acts of abstaining from disclosing information. She gets information concerning the setting up of a site but does not share this information with her colleagues who are working on the same project. Her actions bring a lot of inconvenience to the company which had made prior arrangements through their CEO. Through her actions of not disclosing information to her colleagues, she is able to gain appraisal from her CEO for the actions she has taken in correcting the situation wherein had almost gone wrong. Instead of indulging in organizational politics with Isobella, Alexis instead decides to focus her skills on promotions along with the coordination of programs for the benefit of the company. She does this with the hope that her efforts will be recognized resulting in her subsequent promotion (Case Study 2, 2012). Some characters in the case study frustrate the efforts of their counterparts at their workplaces in organizational politicking so that they may eventually be given credit for correcting or reporting their errors (Daft & Willmott, 2010). For instance, Isobella liaises with George to conceal the truth regarding their error in making reservations for parking late. Isobella passes the message late to George concerning the reservations required though they jointly deceive the CEO by saying they did so ten days prior to the deadline set. Organizational politicking of this nature can destroy organization’s reputation and in turn lose many of their customers, which also means they would experience a drop in their profits (Ferris, 2011). Threats can be utilized within an organization’s politics to make other workers admit mistakes in fear of the repercussions they may encounter from their seniors. For instance, in the case study, Isobella forces George to admit that it was his fault the reservations for parking were not made in time or he will risk not receiving a good letter of reference once he has left the company (Case Study 2, 2012). George takes over Isobella’s job in her absence when she falls sick and performs so superbly even the minister compliments him for a job well done. He in turn plans on utilizing organizational politics for the purpose of getting a promotion but their CEO is reluctant since George has insufficient experience in the company. The CEO in turn turns to organizational politics to evade the persistence of George in getting a promotion by insisting that it is not his sole decision to make. He suggests that it is the board’s duty to make such a move in the company’s head offices. The strategy utilized by the CEO in their organizations politics would have helped in stopping conflicts from arising in the future. This could have happened but did not because the CEO was using the strategy for the wrong reason. According to the case study, the CEO never informed the board of George’s request but instead waited for his ally to plan ahead their moves together (2012). He even brushes aside his request for an increase in his pay due to his exemplary performance with the claim that George should be working mainly for self actualization and not the money. The organizational politics used by Isobella and their CEO make their employees feel exploited and underpaid which also happens in many other organizations. The political alliance of Alexis and George tries to bring Isobella down who is luckily informed of the plot by her assistant, Chetan. For help, she uses political connections within the organization to discredit the claims made by the two employees so that even other workers tend to believe her (Champoux, 2010). Thus she utilizes her organizational politicking skills in attaining the favor of the management who perceive her to be an innocent victim of mudslinging. Isobella ultimately builds her reputation among the employees through her devotion to and punctuality at work. This makes her counterparts side with her thereby making Alexis and George resign due to guilt. Due to Alexi’s ability to mingle and negotiate with other employees, she was lucky to get another job though George had to leave the country and search overseas (Case Study 2, 2012). The organizational politics that Isobella practices enable her to lure the employees while keeping them motivated in their work (Vigoda-Gadot & Drory, 2006). This enables her to finally assume the CEO’s job after his resignation with her assistant, Chetan taking her former position. References Case Study 2, (2012), Power and Politics in Organizations. Champoux, J. (2010). Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups, and Organizations. San Francisco: Taylor & Francis. Daft, R. L. D., J. & Willmott, M. H. (2010), Organization Theory And Design, London: Cengage Learning. Ferris, G. R. (2011), Politics In Organizations Theory And Research Considerations. New York: Routledge. Martin, J. (2005). Organizational Behavior And Management, London: Cengage Learning EMEA. Rainey, H. G. (2009). Understanding and Managing Public Organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Samuel, Y. (2005). The Political Agenda of Organization. London: Transaction Publishers. Schermerhorn, J. R., Osborne, R. N, Uhl-Bien & M., Hunt, J G. (2011). Organizational Behavior, New York: John Wiley & Sons. Sievers, B., Long, S. D & Lawrence, W. G. (2006). Power and Politics in Organizations. New York: SAGE. Vigoda-Gadot, E. & Drory, A. (2006). Handbook Of Organizational Politics. London: Edward Elgar Publishing. Read More