Politic in office

To help us understand organizations, we might consider them as political systems. The political representation helps us understand power relationships in day-to-day organizational relationships. If we accept that power relations exist in organizations, then politics and scheming are an essential part of organizational life.

Politics is a means of recognizing and, ultimately, reconciling competing interests within the organization. Competing interests can be reconciled by any number of means. For example, resorting to "rule by the manager" might be seen as an example of dictatorial rule. On the other hand, politics may be a means of creating a non-coercive, or a democratic work environment.

As mentioned, organizations need mechanisms whereby they reconcile conflicting interests. Hence, organizations, like governments, tend to "rule" by some sort of "system". This "system" is employed to create and maintain "order" among the organization's members.

Annotated Bibliography

Clarke, C. (1990). Job Stress. Retrieved October 28, 2006, from http://www.superperformance.com/jobstress.html

No matter where you work or what you do, you will always encounter politics on the job. Part of job politics consists of the influences by each individual to get others to behave as the schemer desires. The other parts of job politics are the negotiations and cooperation's with or resistance to the schemer.

Politic is a game everyone plays. Have someone to do things our way is a form of politics. Everyone have hopes and wishes in relation to other people. Everyone try to make those hopes and wishes come true. That's political action.

Robin, D. (2004). Hidden Sources in the Workplace. Retrieved on October 27, 2006 from http://www.abetterworkplace.com/site_map.html

To me, the greatest power comes from collaboration ... from skillfully going inside our differences and working willingly toward building something better than we had at the start. The key here will be to use those forms of power that balance your approach: to simultaneously create sustainable work relationships and the desired results, with the least amount of effort.