Effect of Power and Politics in an Organization

Essay by iggymac2007University, Bachelor'sA, March 2008

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There are many aspects of an organization that can greatly affect their success and moral. Some of the areas that can play a key role in the organization are; power, politics, code of conduct, business intentions, objectivity, personal agendas, and organizational goals. Power and politics can have both a positive and negative affect on an organization. Businesses must make objective decisions and insure their intentions remain in line with the organization's goals. Organizations must not allow personal agendas to interfere with their business decisions and must make sound ethical decisions. Organizational politics can have a detrimental affect on employee's, moral, loyalty, and trust.

Power and PoliticsPower can be motivators in both a positive and negative manner. Wideman, 2003, states that power is the ability to persuade others to do the following; get them to do what you want them to do, when to do it, and in the manner you want them to do it.

Wideman also maintains that influence is the exercise of authority or leadership, to persuade others, and organize them to follow. The struggle of power and influence by competing groups creates politics. Some believe that the practice of politics can be cunning and deceitful, while others believe it can be a motivator with positive results.

The reality is that office politics does exist in most organizations. Some issues in an organization that may create competing groups; departmental budgets, space allocations, project responsibilities, and salary adjustment (Robbins, 2001). Limited resources in an organization will also form competing groups because the gained resource of a group is always at the expense of another group or department. Competing groups require more than convincing facts in order to get management to make a decision; the group that can influence and pollute the facts of other groups will be more successful...