Workplace Political Battles: A Personal Experience

Workplace Political Battles: Personal Experience
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Workplace Political Battles: A Personal Experience
Political battles are a common phenomenon in organizations since organizations provide individuals with power bases. Also, there are scarce resources within organizations, and competition for these resources contributes to political battles. One of the largest political battles I have ever experienced was between a new C.E.O and senior management. The new C.E.O. challenged the status quo after he discovered that nepotism was common within the organization. The senior management sometimes gave jobs to people they knew personally without considering their qualifications for the job. Also, promotions were given based on the senior management’s preferences, and as a result, more suitable candidates were sometimes left out. The senior management felt threatened by the C.E.O. because they thought he would take away their power if nepotism as practice came to an end. The C.E.O., however, wanted to improve the organization’s performance, and he felt that employing qualified individuals was the first step towards achieving this goal.
Several individual and organizational factors contributed to this political battle. On the one hand, the C.E.O., at an individual level, had a high expectation of success. According to Robbins (1997), individuals with a high expectation of success are likely to engage in political behavior. The C.E.O. wanted his tenure in the organization to be successful and was willing to engage in political behavior to advance his agenda. On the other hand, senior management had a high Machiavellian as an individual factor. Individuals with a Machiavellian personality are manipulative and are greedy for power (Robbins, 1997). Most of the senior managers were greedy for power and used it to manipulate others into doing what they wanted. Picking their preferred employees for certain positions allowed them to do so comfort...