BY MENGESHA AMARE
In the modern-day circle, it is not uncommon to observe people talking about others setting their inside out aside. As human being is a social animal, interaction is quite inevitable. In due course of running communication, many are most of the time obsessed with propagating an office politics.
Office politics, for some, connotes negative, but it is not. It is inevitable that office politics exists essentially in all organizations as it is an activity performed by individuals to mend their eminence and advance their personal schema, every so often, at the expense of others.
These self-serving actions are informal or unofficial and could be the reason why politics in the workplace comes with a negative repercussion. However, there are good aspects of the activities commonly referred to as office politics as these actions help come up with optimistic chattels. Office politics hits dual advantage as it is a harmful as well as useful interaction of people with a grapevine channel.
Some organizations garner benefit out of it and some fail to well exploit it for a purpose, instead they sow rivalry among workers for they mishandle the self-styled mandatory scenario.
Office politics could by no means be banned as it would work someway. However, the potential harmful effects can be managed by taking ideas, among others, ‘What are my choices; play the game or avoid getting involved? How should I determine an acceptable way to treat the matter? Yes, one should think first prior to act.
Needless to state, employees of any sector, be it a public owned or private company, are duty bound to meet their objectives for which they are deployed or endeavoring to make daily bread. No matter how meager or appealing their salary may be, workers are doing their level best to attain the targets set by their respective organizations for which they are working.
In some circumstances, many of the workers are fond of talking about others as gossip is rampant unknowingly or calculatingly.
Is office politics revolving around individual backbiting, spreading malicious rumors against the right people or building their reputation?
Like it or loathe it, however, office politics is a fact of life in any organization. Besides, it is possible to promote oneself and their cause without compromising self-values or that of the organization.
Practicing good politics enables people to further augment teams’ interests fairly and appropriately, too.
Why does workplace politics exist? What are the means to overcome office politics without plummeting to the lowest standards of behavior?
Undeniably, or naturally, in simple terms, all workplaces are political hubs to some extent merely because people bring their personal sentiments, feelings, reliefs, and ambitions, insecurities, to mention but a few, into their professional lives.
Following their egocentric feature, people all want to be successful, but they don’t always agree with one another. Office politics arises from differences in personality and opinions, which have become difficult to manage.
People often care deeply about the decisions they make, or what others make about them; so they seek to influence others’ choices.
It needs to be well remembered always that some people will always have more power than others, either through grading, authority ladder or some other bases.
No doubt, it is natural to demand reputation or increase charisma, our power, but people might do so in a way that takes power away from others.
It is by far better to understand what kind of approach people like or dislike. The first instinct of many of the people may be keeping their distance from people who practice bad politics. In fact, the opposite can be more effective.
Knowing the gossips actors and manipulators better and trying to understand their goals helps avoid or counter the impact of their negative politicking.
It seems with this understanding that many organizations have actively fostered constructive politics. In most cases, developing political competence is not a choice; it is a necessity instead. The ones who manage to reach the inner circle are at a great advantage.
Approaches, thoughts, undertakings etc., which are used to get benefit, keep power or secure an advantage within a business or company can be one of the meanings of office politics. Some workers play office politics to gain an imbalanced advantage over a colleague by winning the confidence of a superior at the expense of a workmate. This may occur by criticizing a counterpart, talking down about them to the ones who are superior to others or taking credit for their work.
In sum, it is up to the concerned organization to set informal rules about office politics since it is quite real in every organization and sector office. Workers need to understand the negative and positive impacts of office politics as it is significantly affecting worker productivity, workplace relationships, and even peoples’ physical and mental health.
The Ethiopian Herald February 4/2021
