Home » Politics at work

“Politics at work”
Findings from Roffey Park/Director Magazine — November 2002

Title of article: Backstabbing, mistrust, stolen ideas, blame, scapegoats.

1. Political behaviour is rising and leads to a reduction of trust in management and game playing is damaging performance.
2. Politics hurts performance:
   1. Reduces productivity
   2. Negatively affects morale
   3. Increases competition and conflict
   4. Discourages knowledge sharing
   5. Creates lack of trust
   6. Excludes key people from decision making
   7. Reduces faith in top management
   8. Leads to a loss of valuable talent
   9. Prevents merit from being rewarded.
3. Comments from Research:
   1. Politics is bad where one person succeeds at the expense of another
   2. Several people have left organisations because they felt that politics was damaging the business interests
   3. ‘Six years ago I thought politics was a bad thing – now I think it is necessary’
   4. 49% thought that politics was on the increase, 44% thought it was the same
   5. Politics is at it’s most active during change and restructuring
   6. ‘Politics beats the passion out of people’
   7. 48% believe politics impacts negatively on profits, 36% disagreed
   8. There is an implication that people who are politically focused cannot be customer focused
   9. 70% have suffered as a result of politics - 11% disagreed
   10. 45% stated that they had gained power and influence as a result of organisational politics
   11. The worst politicking I have seen is in an organisation of 18 people
   12. HR and Finance are seen as the least political
   13. People cannot get to the top without being political

People saw the Senior Managers as political (43%) while middle managers at 11% and the board at 9% lag behind.