OFFICE POLITICS

'Office politics' are politics which exist in an office relating to that organization. It is a term for both the productive and counterproductive competitive human factors present between coworkers, in any office environment.
Office politics differs from office gossip in that people participating in office politics do so with the objective of gaining advantage, whereas gossip can be a purely social activity.

Contents

Some aspects of office politics

"Kicked upstairs"

Some aspects of office politics

★ Alliances often form between colleagues in section of an organization or sometimes with similar interests, who then team up against other perceived competitors where generally they fight for either for more efficiency and/or power of that section over other sections.

★ Many different personal factors may divide the groups as well, e.g. age, gender, individual dislikes or ethnic background.

★ High officials in organizations sometimes encourage office politics; it costs them little but gives them more control, as they can play underlings off who are fighting between themselves. Sometimes these authority figures are themselves 'players in the game,' creating cliques or teams deep within the organization, as they compete for power with fellow executives striving for the top.

★ Office politics is also noted as such, some co workers you will get along with and then there are those you just don't see "eye to eye", in the realm of it, you tend to discuss or "gossip" or "vent" with the co worker(s) you believe you manage well with, what does not help is when the co worker(s) you think you manage well with takes your "gossip" and/or "venting" and delivers the information to those you don't manage well with. This is where the "gossip" is created and problems occurr. In general, we as "human beings" believe we have an honest understanding with the "co worker(s)" we trust, but once that trust has been broken, well then unfortunateloy, you know where you "stand" with that particular individual or co workers. Yes, we should not "gossip" nor should we have time for "gossip" that is the general key. But sometimes, we just want to "vent" and this should not create a problem either, unfortunately alot of us "human beings" learn the hard way of our friendship with co worker(s).

"Kicked upstairs"

One of the concepts found in corporate executive office politics is called being "kicked upstairs". This is when a disliked or under performing executive in charge of some portion of a corporation, is said to have been promoted (and might report then to the person his current boss is reporting to), yet is given only a small amount of responsibility, if any. This may be viewed as either punishment or damage control.
This practice however is controversial because it is seen as too lenient, and a waste of the shareholder's money. Often executives stay within the corporation for years not doing very much work (see the Peter principle), but also they are often finally allowed to have real duties when someone else is disliked or fails. This whole process is very hard to discern from an outsider's, or analyst's standpoint. It is often revealed only later in famous cases in business biographies.
Following the formula "information plus authority permits the exercise of power", the Kicked upstairs phenomenon can be explained. People with excellent lines of communication tend to be better able to manage the productive use of authority than, for example, very competent people who are loners. Therefore if you have to promote someone it is wiser to promote the person who is well keyed into the organization with many people looking out for them, even if they are less competent, in favor of the highly competent person who does not have a network to protect their interests.