Friday, August 1, 2008

Dealing with office politics

A friend of mine was complaining that while choosing jobs in Delhi she found there to be plenty of office politics which were more prevalent even then the real hunt for talent. I’m not sure if this is the case in each and every company and if such things are exclusive to the north (she had a job in Bangalore with Dell), but what I did find upon researching such things was an article on a website called ‘Dealing with office politics’. I’ve included portions of it here for your easy reference. It says that office politics are inevitable for the following reasons:

Some people have more power than others, either through hierarchy or some other basis of influence.

For many people, gaining promotion is important, and this can create competition between individuals, or misalignment between the team's objectives and those of individuals within it
Most people care passionately about decisions at work and this encourages political behavior as they seek to get their way

Decisions at work are impacted by both work-related goals and personal factors, so there is further scope for goal conflict

People and teams within organizations often have to compete for limited resources; this can lead to a kind of "tribal conflict" where teams compete to satisfy their needs and objectives, even when this is against the greater good

It also says that you can make them work in your favor. But enough of that! To see the full article, go to their main web page