Office Politics : From Surviving to Thriving

2015 ◽  
pp. 158-171
Keyword(s):  
Office Politics

Informal Networks : The Company behind the Chart

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Krackhardt ◽  
Jeffrey R. Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Entire Functions ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Formal Organization ◽  
Informal Organization ◽  
The Real ◽  
Business Units ◽  
Formal Organizations ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Office Politics ◽  
Set Up

Many executives invest considerable resources in restructuring their companies, drawing and redrawing organizational charts only to be disappointed by the results. That’s because much of the real work of companies happens despite the formal organization. Often what needs attention is the informal organization, the networks of relationships that employees form across functions and divisions to accomplish tasks fast. These informal networks can cut through formal reporting procedures to jump start stalled initiatives and meet extraordinary deadlines. But informal networks can just as easily sabotage companies’ best laid plans by blocking communication and fomenting opposition to change unless managers know how to identify and direct them. Learning how to map these social links can help managers harness the real power in their companies and revamp their formal organizations to let the informal ones thrive. If the formal organization is the skeleton of a company, the informal is the central nervous system driving the collective thought processes, actions, and reactions of its business units. Designed to facilitate standard modes of production, the formal organization is set up to handle easily anticipated problems. But when unexpected problems arise, the informal organization kicks in. Its complex webs of social ties form every time colleagues communicate and solidify over time into surprisingly stable networks. Highly adaptive, informal networks move diagonally and elliptically, skipping entire functions to get work done. Managers often pride themselves on understanding how these networks operate. They will readily tell you who confers on technical matters and who discusses office politics over lunch. What’s startling is how often they are wrong. Although they may be able to diagram accurately the social links of the five or six people closest to them, their assumptions about employees outside their immediate circle are usually off the mark. Even the most psychologically shrewd managers lack critical information about how employees spend their days and how they feel about their peers. Managers simply can’t be everywhere at once, nor can they read people’s minds. So they’re left to draw conclusions based on superficial observations, without the tools to test their perceptions.

Office Politics in a State Legislature

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 550-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sommer ◽  
Katherine Steiner
Keyword(s):  
State Legislature ◽  
Office Politics

scholarly journals Office politics

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
J. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Office Politics

That's a case of sexual harassment… Isn't it?

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Vaibhavi Kulkarni
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Gender Role ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Role Expectations ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Private Bank ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Gender Role Expectations ◽  
Office Politics ◽  
And Gender

This case centres around a senior vice-president in a private bank, who becomes aware of a potential sexual harassment (SH) case within his team. The case captures his reactions, right from his initial attempt to understand the scenario, to his conversations with the woman concerned, and his eventual attempt to minimise the incident. The purpose of the case is to explore how such incidents can play out in the Indian corporate sector, where socio-cultural factors and gender role expectations influence the way organisational members perceive and respond to the complaints. Influence of factors such as gender role expectations, power dynamics, office politics, individual differences, and business concerns in a) perception of harassment incidents and b) attributes related to harassment incidents

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