Organizational Politics

Organizational politics is an unavoidable construct of workplace dynamics (Vigoda, 2001). Even organizational politics is unavoidable, the definitions for organizational politics given by researchers seem different. Ferris et al. (1989) proposed that organizational politics is a social influence behavior that is strategically designed to maximize self-interest.

Organizational politics is as organizational members using power in their efforts to influence others and secure interest, or to avoid negative outcomes in the organization (Bozeman, Perrewe, Kacmar, Hochwarter, & Brymer, 1996). Witt, Andrews, and Kacmar (2000) stated that organizational politics refers to phenomena in which organizational members try to influence other members by means not sanctioned by formal standard or informal norms, in an attempt to achieve personal or group objective either directly or indirectly.

Kacmar and Carlson (1997) thought even there various definitions of organizational politics that have been presented in the literature, a definition offered to the term, organizational politics, is believed to be avoided. However, those definitions share three commonalities according to Kacmar and Carlson’s finding. (a) Political activities are a means of exercising social influence. (b) Political behaviors are designed to promote or protect one’s own self-interests. (c) At least two parties must be included and that these two parties have the potential to possess divergent interests whether is explicit or implicit in many definitions. Therefore, the definition

we will follow here is that social influence attempts directed at those who can provide rewards that will help promote or protect the self-interests of the actor (Cropanzano, Kacmar, & Bozeman, 1995).

Ferris et al. (1989) stated that organizational politics are not only invisible and symbolic but also are different across individuals because of subjective perception, as a result, the same political behavior can be interpreted into political or non-political behavior by different observer, depending on each observer’s prior experience and frame of reference. Kacmar and Ferris (1991) also mentioned that perceptions of organizational politics consist of an individual’s perceptions of others’ political activities instead of one’s own, such as favoritism, suppression of competing entities, and the manipulation of organizational policies.

Researchers (Kacmar & Ferris, 1991; Kacmar & Carlson, 1997) believed that organizational politics shared some commonalities. (a) General political behavior, which includes the behaviors of individuals who act in a self-serving way to obtain self-interested and valued outcomes; (b) go along to get ahead, which comprised of a non-action by individuals in order to secure valued outcomes; and (c) pay and promotion policies, which involves the organizational behaving politically through the policies it enacts.