POWER AND POLITICS PAPER

Power and Politics Paper

Power and Politics Paper

The understanding of organizational politics has been greatly enriched by research undertaken on the influence strategies, tactics, and maneuverings of actors manipulating their public performances and backstage activities in order to achieve their ends. This contribution has been matched by the investigations undertaken by more critical management scholars into the discursive formation and social construction of the personalities, issues, and contexts within which such maneuverings take place. If research on organizational politics is to proceed apace, it is useful to acknowledge and integrate these insights into a more informed sociological analysis of the Machiavellian play of power (Ferris, 2008) .

Power and Politics in Organizations

The use of power and influence through political means in the workplace is also discussed in depth. Their book offers the first compilation of related research used for the examination of the phenomenon in management settings and, thus, helped to create a foundation for a more singular stream of research. Many separate streams still exist today, but they are less disjunctive from each other as had previously been the case prior to this work (Ferris, 2007).

The work of (Bacharach, 2008) brought about the most robust typology of the time, and many consider it one of the best even to this day. He shared an overall viewpoint of organizations as political arenas in which varying levels of conflict and political behavior exist. Political behavior is presented as having a life cycle including an impetus or catalyst, development stage, resolution stage, and often a resurgence of conflict stage.

Gerald Ferris has offered many contributions to the field as one of the few scholars that has made the study of Organizational politics research a primary stream of research across his distinguished career. One of the most important themes that Ferris, along with (Ferris, 2007), introduced was the importance of perceptions to the study and understanding of politics. They have investigated linking perceptions of politics to work outcomes, which has become another important contribution discussed in the next section.

(Ferris, 2007) has offered some of the most recent compilation volumes that have helped to establish a solid foundation from which to direct future inquiry and are highly suggested resources for those new to or wishing to explore deeper into the field of organizational politics research.

Perceptions of Politics

As researchers seek a deeper understanding of the causes and effects of political behaviors, a new variable has emerged as an important factor in both causes and effects. This new variable is the study of organizational members' perception of politics within the organization. This is unique from previous efforts as it investigates employees' subjective perceptions, behaviors, and environments as political in nature. Multiple studies investigating this aspect of political research have shown that certain factors can create a significant variance between individuals' perceptions of politics. Such factors proven to have a strong correlation to an individual's perception of organizational politics include organizational influences, job/work environment influences, and personal influences ((Bacharach, ...