Politics and Decision-making
Because every decision has the potential to become a political football, politics must be regarded as intrinsic to the management task. Understanding the various Centres and Channels of influence in the Tree framework provides a useful guide.
CL1: The Problem of Politics
The problem remains power struggles over receipt of benefits like status, authority, power, promotion, pay, budget, offices, equipment &c
CL2: Control of Politics
The place of rule of law is taken by organizational policies and regulations ensuring no-one oversteps the mark and provocative actions are prohibited.
CL3: Individuals with Power
All individuals in organizations hold posts with defined responsibilities. In addition they have personal and professional interests which they must depend on throughout their career. These interests may not always align well with organizational needs.
CL4: Goal of Management
Management must make decisions to get results in the world as it is. So decisions must not precipitate mass walk-outs, or resignations of key personnel, or passive aggressive responses e.g. go-slow or work-to-rule at lower levels; «misunderstanding» or «forgetting» at higher levels).
CL5: Social Context
The social context in this frame of reference is wholly within the organization. In the organizational Centre , there are views of key personnel, staff morale, and company-wide opinions. In the personal Centre, there are the commitments previously made by managers resulting in work adaptations to which people have committed themselves.
CL6: Moral Context
The moral context contains Centres for staff integrity and for the cultural ethos/drivers of the organization.
CL7: Personal Context
The personal context lies in the reality that the staff of any organization is a quasi-community and people necessarily bring some of their social and personal needs to work. These needs must be met in some appropriate fashion within the organization to maximize productivity and success.
The Channels in this Tree diagram deserve further analysis to provide more detail about management handling of politics.
OPEN CALL—To those experienced in management: comment – offer analyses – propose formulations – suggest names – develop practical tools.
Originally posted: July 2009; Last updated: 12 June 2014