Organizational Politics

The term organizational politics refers to the informal ways people try to exercise influence in organizations through the management of shared meaning. As such, politics should not be viewed as an inherently bad or good phenomenon but rather one to be observed, analyzed, and comprehended to gain a more informed understanding of organizations and how they operate. Theory and research on organizational politics have fallen into essentially [Page 1123]three categories. One area concerns itself with the nature of actual political behavior, types of tactics and strategies, and their consequences. A second category focuses on perceptions of politics in work environments by individual employees, the antecedents of such perceptions, and their consequences. The third, and most recent, category of research on organizational politics emphasizes the construct ...