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Office politics is a term for both the productive and counterproductive human factors present between coworkers, in any office environment.
Office politics differs from office gossip in that people participating in office politics do so with the objective of gaining advantage, whereas gossip can be a purely social activity.
Some aspects of office politics
- Social alliances often form between colleagues of similar interests, and they may team up against other perceived competitors.
- Personal factors may divide the groups, often including age, gender, or ethnic background.
- Perceived or real romantic affairs often unbalance relationships.
- Competition for favour between two executives striving for the top may create cliques or teams within the organization.
"Kicked upstairs"
One of the concepts found in corporate executive office politics is called being "kicked upstairs". This is when a disliked or underperforming executive in charge of some portion of a corporation, is said to have been promoted (and might report then to the person his current boss is reporting to), yet is given only a small amount of responsibility, if any. This may be viewed as either punishment or damage control.
This practice however is controversial because it is seen as too lenient, and a waste of the shareholder's money. Often executives stay within the corporation for years not doing very much work (see the Peter principle), but also they are often finally allowed to have real duties when someone else is disliked or fails. This whole process is very hard to discern from an outsider's, or analyst's standpoint. It is often revealed only later in famous cases in business biographies.
Titles
In the past, being on the Board of Directors (a group which represents the interests of the shareholders, takes legal responsibility for the corporation's decisions and holds the CEO to account) was an honor sought by many executives, although this practice has diminished since the many scandals of 2002 where the board was held legally accountable for its actions.
See also
Interpersonal conflict | Office work | Organizational studies and human resource management | Politics | Sociology
"Office politics"