provide reallife examples of the positives and negatives of

provide real-life examples of the positives and negatives of power and politics in your workplace?

Solution

Positive

Office politics is using networking and power to the individual or group benefits.

Working in the middle-level management, I have seen politics being used for several positive actions.

Power – power vested with us has been used for positively for many purposes that benefit individuals as well as organizations. In my workplace, we have seen its benefits in so many ways

Negative

Office politics affects several factors and culture in any organization. In my workplace, i have experienced a negative ambiance affecting the mood and behavior of individuals. The overall climate of the organization can change due to petty politics. It creates a vicious cycle.

It decreases co-operation and hampers co-ordination of sub-ordinates. The overall stress level increases and projects have been delayed several times because of lack of co-ordination.

I have also experienced power being used for suppressing decisions made by lower-level managers. Power has also been used to suppress the weakened section of the office employees and in helping further biased decisions. Power also creates a sense of fear on authority and distance resulting in lack of communication and bad decisions. Lower level employees e.g. sales team who are in direct contact with consumers failed to update the top management regarding details of consumer wants and needs due to fear of authority. This lead to decreasing sales in a product line due to a mismatch between consumer needs and product features. The management realized this only by discussing with sales team after two-quarters of loss.