Can Office Politics Be a Good Thing?

When you hear the phrase “office politics”, what comes to mind first?

-Favoritism

--back-stabbing

---cronyism

----self-interest

-----rumors and etc. 

 It’s not a pretty list , isn’t it? Yet, whenever I talk with people about office politics, their viewpoint tend towards these types of words.

These words represent the dark side of human nature – what I call “people behaving badly” at work. Behaviors that produce these types of reactions are unproductive and harmful to workplace relationships, so it’s natural that we would take dim view of something that encourages these outcomes.  People always have bad impression of office politics, but office politics can be used in a positive way to benefit both employee and organization. Therefore, office politics is a double-edged sword as it may harm or benefit the company growth. To know the negative and positive sides of office politics are important that one can avoid creating barrier with others.  

Developing your political savvy -- POSITIVELY!  

In 2005, researchers at the University of Florida published a book called Political Skill at Work. It summarized nearly 15 years of intensive study of the mechanics of “political influence” in the workplace.

The university researchers identified four key competencies of the positively politically savvy. They are:

• Social astuteness
• Interpersonal influence 
• Networking ability 
• Sincerity

Do you see how these are positive qualities of human interaction? There is no back-stabbing or favoritism inherent in these competencies.

Here’s the good news: we can all do these things. These are all skills we can hone for ourselves and more importantly – model for others. 

We know how to network.  

We can be sincere. 

We can work on our interpersonal influence.

Conversely, people who are not politically skilled in these four traits come off as manipulative or self-serving. So you could say that people “behaving badly” are just unskilled in Positive Office Politics.