Management vs Politics

Management vs. Politics
By Mary Anne Winslow

In this article I will first describe and will clarify the term management. After that the political process will be depicted. The purpose of this article is to discuss the management as a part of the political process.

The Concise English Dictionary includes the definition of politics as 'prudent and sagacious as well as crafty, scheming and artful'. This implies politics as having both well meaning characteristics in addition to another more sinister side. Political processes tend to take place in democracies where no single body has absolute power. To determine the best way forward groups of individuals with differing views compete to have their ideas adopted as policy. The political process consists of constructive debate and argument between these groups followed by some form of voting system to identify which view has the majority support. During this process it is inevitable that other forms of pressure will be brought to bear apart from just simple academic argument. For example allegiances are often formed behind the scenes on a "if you scratch my back I'll scratch yours" basis. This interpretation of a 'political process' is supported by Kakabadse in Armstrong who states that 'politics is a process, that of influencing individuals and groups of people to your point of view, where you cannot rely on authority'. He also goes on to discuss the role of politics in organisations where he states " political behavior in an organization could be desirable or undesirable". Armstrong also points out how politics can be destructive in an organisation, mentioning behaviour such as secret meetings and hidden decisions as well as excessive and counter-productive lobbying. On the other hand he also illustrates the legitimate use of politics and presents a case where a personnel director set about influencing people indirectly to get a proposal accepted at a board meeting knowing there would be opposition.