THE HUMAN RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS WITH A VIEW TO IMPROVING THE MANAGEMENT AND USE TO THE GROWTH OF THE ORGANIZATION



CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
            The setting up of an organization comes with the blending of human and material resources to accomplish certain objectives through designated tasks and authority. It also involves the development of formal and informal rules to coordinate the actions of people – who have diverse backgrounds, particular interests and different understanding.

            The operating forces of this organization will bring to bear on the survival instincts of the people who use both legitimate and illegitimate means to achieve their personal and group goals at the expense of others. These means are conceptualized in politics.
According to Churchill (2000), politics is the maneuvering methods and tactics involved in managing and resolving social issues in a given society or state government. Politics is the activities involved in getting and using power in public life and being able to influence decisions that affect a country or a state Winston (1998). Organizational politics means the application of politics to activities of organization. According to Haughty (1999), organizational politics is the use of one’s individual or assigned power within an employing organization for the purpose of obtaining advantages beyond one’s legitimate authority, those advantages may include access to tangible assets or intangible benefits such as status or pseudo-authority that influence the behaviour of others. Organizational politics is the pursuit of individual agendas as self-interest in an organization without regard to their effect on the organization’s efforts to achieve its goal (Macson 1998), it refers to the processes through which these rival interests are played out and eventually reconciled. Organizational politics are inescapable and intrinsic reality in any organization. There are tools available to leaders to influence, and manipulate subordinates into accomplishing tasks. The interplay between leaders and their authority and influence over the followers set the tone for political climate in an organization.
            Organizational politics refers to the structure and process of the use of authority and power to effect definition of goals, directions and the other major parameters of the organizations. Tushaman (2001) and Miles (1993) see organizational politics as a process where by individuals or groups will use whatever power they can amass to influence organizational decision in the direction of their own interest. Organizational politics is a behaviour to influence, or attempt to influence the distribution of advantages and disadvantage  within the organization while power is the capacity that A has to influence the behaviour of B so that B does something he or she won’t otherwise do.
Organizational politics can be described as self –serving and manipulative behaviour of individuals and groups to promote their self interests at the expense of others and some times even ‘organizational goals as well. Organizational politics in a company manifest itself through struggle for resources, personal conflicts, competition for power and leadership and tactical influence executed by individuals and groups to attain power, building personal structure, controlling access to information, not revealing the real intents, building coalition etc.
            In public organizations, such as Nigeria Breweries PLC Enugu, which contributes immensely to the revenue of Nigeria, human and material resources are involved. Like every organization there exists a tacit interplay between leadership, authority, influence, subordinates and limited resources which the management tends not to take cognizance of.
            How organizational politics is related to leadership, can be better understood from the fact that organization leadership occurs in the context of groups, where followers are influenced by the leaders to ensure their commitment and voluntary involvement towards predetermined outcome
Hickson et. al., (2002) stated that political climate of an organization is impacted by a leader through treatment and use of authority under different settings which is clearly visible during the acts of decision making, setting agenda and interaction with others to mobilize support, inspire teams and individual and recognize people.
Managing organizational political system is the key to success. Understanding organizational political system is absolutely essential for management to manoeuver the company towards its goals. Managers must make efforts to learn and understand the existence of organizational politics and power through keen observation and focused interaction with different groups of people. Some of the indicators for leaders to assess political climate is general job satisfaction levels, responsiveness to innovative ideas efficacy of decision making machinery and speed of implementation of decision for effective management of organizational politics.
1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
             The hidden activities of man most often keep him in the dark as to how to make maximum use of all activities existing in the organization. This is more obvious in his inability to recognize the human resources implication of politics which is the unique domain of interpersonal relations in the organizations. The assumptions of non-existence of politics or worst still, seeing them as negative phenomena has crippled organizations unnoticed. This false assumption makes it difficult for managers to manage them like other activities. As such they are not used positively in the interest of the organization. The reality is that politics can be negative or positive depending on how they are perceived and managed in an organization.
            In Nigeria Breweries PLC Enugu, managers and Employees see politics as predominantly negative as such, try to ignore or silence its existence. According to Cropanzano et al (1997), a work place can be conceptualized as a social market place in which individuals engage in transactions all seeking to earn a return on investments. The assumption of the mangers of Nigeria Breweries that politics is predominantly negative does not allow them to understand as well as utilize the political environment to enhance competitions and handwork among employees in order to increase the organizational growth. Here, the challenges faced by the management due to their intention to eradicate politics in organization are ambiguity in decision making context, propensity to use influence behaviour unskillfully, it does not allow those who are highly competitive or motivated for success to be involved in organizational politics. Rather, it results in sanction, cliques or cohesiveness, manipulations and the use of upward appeals.
1.3       OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
            The main objective of this study is to identify the human resource implications of organizational politics with a view to improving the management and use to the growth of the organization.
The study will seek to                    
i.          identify how politics  is perceived and managed by managers of Nigerian Breweries PLC Enugu.
ii.         measure the effect of politics on the performance of employees in Nigerian Breweries PLC Enugu.
iii.       Identify measures to improve the use and management of politics in decision making in Nigerian Breweries PLC.
1.4       RESEARCH QUESTION
i.          How do managers perceive and manage politics in the Nigerian Breweries PLC Enugu?
ii.         Does effective management of politics improve employee’s performance and organizational growth?
iii.       Are there any measures taken by the management of Nigeria Breweries PLC Enugu, to improve on the management of politics to avoid its negative influence?

Hypothesis
    From the statement of the problem and objectives of study, the following hypotheses are formulated to guide this research work.
Ho:  perception and management of politics by managers and employees has impact in quality decision making in Nigeria Breweries PLC Enugu.
Hi:        perception and management of organizational politics, by
Managers and employees have no impact on quality decision making.
Ho: Politics   has a positive effect on the performance of employees 
in Nigerian Breweries PLC, Enugu.
Hi: Politics does not have positive effect on the performance of employees in Nigerian Breweries PLC Enugu.
Ho: There are measures by management to improve the management of politics in Nigerian Breweries PLC, Enugu.
Hi: There are no measures to improve the management of politics in Nigerian Breweries PLC, Enugu

1.5       Significance of the Study
            Research of any kind is embarked on in order to provide a solution to a problem, improving on the performance of an existing system, contributing to the existing knowledge etc.
            The study is significant in the following ways.
1.         It is hoped that this study will help managers of Nigerian Breweries Plc Enugu to improve on their management of organizational politics in her organization to help employees contribute in a very high rate to the organization.
(ii)       It will help managers to understand the effect of organizational politics in the performance of employees and the growth of the organization.
(iii)      It will help the management of Nigeria Breweries Plc Enugu and other public organizations in adopting policies that will not portray organizational politics negatively
(iv) It will help to understudy Nigerian Breweries PLC Enugu in respect to its management of politics to enable the researcher suggest a better method.

1.6       Limitation of the Study
The study covers only Enugu Brewery.
There are a lot of problems which the researcher encountered in the process of carrying out this work, the non co-operative attitude of workers in Nigeria Breweries Plc Enugu to give out relevant information formed part of the constraints and limited time for the study. Despite all these problems the researcher was able carryout the research effectively

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1       Introduction
            According to conventional wisdom, people who act politically in an organization are playing “dirty” undermine the legitimate structure and functions of their organizations for personal gain (MacKins, 1997). Despite this wide held view, it is important for managers to recognize that successful organizations achieve high performance not only in spite of political behaviour but also because of it. The primary reason why this is the case is that organizational designs incorporate two functional and opposing characteristics that make political activities inevitable. They divide up responsibilities for carrying out the organization’s tasks and at the same time, require those separate parts to act together to achieve its overall objectives. These simultaneous differentiation and integration account both for the functional value of organization and for its understanding political dynamics. In effect, you can’t have one without the other.
            Politics according to Baron et al (1986) is simply the process through which the inevitable differences in self-interest and organizational agendas are played out Appodorai (1978) citing Aristotole said that any man who does not participate in the political affairs of the state either because he does not want to or because he has no need for it is either a beast or god. The above statements simply mean that no individual or organization exists in a vacuum and the impact of their action can be felt across diverse set of stakeholders.
            Politics helps to reorganize or even reconcile competing interests within an organization; Essentially, all employees bring their own interests, desires wants and needs to the workplace which leads to the diversity of interests in which politics in some form or in some degree is played in an organization but viewing politics positively is considered to have a positive force within an organization.
            Relationships, norms, process performance and outcome are all enormously affected by the organizational politics because they are all intertwined into the management system. Cropanzano et al (1997).
            In this chapter, attempt will be made to review related literature on organizational politics with a view to providing detailed meaning of politics in organization, sources of organizational politics, advantages and disadvantages to the organization and how it can be managed.
2.2       Empirical Review
            Organizational politics is a critical factor affecting various organizational practices. Although many studies carried out by scholars on the subject indicate that politics and power are important part of the organization.
However, it is generally perceived negatively by managers and workers in the organizations. Macdonard (1995) studied power, politics and conflict in surfaricom (K) limited using a using survey questionnaire and chi-square test discovered that in organizations, there are various powers, politics and conflict intrigues at play, which can only be seen by those with eagle eyes in organization.
Hanbyul (2004) investigated how organizational politics and power influence training and transfer. Using qualitative research design he found three substantive themes in terms of organizational politics and power: transfer of training was encouraged by referent power; learners transferred what they had learned with their authority, and transfer of training was constrained by marginal interests that comprise dominant.
Ferris (1991) examined the impact of the use of influence by employees on their managers in organizations, using parametric tests; found that the use of influence in the organization is positively related to the managers’ positive attitude toward his/her employees. (i.e The more an employee uses influence in the organization, the more his/her performance is appreciated. They suggest that in essence, Organizational Politics introduces a serious bias into Human Resources Management factions and potentially damages the selection, evaluation, promotion processes. In line with this, a study conducted by Murray (1980) on the perception of organizational politics and power, found that employees usually consider organizational politics to be  an unfair, evil, irrational and unhealthy behaviour but at the same time as a necessary skill for those who want get ahead and be promoted in the workplace.
Similarly, Uka (2002) examined how politics and power can be used to influence others in a positive way using multi-regression of the southern industries in Nigeria, found that some aspect of “good” politics in leaders behaviour, in general managerial decisions and human resources process, may lead to constructive outcomes for the employer the employee and organization as a whole.
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