INTRODUCTION

Office politics are inherent in any work environment. Because office politics are prevalent, one must understand the role they play in a persons advancement in the business world. This assignment has been done for the Organisational Behaviour subject for Asia e University (AeU) MBA course, with the purpose of trying to understand and explain organisational politics. For the purpose of completing this assignement, I had made arrangement to talk with a Senior Manager in my own organization and interview this person on the subject. Since the nature of the interview is sensitive, all personal information will remain confidential. The interviewee will only be identified as Puan S. Puan S is in her late 40s and has been working with the company for almost 8 years now. She heads the placement office, and is the main communication channel between students and the industry. The interviewed that I arranged with her lasted for 40 minutes. I started by giving a brief explanation on the purpose of the interview. Once Puan S had given her consent for the conversation to be recorded, the interview session went without a hitch. The details of the interview are as laid out in the body text in the Interview Finding in the next page.

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INTERVIEW FINDING Define, from your understanding and experience, organisational (office) politics. Office politics or organisational politics exist since time immemorial in every service, business, private and public organization. Office politics is bad , sometimes it delays organisations to prosper and in many instances if management fails to control it, will smother young , aspiring executives, who become disillusioned by weak , ill conceived and poor decisions, resulting in mistrust, managing and promoting nepotism and lack of clarity in managing towards the organisational goals. Poor management decisions ultimately results in high turnover of human resource. Office politics often is the cause of many casualties along the road to corporate goal. Office politics may be able to encourage certain individuals to become competitive, overbearing and with the perceived concept of so- called being powerful and favoured . This misconstrued perception is conceived by stifling innovation and creativity or squeezing resources where its due at the expense of genuine, hardworking , productive individuals who will ultimately leave the organisation after experiencing disillusionment , overwhelmed by negative kickbacks from upper management. Office politics thrive in an environment where management is controlled by a single shareholder individual or a group of individuals , normally the CEO and his henchmen , who are also the major shareholders of the company . The CEO is often surrounded by Office Politics ambitious managers who crave for attention and possibly promotion.

normally develop when a few individuals feel threatened, unsafe , insecure and so perceived the need to protect their turf by sabotaging the work of others and prevents others from getting the limelight and recognition. From your own working experience, please give an example of an office politics incident that you had been involved with. Please be as elaborate as possible. Please state whether youre the instigator or recipient of this incident. I was never an instigator in Office politics because I consider myself independent and has the capability to handle any project based on my own initiative and capability . My responsibility is to ensure that every student who graduates from the University is marketable and gets a job worthy of the academic rigour that they went through from

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Diploma to Degree in the field that they have chosen to specialise in . For more than seven years I have not failed to plan, strategise, coach , counselled and train hundreds of graduates from many fields of study for the job market , a job which entails total commitment to ensure a successful future for all aspiring graduates . For the past seven years I hold a record that surpasses even my own expectation all most 100 % graduates secured jobs immediately upon completing their study, a record 100% success at graduate employability . The Ministry Of Higher education has considered graduate employability as crucial to the future of the economic growth of Malaysia and for this to happen someone need to be committed enough to guide students towards making them marketable. My unit though small in comparison to other departments , is vital to the Universitys ability to maintain its reputation as an institution that ensures that its graduates are not jobless upon graduation . My responsibility is to ensure that all graduates are guided and that they are given the opportunity to complete their studies and gain employment upon completion of studies. The consistent success of my work over the years has drawn various kinds of reactions from my colleagues envy, jealousy, sceptical , and sometimes taken for granted . But one thing for sure- every manager wishes to undertake this portfolio to share in its glory, but not really knowing how demanding the job and responsibility really is . This is to the extent that my success should not be reported to the Ministry. For three years the 100% success rate of graduates being employed upon completion was not reported to the Ministry by the liaison Officer , for some unknown reason or other . Only the CEO knows how crucial it is for it branding . This orchestrated failure to report the Universitys success is construed as fear of being not required, we will be queried , or it is unbelievable , etc, The Ministry would probe into the programme and many other reasons was of course unfounded. The Ministry may probe to study why it was a success , who handles it and how can others emulate this university so that others can benefit . Whatever was the reason it boils down to being ridiculous and sheer nave of the capability of someone who is capable of managing for the good of others. The To my mind It was just a ploy by one or two individuals who are So envious of someones capability . Thus , the directive that it should not be reported ! simple reason is that they were not willing to see someone gets the credit !

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rather than report a good job done , it was better to keep it under wraps so that no one gets the credit . The decision not to submit the report on graduates 100 % success in employment rendered all accomplishments by the university as under-performing , and in the end affects the overall ranking of the university among other local universities . This insubordination of someone elses good work is a classic example of office politics sabotage or undisclose your colleagues good work so that she does not get the credit. This pathetic , wasting ploy benefits no one or the organisation . Instead it prolongs the time and the agony of striving for recognition amongst the Colleges competitive peers to be recognised as an institution of repute and much sought after by aspiring students. The moral of the story is to err is human but to make decisions based on fear of being upstaged by someone who has the best interest of the College for more that 7 years and who has achieved the record year after year, boils down to ill- conceived and poor understanding of the need to promote graduate employability as an economic and social responsibility in higher education. This is a classic example of how politics blurred the vision and aspiration of an organisation due to self interest, the hunger for control and power and a negative attitude towards the ability and capability of others , to the extent that it has blinded all aspects of moral and social responsibility towards those that they are supposed to promote . What was the outcome of the incident? In evaluating the incident, do you think the incident was justified? Was the behaviour effective or ineffective? The outcome of the incident is answered in the previous explanation. But I will repeat. Because of the success of the CCSP programme, and the work done by the Career Department, every member of the Student Affairs Department tries to undertake job placement as she or he thinks that it gives them the recognition they need , but not knowing how difficult or dangerous it is if students are not given proper counselling . Was this incident helpful or a hindrance to your career? Please elaborate. No it is not a hindrance. In fact it was a godsend. My good work spreads among graduates and even advertised as job- guaranteed on the Universitys website . Colleagues who left the University to continue their careers in other reputable institutions recognised my ability and headhunted me to work in their organisations. I survived office

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politics because I refuse to be smothered by it and I have great confidence in whatever I do due to years of training and experience in managing educational innovations. . Does this incident help or hinder the Mission of the organisation? In what ways? Of course it hinders as Ive already explained before. So I wont go into details. Okay. Finally, do you have any personal advice on how office politics can help or hinder ones own performance in an organisation? Or do you think one should refrain entirely from participating in office politics? Please be as candid as possible in your advice. One should refrain from Office politics because few can get recognition or promotion based on politics alone . Promotion is and should be by merit, because if it is not, the organisations future will be affected by poor decisions and poor management.

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CONCLUSION
Interviewing Puan S, I can empathise with what shed been through. Yes, todays corporate world is highly competitive. From the top of the corporate ladder to the bottom, everyone wants to be successful. Because the number of executive positions is limited, not everyone will have the opportunity to achieve top management recognition. It is in this environment that backstabbing will happen a lot. I see this happening a lot. And being in the same organisation as Puan S, I can see why the things that were related by Puan S happened. As employees fight for the opportunity to be promoted, their struggle for power results in conflict between co-workers in the office. This use of an individuals resources and power to further ones position within the workplace happen everywhere. Office politics are inherent in any work environment. Because office politics are prevalent, one must understand the role they play in a persons advancement in the business world. Like Puan S, I understand that office politics is a fundamental element in any workplace. I believe that both employees and employers must learn how to deal with politics in order to be successful. I often see my co-workers complain about the occurrence of office politics. But its the fact of working life you cant run away from office politics. But you can minimise your involvement. Generally, employees either want to avoid politics or use them to their advantage. One may abstain from office politics by working harder than others, not criticising co-workers, and backing up opinions with reliable data. But one may use office politics to his or her advantage by learning the unwritten rules of the organisation, establishing mutually beneficial relationships, and maintaining integrity. Employers, like employees, often view office politics either as something to be avoided or something that must be dealt with appropriately. Employers can avoid office politics by creating an environment that discourages politicking, being honest with their employees, and being goal-oriented. They may cope with office politics by encouraging feedback from employees, rewarding employees performance, and thinking ahead.

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REFERENCES Robbins, Timothy A. Judge., Organizational Behaviour, Pearson Kinicki, A., and Kreitner, R., (2004). Organizational Behavior, 6th Edition. Irwin Mc Graw Hill, Int. Edition Shani, A., and Lau, J., (2005) Behavior in Organization, 8 Edition. Irwin Mc Graw Hill, Int. Edition Newstrom, J., and Davis, K., (2002) Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work, 11th Edition. Irwin Mc Graw Hill, Int. Edition

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