Office Politics Research Articles

Does the leadership style influence the office politics in performance appraisal? Empirical study from Malaysian financial sector

Employees play a pivotal role in the Malaysian financial industry, as this sector requires individuals capable of meeting the demands of the global financial market and enhancing Malaysia's position as a leading international financial hub. Consequently, employees' behavior and practices can significantly impact the institution's reputation. Previous research has identified office politics as a detrimental factor in organizational performance, prompting this study to investigate the impact of leadership styles on organizational politics within the context of performance appraisal. A survey was conducted through the distribution of questionnaires among 274 officers and clerical staff, selected using proportionate stratified random sampling from a Malaysian government financial institution based in Kuala Lumpur. Of the distributed questionnaires, 105 were completed and deemed usable. The study identified three reliable dimensions of politics in performance appraisal: acquiring benefits, human relations, and control. In examining leadership styles, the study found that the integrative leadership style was the only reliable dimension. Correlation analysis revealed that integrative leadership style generally correlates significantly and negatively with politics in performance appraisal. Specifically, integrative leadership style had a significant negative impact on the human relations and control dimensions. Regression analysis further indicated that integrative leadership style significantly and negatively influenced only the control dimension of performance appraisal politics. The study discusses the implications of these findings for future research and practice, as well as the limitations of the current study.

Politik Kantor PNS: Sudut Pandang Aceh

This study examines office politics in the context of Aceh's civil servant (PNS) perspective using SEM PLS method. Involving 107 respondents, the research analyzes the relationship between internal office relationships, communication, and decision-making. The main findings highlight the positive correlation between internal relationships and communication, playing a crucial role in shaping office politics dynamics. Open communication facilitates collaboration, reduces conflicts, and influences better decision-making. Inclusive leadership is identified as a factor strengthening relationships and collaboration. The study underscores the importance of transparency in communicating policies and decision-making processes to prevent misunderstandings. These results offer insights into key factors for understanding PNS office politics and its impact on organizational effectiveness in Aceh.

Navigating office politics: How do self-concept and upward voice influence women's workplace well-being?

Using the Job Demands-Resources theory, this study examines how organisational politics and self-concept affect women employees’ voice and workplace well-being (WWB). It employs an explanatory-sequential design, with study 1 (quantitative research, n = 463) using experimental vignettes and scale measures to test the hypotheses, followed by study 2 (qualitative research, n = 12) using in-depth interviews to explain the quantitative results. It was found that women's perceptions of organisational politics debilitated their WWB mediated by their voices. Furthermore, the “relational” self-concept moderated the mediated association, which reduced the negative impact. The study goes beyond the typical conception of work-family balance to provide strategies for improving women's work experiences.

Antecedents of Staff Attrition

Addressing turnover has consistently remained a pivotal concern across industries. Mitigating turnover can empower organizations to retain their crucial personnel, consequently fostering heightened productivity and potentially bolstered profitability. This study delves into the correlation between employees' perception of organizational politics and the lure of alternative job offers featuring better compensation as drivers of turnover among Bank Alfalah (Karachi) personnel. Employing a cross-sectional approach with deductive reasoning, this study collected responses through survey questionnaires from Bank Alfalah employees. The outcomes unveiled a noteworthy positive association between turnover and both perceived organizational politics and the appeal of higher-paying alternative job opportunities. Additionally, the study unearthed that office politics plays a more robust role in translating turnover intentions into decisions. These findings bear significant implications not only for the banking sector but also for theoretical advancements in research centered around organizational politics and the allure of enhanced compensation through alternative employment avenues.

Exploring the Impact of Office Politics on Employee Engagement and Organizational Commitment

Office politics is part of organizational behavior. However, it has only been lightly addressed in recent literature. Today, office politics adopts a negative notion, which causes some individuals to believe that it is possible to avoid office politics. However, the fact that office politics affect even those not involved means that it is in everyone’s interest to address the problem and develop practical solutions. Few studies have linked politics to other concepts, including organizational commitment and employee engagement. This research has filled this gap by examining the impacts of office politics on organizational commitment and employee engagement. The findings lead to the conclusion that office politics are often associated with negative organizational outcomes associated with commitment and engagement. Higher levels of Positive office politics reduce engagement and commitment. Even though there are instances of positive outcomes, such rare instances may be caused by contextual and mediating factors, including job meaningfulness and personality.

Aditya Kumar: Office Politics and Managing Upwards

The case describes the predicament of Aditya Kumar, Vice President of Marketing at Green Living India Technologies Private Limited (GLIT), an organisation working in arena of sustainable products and technology. Aditya Kumar, who has had an excellent academic background and a fast track promotion after seven months of joining the company, is harshly criticized by his boss Rajiv Nanda, Chief Marketing Officer. Aditya Kumar and Rajiv Nanda have different personalities and work styles. Aditya has a different opinion for some of Rajiv's initiatives and he does not agree to Rajiv's revenue projections which he finds to be over-estimated. Aditya has succeeded in his previous role but he has failed to adapt his work style and establish an effective relationship with his new boss that may lead to his position being removed from the organisation.

Dattopant Thengadi National Board for Workers Education and Development (DTNBWED): a need for re-organisation

Research methodology The students should go through the concepts of motivation, leadership, organisational communication, organisational culture, organisational conflict, power and politics and organisational change and development from their course on organisational behaviour. In Business Communication, the students could review effective communication skills, the process of communication and barriers to communication to prescribe suitable recommendations for the organisation. In Financial Accounting, the reader should revise the income statement and balance sheet. They can undertake financial analysis on the data presented in the case to analyse the performance of the organisation. The participants may be asked to identify future possible financial risks that may arise. Case overview/synopsis The Dattopant Thengadi National Board for Workers Education and Development (DTNBWED) was an autonomous body under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India. It had been responsible for creating a disciplined and skill-oriented workforce for the organised, unorganised and rural sectors in India. In the past, DTNBWED undertook training programmes to educate and improve the quality of life of workers. However, the objectives were far from being fulfilled because of challenges such as an acute shortage of education officers, a slow recruitment process, communication issues between the ministry and the DTNBWED and a large part of the budget being spent on salaries. The main challenges faced by DTNBWED were the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission and the higher contribution of the Government under a new pension scheme. The DTNBWED faced audit issues, including the absence of an inventory register, non-compliance with accounting rules and statutory norms and inadequate internal audit. The DTNBWED could not shift its headquarters from Nagpur to Delhi because of office politics and differences between the staff and the ministry. The organisation needed a complete reorganisation using principles of change management and agile management. It was recommended that departmental promotion committees review promotions immediately; recruitment of education officers should be done along with post-revival with the Ministry of Finance; rental of offices should be from Government departments only; and the administrative manual and recruitment rules should be revised. These measures would help to overcome the challenges faced by DTNBWED, such as low expenditure on training, poor communication between the ministry and headquarters, vacant top-level posts and low motivation levels among existing officers. Complexity academic level The case is appropriate for MBA students, executive MBAs, and those working in government organisations. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/TCJ-04-2021-0056/

The office politics error as a new dimension in performance appraisal implementations: a case study and conceptual model in Malaysian financial sector

Performance appraisal in human resource management is a function that evaluates employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities in executing their job. To assess this appraisal, the employees’ key performance index (KPI) can be used. Recently, office politics has been indicated as an activity that may ruin employee-employer relationships and turn the office ecosystem unharmonious. The influence of organizational politics must be avoided during the performance appraisal process. This work depicted practical knowledge and theoretical gaps of the previous studies. Among them are leniency, straightness and stereotype behavior errors. This research was conducted to assess dimensions of organizational politics as one more error in the employee’s performance appraisal. The presented study considered a questionnaire directed to 274 officers and clerical staffs who were selected randomly through proportionate stratified sampling method in one of the Malaysian government financial sectors located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In total 271 questionnaires were returned and used in this study. This work employed Questionnaire of Political Considerations in Performance Appraisal by using robust statistical techniques for testing and validating the results. This study has successfully extracted three reliable dimensions of politics in performance appraisal, namely acquiring benefit, human relations, and control. In addition, this work developed a new conceptual model together with a dynamic and practical recommendation for top management in this field used to avoid the extant error factors.

Office Politics: Tatarstan’s Presidency and the Symbolic Politics of Regionalism

Abstract This article explores developments in center-region relations between the Russian federal government and the Republic of Tatarstan, a federal subject of the Russian Federation. I argue that instrumentalist accounts are unable to satisfactorily explain several key moments in Tatarstan’s relations with the federal center, and that a focus on symbolic politics provides important analytical leverage. I examine three such episodes: aborted plans to introduce a Latin script for the Tatar language in 1999, the expiration of treaty-based relations and the assault on the region’s Tatar-language education policy in 2017, and the institution of the presidency – which exists to this day. In all three cases, interest-based explanations alone fail to account for what actually happened, whereas ideational explanations can help explain and interpret regional leaders’ actions. This has important implications for how we understand regional political dynamics in Russia amidst conditions of centralization.

BARRIERS TO CAREER ADVANCEMENT OF FEMALE JOURNALISTS IN INDONESIA

than their female counterparts due to the heavy fieldwork and irregular working hours. Determining whether this assumption remains relevant, this study maps the proportion of female and male journalists in ten Indonesian mass media organizations while also exploring the factors that contribute to the condition.This research applies quantitative and qualitative mixed methods, involving journalists in 10 media (n = 811) at both the reporter and managerial levels, and a focused-group discussion (FGD) with 14 female editors. At the reporter level, there are 64% male and 36% female journalists. At the managerial level, the figures change to 77% (men) and 23% (women). The three factors that hinder the career of female journalists are a double burden (career and household), mental barriers, and ‘masculine’ office politics.

Corporate Governance and Managing Stress in the Workplace

Stress has become a killer condition given the pressures and demands of our present times. More people are either laid low or dying from stress. Unfortunately, stress is a silent killer that strikes before its victim can realize what his problem is. Stress in the workplace adds additional load to an average worker who must grapple with the daily demands and pressure from the workplace. This paper explored the relationship between corporate governance and stress management in the workplace. An examination of available literature shows that factors in the work place that cause stress include work overload, time pressure, long hours of work, lack of breaks, difficult or complex tasks, lack of variety, poor physical work conditions (congested office space, high temperature, poor lighting, etc.), role ambiguity, role conflict, over promotion, under promotion, thwarted ambition, absence of job security, problem of relationship with superiors and colleagues, inability to delegate responsibilities, absence or insufficient participation in decision making, office politics, behavioural restrictions, absence of effective consultation and financial difficulties, generating of loud noise by machines. Signs of stress can exhibit in several forms such as changes in behaviour, which in acute cases displays in the areas of feelings, behaviour or physical symptoms. Acute stress can exhibit in the forms of irritability, anxiety, fatigue, depression, withdrawal, aggressive behaviour, tearfulness, dullness, loss of motivation, loss of concentration, loss of ability to solve problems, sexual dysfunction, gastrointestinal disorders, recurrent headache, etc. Prolonged cases of stress in an individual can alter the “neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, autonomic and immunological functions” of the body leading to physical and mental illness. It was established that management by way of corporate governance can formulate policies that are geared towards managing the level of stress in the workplace. The recommendations made included that management should do the following; make the work place employee-friendly by providing conducive work environment and office spaces; establish a culture of filial relationships in the organization whereby employees see one another as friends and team-mates and relate to one another in cordial and courteous manner; popularize the organizational work ethics and enforce strict disciplinary measures on defaulters especially on harassment of every kind; establish clear job responsibilities and roles to prevent role ambiguity and job conflict; establish recreational centres for workers to ease off during breaks or at free time; functional health facilities should be provided and workers should have ready access to them; encourage open communication between employees and superiors and among all workers.

“The Worst Divorce Case that Ever Happened”: The New York Times Women's Caucus and Workplace Feminism

In 1974, women at the New York Times made national headlines when they filed a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit. The drama of the court case, however, has overshadowed the formation of the Times Women's Caucus two years prior, in 1972. A focus on the Caucus, the daily labor its members undertook in the years before and after filing suit, and the behind-the-scenes negotiation of internal office politics reveals the years-long process of consciousness raising and workplace organizing required to undertake a lawsuit in this novel legal area. Activist newswomen operated with unique restrictions and necessarily distanced themselves from the feminist movement, while quietly advocating for feminist goals. Caucus members drew from the feminist, labor, and union movements strategically rather than ideologically, and laid the foundation for substantial shifts in women's participation and representation in the mainstream media.

MUTASI: BENTUK SANKSI DI BIDANG KEPEGAWAIAN?

In the civil servant management system, developed on the basis of merit system, any official can be at any time be transferred, promoted or demoted. In practice this option may and have often been misused as tool in office politics to remove troublesome civil servant. From the civil servant’s perspective, the options open are either comply or decline the standing order and face the consequence of disciplinary sanction. This article shall discuss, using a legal/juridical normative method, legal aspects of this management tool. The aim is to propose a guidance for civil servants on how to deal with orders of transfer or motion/demotion.

MUTASI: BENTUK SANKSI DI BIDANG KEPEGAWAIAN?

In the civil servant management system, developed on the basis of merit system, any official can be at any time be transferred, promoted or demoted. In practice this option may and have often been misused as tool in office politics to remove troublesome civil servant. From the civil servant’s perspective, the options open are either comply or decline the standing order and face the consequence of disciplinary sanction. This article shall discuss, using a legal/juridical normative method, legal aspects of this management tool. The aim is to propose a guidance for civil servants on how to deal with orders of transfer or motion/demotion.

Politics, fairness, trust and intention to leave in family business

This study is aimed to examine the influence of office politics, fairness, and trust in leader on employee intention to leave in the higher education family-owned company in Indonesia. This study utilised quantitative method with 116 sample sizes. Previous study shows that the most prominent challenge for the family business is to maintain the fairness within the company. In this matter, there are possibilities that the tense organisation politics might be higher than other organisations. Moreover, trust in leader is also imperative, since family-owned business is highly symbolised by the family member as the leaders. Unfortunately, while these factors appeared to be pivotal, it can influence the turnover intention of the employee. This might be imperative due to its detrimental effect on the successor availability. The study found that the higher the employee perceived the political action in the company, the higher the employee's intention to leave.

Communicability geometry of multiplexes

We give a formal definition of a multiplex network and using its supra-adjacency matrix representation we construct the multiplex communicability matrix. Then we prove that the communicability function naturally induces an embedding of the multiplexes in a hyperspherical Euclidean space. We then study (i) intra-layer, (ii) inter-layer, and (iii) inter-layer self-communicability distance and angles in multiplex networks. Using these multiplex metrics we study a social multiplex related to an office politics and the multiplex of synaptic interactions between neurons in the worm C. elegans. We find that the average communicability angles in these multiplexes exhibits a minimum for certain value of the interlayer coupling strength. We provide an explanation for this phenomenon which emerges from the multiplexity of these systems and related it to other important phenomena like the synchronizability of these systems. Finally, we define and study communicability shortest paths in the multiplexes. We show how the communicability shortest paths avoid the most central nodes in the multiplexes in terms of their degree and betweenness, which is a main difference with (topological) shortest paths. We explain this behavior in terms of a diffusive model in which the ‘information’ not only diffuses between the nodes but it is also processed internally on the entities of the complex system. Finally, we give some new ideas on how to extend the current work and represent complex systems as ‘multiplex hypergraphs’ and ‘multi-simplicial complexes’.

Office Politics as an Element in Office Ecosystem

This study has examined descriptively the difference in gender and level of designation regarding the perception on office politics. It involved 103 government officers who are in grade 41 to 52 and serve in government agencies in Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia. They are selected by using proportionate stratified random sampling method. In measuring perception of office politics (POPS), this study has adopted (Kachmar and Carlsan, 1997) perception of politics measurement. A t-test and ANOVA have been performed to test the different of POPS between gender and levels of designation. The results showed that there were no differences on office politics perception amongst respondents regardless their gender or levels of designation. This result has carried evidences that office politics become a general phenomenon where all employees will have the same opinion on the nature and results from political game in organization.

Effect of Perception for Organisational Politics on Employee Engagement with Personality Traits as Moderating Factors

Organisational politics affect almost every employee to some degree, becoming an inevitable and significant part of the entire organisation. Employees who feel victimised by office politics generally develop negative behaviours towards work and the entire organisation, affecting their performances . Differences in personality dimensions cause employees to demonstrate various responses to similar situations. This study assesses whether the perception of organisational politics affects the work and job engagement level of employees, and whether different personality dimensions moderate this relationship. Quantitative research was conducted on employees at the middle or upper level of management, working in different organisations that manufacture products in India. To collect the data, 450 structured questionnaires were distributed; 388 completed questionnaires were received and utilised for the analysis. The study concludes that a perception of organisational politics does exist among employees working in different organisations, and it has a negative relationship with both work and Organisational Engagement. Particular personality traits affect levels of engagement and act as moderators. If management wants to engage their employees more within the job and organisation, it must control the politics that create a negative perception of the organisation among employees. Normal 0 false false false EN-IN JA AR-SA

Barbie Chang by Victoria Chang

Reviewed by: Barbie Chang by Victoria Chang Asa Drake (bio) Victoria Chang. Barbie Chang. Copper Canyon Press. Barbie Chang, Victoria Chang's fourth poetry collection, manufactures a way to inhabit the body and invites us onto the assembly line. It would be wrong to call these forty-seven poems persona poems. Writing for Poetry Foundation's Harriet Blog, Victoria Chang describes the process in which "Barbie became a Chinese American woman who was born in America but could never fully assimilate with certain types of women because of her appearance and culture, even if she were named Barbie." Barbie Chang is compelling because she is a vector away from the lyric "I," a suppressed speaker, watched and speaking: "she can't promote herself if she had legs she would stop begging if she had hands she would stop her own wedding the city has no extra bedding it is not ready yet the maids are still making beds Barbie Chang is still looking for small openings" If Barbie Chang has taken the space for "I," where has the self gone? Is Barbie Chang honest? Very honest. Is the speaker fair? She is not fair. She is herself, constructing herself, a person who could resemble Barbie Chang and who stubbornly isn't Barbie Chang. Is it empathy, too, to sympathize with the objects that are ourselves? [End Page 180] Rooting for Barbie Chang watching Ellen Pao is being able to root for oneself, knowing "helping Ellen Pao is not an / option Barbie Chang / opted out but never really severed / ties with the people in / the office." Ellen Pao's lawsuit against Silicon Valley giant Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers called out the sexism and racism of the tech industry, and media coverage of her lawsuit displayed the sexism and racism of America. Few Asian-American women in the workforce can claim not to have encountered a coworker who seizes this opportunity to describe his own fetish for Asian women and his disdain for any detour from their meek model minority assignment. Victoria Chang's rejection of punctuation best demonstrates such office politics. Here, "helping Ellen Pao is not an / option" for Barbie Chang, making her a prepositional object to the first line, but also the subject of the line that follows. Victoria Chang's verse navigates a way for Barbie Chang to exist as the poem's structural subject while not undermining her experience as an object disposed to the actions of others. Victoria Chang's collection gives us an object striving out of the predicate structure in a narrative of desire. Barbie Chang is fighting the American sentence where the "Chang" body must always inform or complement the actions of a white subject: "the beautiful thin mothers at school form a perfect circle the Circle will school her if she lets them they have something to say doves come out of their mouths" It examines our universal fantasies because they have been marketed as universal. Chang's collection questions the marketing that creates "a special hand she has been trying / to touch for years." For Barbie Chang, desire is circumstantial, modified by "maybe," "is it possible," and "what if": "much more what if Mr. Darcy didn't own the house or worse not even a horse how do we separate the things from a man the man from the things is a man still the same" Without punctuation, this last line is left open with intent, to be both questioning and emphatically certain. As soon as the poem affirms "a man still the same" it is doubting him. Chang's Barbie Chang is not satisfied. When the world is the world, Barbie Chang offers platitudes for a modern people who cannot be Elizabeth Bennet "here it rains every / fifteen minutes it / would be foolish to marry a [End Page 181] man / without an umbrella." While Barbie Chang returns again and again to Mr. Darcy, the beautiful women of the pta circle, and the boss at the office, her relationships with these figureheads are tentative. As readers rooting for Barbie Chang, we can't get into the Circle, though we might be exactly who she means. Barbie Chang ultimately rejects the urge...

Perceived ethicality of political behaviours in organisations: a constructivist grounded theory study

Office politics is a part of everyday professional life. In this work, we have attempted to uncover the cognitive moral logic employees utilise with regard to political behaviour in organisations. To accomplish this, we applied the constructivist grounded theory methodology by conducting, recording, analysing and coding 27 in-depth semi-structured interviews of working individuals in various organisations. Our results revealed 13 rationalising tactics or neutralisation techniques for judging whether a given political behaviour was ethical or not unethical and six different rationales of mostly normative nature for perceiving political conduct as unethical. Moreover, it also revealed that while applying logic in the context of office politics, employees tend to use more than one logic-combination. The justifications for employee behaviour seemed to depend on the position and the nature of the individual. The practical implications, limitations of this study and future research directions are also discussed.