There are five factors that, alone or together, provide the right ambience for politics to flourish in the corporate world. These are:
A Weak Leader
A leader consciously or unconsciously casts a shadow across the whole organisation. A strong leader, strong on intellect and integrity, is an 'active manager' and truly leads a company. With such a leader, even a junior-most employee of the company feels motivated and involved.
On the other hand, a weak leader, who is undeserving and lacks intelligence or integrity or both, will be ignorant, indecisive, selfish, and have a short-term vision in every situation. He will be captive either to one or a coterie of his managers, who are more knowledgeable than him (or about him). The politics in such an organisation will soon resemble a medieval court—the weak Dauphin of France, a pawn in the hands of his minister; the weak successors of Shivaji who remained kings only in name; the successors to Akbar, who were finally reduced to a shadow of the Mughal power.
Watch out for such a company. If you are in one, jump out. If you are planning to join one, don't. Look at the chief executive officer (CEO) carefully. Where the leader is weak of head and heart, murky politics, sycophancy, discrimination and injustice will flourish!
Poor Selection System
Many companies do not pay sufficient attention to the selection system at the point of entry—the level of the salesman, the management trainees, and the junior executive. These selections are handled by someone at an appropriately junior level in the personnel department or the concerned department.
The entry point is thus left unguarded—and subject to the use of money, influence or both. Entrants who gain without merit become more and more insecure as they climb up the hierarchy on the basis of the number of years that they have worked in the company. They know that they are undeserving and, hence, rely on perpetuating politics, gossip and sycophancy. They need to protect themselves, and often attacking the most capable is a sure method to ensure that. They know that they cannot walk out and get another equivalent assignment, at least not easily. So, they create groups and use group conflict and rumour-mongering, and they generate misunderstandings.
In all the ensuing confusion, their shortcomings are likely to be hidden. These are the people who resist change, new ideas and innovation.
It pays to study the selection process of a company. It is a sound indicator of its value systems and a measure of the politics level that may exist.
Absence of a Performance Evaluation System (PES)
Some companies do not have a proper PES—either quarterly, six months or even annual. Since merit is not assessed, the meritorious are not necessarily rewarded. This also means that those who carry favour with the boss, run personal errands, receive the boss at the airport, carry his briefcase for him, and send gifts to the boss's house, are the ones who are rewarded handsomely.
So, if you are one of those who do what the company pays him to do, is polite and friendly but not ingratiating, think before joining such an organisation. For you will just get by, if you get by at all, while the boss lords it over - dispensing 'goodies' on personal whims and not as they are deserved. No questions can be asked. No answers need to be given. And in jostling for a place in the sun, politics is rife, and real work and contribution are forgotten.
Insecure Bosses
If the initial selection process is right and increments and promotions are based on performance and merit rather than favour, then you will probably be lucky to have a boss who is more intelligent and more diligent than you. Someone you can learn from. Every interaction in life should make you a better person in some way. The boss, with whom you will necessarily have a large amount of interaction, must be someone who contributes to making a better person of you. If this is not the case, it will be a problem. The boss will suffer from insecurity because he has to interface with a subordinate who has a better mind and higher qualifications and works harder.
He will make up for this sense of insecurity by playing the 'political card'. Talking poorly of you behind your back, projecting a poor image of you to top management, who have limited direct contact with you, pretending sole authorship for your reports and ideas, and using all means fair and foul to retain you as a useful aide at his will and pleasure.
We cannot choose our relatives, but most times, we can choose our bosses. If the wrong boss has been thrust on your, bide your time and wait for his transfer, or work for your own move, within or outside the organisation. Otherwise, you will be inviting problems or/and unhappiness.
The presence of a weak boss—low in intellectual capacity, in putting his shoulder to the wheel, in levels of personal integrity—can only be a catalyst in the creation of an unhealthy political climate in the organisation.
Prosperity in the Company
'An idle mind is a devil's workshop'. Nowhere is this truer than in a well-established prosperous company. When a company is facing difficulties, employees generally get on with the job. They are concerned about the present and the future. They try to contribute. They see their own future tied to the company's future.
On the other hand, the company may be prospering because of various factors such as the superiority of the product, a monopoly in the market, a well-trained, well-structured organisation, or favourable market conditions. Profits are high, share prices are favourable and everyone from the receptionist to the CEO takes it easy. The corporation continues to do well, not because of the direction provided by the managers, but in spite of it.
Everyone in the company is too busy lining his own pocket to worry about working hard or making a contribution to the company. With idle time on their hands, most executives pretend to be working but actually spend a lot of time and effort in corporate politics.
It is prudent to look at a successful company carefully and find out if they are already at the 'maturity stage' of the business. The welcome heavy rainfall may only mean floods and devastation later, or drought next year. The other face of obvious corporate prosperity may be a surfeit of company politics.
These are the five major factors in the study of corporate politics that smart managers in the corporate world must be aware of.
(Walter Vieira is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of India- FIMC. He was a successful corporate executive for 14 years and then pioneered marketing consulting in India in 1975. As a consultant, he has worked across four continents. He was the first Asian elected Chairman of ICMCI, the world apex body of 45 countries. He is the author of 16 books, a business columnist and has been visiting professor in Marketing in the US, Europe, and Asia for over 40 years. His latest books are ‘Marketing in a Digital/Data World’ with Brian Almeida and ‘Customer Value Starvation Can Kill’ with Gautam Mahajan. He now spends most of his time on NGO work and is presently Chairman, Consumer Education and Research Society, India)
