Business Link

Office Politics and the Bottom Line

by Carey-Lyn Kurten

“Put a good person in a bad system and the bad system wins, no contest.” – W. Edwards Deming

Most of us would place office politics in the same category as death and taxes – a painful and inevitable fact of life. An office is made up of different people and when you put them together, things can get messy. Different values, attitudes, ideas, personalities, abilities and dreams, when put together in one office, have the potential to either create greatness or to become the single greatest impediment to the organisation’s success. The internal threat of divisiveness and the crippling effects of in-fighting and backbiting on productivity and morale are either poorly addressed, or not addressed at all. Even rules and policies don’t seem to curb this giant when left unchecked. Many managers plead that there is no time and no method effective enough, to stop and address internal politics.

Step one: Identify the Symptoms

Look for behaviours that result from office politics to know if you are dealing with this problem. The best place to look is in the kitchen, near the water cooler and in meetings. Look for…
• Complaining, blaming and judging
• Fleeing and ignoring
• Target fixation
• Stress, frustration, and anxiety
• Strained relationships

Step Two: Identify the Direct & Indirect Cost to Company

Decide on the direct cost of these behaviours to the organisation as a whole, by using this method per employee:

Calculate the minutes per day involved in any of the behaviours listed above
Multiply by 5 to get the weekly time spent engaged in these behaviours
Multiply by 4 to get the monthly time spent engaged in these behaviours
Take their monthly salary and work out the cost proportionately of this time
Then multiply this by the number of employees (this will give you how much time has been wasted and paid for by the organisation)

Then focus on the possible indirect costs:
It takes energy to engage in these behaviours. Many opportunities can be lost. The impact on decision making and problem solving is huge. If left unattended, these in turn may result in:
• Grievances and litigation
• Losing talented staff
• Increased client complaints
• Absenteeism
• Injury and accidents
• Disability claims
• Sick leave

Step Three: Take Action

What is really happening? Each man is thinking about his own turf and nobody is thinking about the business. Get help. Don’t let office politics destroy your organisation.

Carey-Lyn Kurten is a skilled and energized facilitator who will assist you with a simple tool to stamp out negativity and improve the quality of your organizations decision making and problem solving.

For more information contact her on 083 248 0018 or via email on mila@eln.co.za