Office politics is a common aspect of any workplace. It has a significant influence on employee engagement and their wellbeing. Politically involved work place can exhibit positive as well as negative impacts on the employee performance. Today, more often, people find office politics negative, leading some to think that they can avoid it altogether. However, it channels development opportunities for the employees, individuals who can thrive in a competitive environment those who benefit by the politics. The degree to which an employee gets affected by the politics, decides how it impacts employee engagement. Recognizing how politics can benefit the organization in management, aids to create a positive work environment. In this article, we investigate how office politics influences employee engagement and workplace culture and strategies to mitigate turbulence in work place. For more articles, visit APAC Business Standard.
What is Office Politics?
Office Politics refers to certain interactions, strategies, tactical behaviors individuals or groups carries out in order to gain advantages, power, influence and superiority within an organization. Some people use it for detesting others, or a method of subterfuge to achieve professional goals. This includes alliances, influence peddling, undermining, Internal networking, gatekeeping, and power dynamics. Office politics often seen as stressing or manipulative. On the other side, it facilitates personal growth, mentorship, and employee engagement. However, it’s the part of any organization and cannot be avoided.
Office politics evolves due to factors like competition for resources, attain individual goals, due to gaps in interest and agenda. It’s a natural outcome that cause when people with differences in personalities and values work together. Office politics manifests depend on the values and norms, when the organization promotes a culture more collaborative, less likely to drive negative effects. On the other hand, workplaces which are more competitive in nature leads to conflicts which might threaten the stability of an organization.
The Impact of Office Politics on Employee Engagement
Trust and Morals:
Office politics drastically affects the trust and moral values among the employees. Particularly when they see discrimination in performance analysis, favoritism results a feeling of undervalued and leads demotivation in employees. This decreases trust between employees and management. Due to the perceived unfairness, negatively impacts employee performance, thus creates lack of engagement in collaboration and teamwork.
Job Satisfaction:
A politically charged workplace can cause decreased motivation in employees, as they may experience unfair evaluation about their work from the management side. This can lead to dissatisfaction in employees, making them perform less efficient. Moreover, employees who perceive positive office politics that is leading to improve productivity and enhance job satisfaction.
Stress and Anxiety:
Negative office politics often create a stressful work environment. Employees may feel anxious about their job security or experience conflict with colleagues, which can reduce engagement and productivity. Effective communication is essential for eliminating the after effect of disagreements’ during decision making and marketing strategy.
The Influence on Workplace Culture
Shaping Organizational Values
Office politics plays a significant role in shaping the values of an organization. The behavior of leaders and influential employees sets the value of what is acceptable and desirable within the workplace. A culture that tolerates negative politics often looks for power and competition rather than collaboration and integrity.
Inclusivity and Fairness
A workplace dominated by negative politics may struggle with inclusivity and fairness. Employees from diverse backgrounds may feel ignored by informal networks or decision-making processes, impacting workplace culture.
Toxic Workplace Culture
Destructive office politics can create a toxic workplace culture. Manipulative behavior and favoritism lead to trust issues among employees and between employees and management. Competition can lead to conflicts and a spoiled work environment. Diversity Training in workplace educates people to maintain respect and understanding in work place which prevents the development of toxic working environment.
Communication and Teamwork
Office politics can hinder open communication and teamwork. Employees might hold back information if they think it will harm their position in the organization. This fear can lead to avoid team collaborations.
Strategies for Managing Office Politics
Promote Transparency and Ethical Behavior
Promoting transparency in decision making creates motivation in employees and influence them to exhibit better engagement. Communicate how decisions are made, and ensure that promotions and rewards are based on performance. Supporting ethical behavior and integrity is effective for managing office politics and fostering a positive workplace culture.
Build Supportive Culture
Building a supportive work culture, promote values, collaboration, respect, among team members as it helps to mitigate the negative effects of office politics such as conflicts and information control. Collaboration activities strengthen team support hereby ensures positive work culture.
Implement Fair Policies
Establish fair policies for performance evaluations, promotions, and conflict management. Ensure that these policies are not affected by favoritism, power dynamics or any other workplace politics.
Conclusion
To conclude, office politics is an inevitable part of any workplace, and it also has a prominent influence on employee engagement and workplace culture development. In remote mode of work, office politics often causes fragmented communication, virtual monitoring and mentoring might not be as precise as expecting. Involving employees in decision making, encouragement for collaboration, ensuring resource access aides operation of the remote work culture management. Handling office politics effectively is essential for maintaining a positive work environment. By promoting ethical behavior, building a supportive culture, and implementing fair policies, organizations can get benefitted from office politics and enhance employee engagement.