The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the blog looks a bit difference. I’ve taken your feedback on board and have completely redesigned the site to make it more accessible. It is now easier for you to interact with each respective writer and blog post. In particular I have introduced a new and easier system for leaving comments, which means you don’t have any lengthy log in times and we receive less spam comments.
I am also making the blog more welcoming to guest writers. Gone are the set days or weeks for guest writers; if you want to write a post for the blog you can. Just follow the guidelines here and I’ll publish your post!
All in all, the blog is a huge improvement... oh and I won’t be writing my (needless) intros anymore – hurrah I hear you call! – Instead you can just get straight into the blog post (Ed Scrivener).
HR & the Joys of Office Politics
I write regular blog posts on one of my blogs about life at work and how to make the most of it. I write about leadership, management and generally how to manage your career. One subject that always proves popular is the handling of office politics. Again in my work as a coach, it is something referred to time and again by clients. Some want to know how to be good at it. But others, and by far the majority, want to know how to deal with what they regard as its damaging effects.
It is a subject that brings all kinds of responses in people.
Well, in the past, I’ve likened office politics to chess; I don’t play for all kinds of reasons but I do know the rules. And that is the advice I would always give to my clients - you may decide not to ‘play’ but you do need to know how the game works. And for those in HR department, I think that advice is even more important.
Office politics is about the acquiring and use of power within an organization. If you are to be effective influencing senior managers and in ensuring, for example, that your policies are embedded, then you do need to understand the politics of the organization. You need to know where the informal lines of influence lie and how office politics works in your village. If you don’t know that, and you don’t manage your key influencers, then you may find important initiatives fail. For example, that new campaign that was meant to promote fairness and equal opportunity gets shot down in ways you couldn’t have imagined.
Wherever you have a group of people, you will have a degree of politics operating. People will usually jockey for position, form alliances, decide who they do like and who they don’t! They will come to the group with different personalities, sets of values and opinions.
A large part of work in HR is about actually protecting people and the organization from the negative effects of groups that have not been well lead in the process of forming. But how can you possibly mount guard if you don’t understand the influence-hierarchy yourself.
It can be difficult to find out all you need to know, particularly if you are new to an organisation. And, of course, the hierarchy will change over time, as people strive successfully and unsuccessfully to achieve greater influence. You need to understand the office politics, even if you find the concept distasteful. And, you will be very lucky indeed if someone actually tells you the rules of the game!
As for me, well I can only say that office politics is one of the reasons why I’m very glad to be out of the corporate world. Life as a writer and online/phone coach can be lonely at times. But my word it is often a lot pleasanter than it used to be when I found myself having to sort out the very negative effects of office politics gone wrong.
Has this inspired you to discuss HR? Leave your comment here explaining your experience of office politics and HR’s role in keeping the peace!
*****
Discuss HR is that HR blog brought to you by the people of Human Resources UK, the HR LinkedIn group with 11,000+ members dedicated to the world of HR.
*****
We welcome guest writers to Discuss HR. To learn how to contribute click here
No comments:
Post a Comment