It's All Politics as Related to Management

ANALYSIS OF ITS’ ALL POLITICS

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WEBSTER UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Reardon’s It’s All Politics: Winning in a world where hard work and talent aren’t enough is read as a how-to book for influencing and persuading people. At the heart of this book is people and their importance to an individual’s success. The principles reflected in the book beg the reader to always remain political when involved in any organization. Can an individual get ahead in life without being politically astute? Not according to Reardon. Being knowledgeable and keeping an eye on the external environment is an essential base step to gaining a political edge and staying sharp. Reardon does a poor job of explaining strategies that can be employed to help influence others, but does offer good information on how power and persuasion are paramount to gaining political acumen. Research from Andrew Dubrin tends to support most of the principles Reardon has laid out for the reader. Although there is more substance to the work presented by Dubrin, each body of work has one key element at its core...people.

Kathleen Reardon is the author of the best-selling book It’s All Politics: Winning in a World Where Hard Work and Talent Aren’t Enough. The book takes a look at the exhaustive measures people go through in order to master office politics. The major purpose of this book is to act as a handbook to teach individuals how to use expertise, cognition, understanding, persuasion, schmoozing and sometimes even deceit to influence others. This is not to say that people don’t, on a daily basis, use these tactics, but Reardon explains why people fail at getting what they want in the workplace. Most of the research compiled by the author appears to be primary data from successful leaders, CEO’s, and entrepreneurs who have made office politics work for them. The book also provides past stories of leaders successes and failures with examples of why each scenario worked or didn’t. Reardon...