Power and Politics: Compare and Contrast

Power and Politics in Organizations: Compare and Contrast

The subject of business is an extremely broad topic and sometimes is a very complex subject to attempt to cover. There are a number of factors that influence management and the decisions they make for the good of an organization and some have more impact on the organization than others. Power and politics go hand and hand with business operations as well and are usually directly related to management and leadership practices. The following paragraphs will analyze organizational management and leadership practices as well as power and politics within organizations, and the impact that each has on an organization.

There are a number of organizational management and leadership practices that impact an organization. Communication between management and staff is extremely important and has a large impact on an organization. Communication must come from management to staff as well as from staff to management. It is only effective if the lines of communication travel in both directions. This allows every level to be informed as to what is going on and enables quick responses when any problems arise.

Ethics and morals of a company have an enormous impact on an organization as well, and in a lot of cases, these practices and beliefs are contagious to the workers as they adopt, try to copy, and exhibit these to the general public and customer base of the organization. To this writer, it can be compared to children attempting to copy the actions of their parents, whether the behavior is desirable or not. If an organization does not have ethical practices and moral beliefs, chances are that the workforce will not exhibit them either.

Power and politics play a role in most organizations as well, and does not always provide a benefit to an organization. Power has been defined as “the ability to influence and control anything that is of value to others.”, (Case Studies and Management Resources, n.d.). In this same case...