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| Sunday, 1 January 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Office politics win-for-all Solemn Thoughts by Wendell Solomons In office politics you see a kaleidoscope of methods in creative use... Can we abbreviate to a primary strategy of attack on you and therefore make valid defence possible? More - how can you defend yourself while creating a win-for-all environment in office? Text Books Opportunism was a hazard little identified in the past by management textbooks. Today, offices are plagued by it. Looking at companies that fail, top-league New York financier George Soros came out against self-defeating opportunism. Among management educators now is Stephen J Covey who provides another management model. A simple way to make out the concerns of the latter two business personalities is to remember the Dilbert cartoon strip in newspapers. Incentives Engineering Division Head: "I told our CEO that the design could be done in one month. He is ecstatic!" Dilbert: "That would be good except that I told you it won't be done for six months." EDH: "OUCH." Dilbert: "So I guess you'll have to tell him." EDH: "Its too late. He's already issued a press release.' "You'll have to release the design in a month." Dilbert: "The only way to do it in a month is to accept massive design flaws that will destroy a billion dollar business line." EDH: "That's OK. My stock options are so underwater that it won't make any difference." "I'll just blame it on the Chinese manufacturer of our products. Ultimately it's the CEO's fault for not giving me incentives." In the script that has just passed before your eyes you find that the blame for a loss to a US company is due to be shifted to a manufacturing plant in China. To take the very large picture that has evolved, US manufacturing productivity has got so out of hand that it searches for a scapegoat outside. The essential strategy involved in this game is "The secret of success is to find someone to blame." Returning to the world of your office, what can you do to keep from becoming a victim of the blame game? Interact 1. Benjamin Franklin explains, "The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse." Keep in touch with the full line of command. Perhaps there are superiors whom you may find not to your taste. Do not, however, shun contact because misapprehension can result. Be supportive of group encounters where people can interact. Today's office meeting is often a ritual where a supervisor delivers a sermon to bowed heads. If you are a supervisor, notice that a 45-minute participatory encounter will provide more commitment to office from staff. 2. Bring the rumour out in the open and laugh at it. That's a powerful method of shooting down a rumour. 3. William Shakespeare wrote: "And oft, my jealousy shapes faults that are not." Pride, vanity and conceit build up faults in me. Cultivating humility helps me gain more knowledge about my own work and the business of my organisation. |
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