The relationship between values and organisational politics

• Main Authors: Nik Nazalan, Syed Azizi Wafa Syed Khalid Wafa, Ramraini Ali Hassan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: HD58.7-58.95 Organizational behavior, change and effectiveness. Corporate culture
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/18676/1/The%20Relationship%20between%20Teachers.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/18676/

There has been a growing concern over the prevalence of organizational politics and by the differing understanding of the impact of organizational politics on the organization and the public at large. According to Ferns and Kachmar (1992), politics in organizations is a simple fact of life. Politics involve seeking power, exercising power, and achieving compromise when appropriate. Effective power is gained from serving other people’s self-interest.This research sets out to investigate factors affecting managers’ disposition towards organizational politics. In order to investigate this problem, managerial values with its six characteristics or dimensions namely external locus of control, independence, identification of power, need for achievement, concern with status and self-esteem; and attitude with four dimensions namely job satisfaction, life satisfaction, acceptance of others and anomie are hypothesised to affect managers’ disposition towards organizational politics. A total of 178 respondents were sampled from various backgrounds in both the public and the private sectors. Three variables namely power motive, ability to accept other people and need for achievement were found to be significant in determining managers’ disposition towards organizational politics. Thus, organizations run by managers with high power motive and high need for achievement will tend to display a higher level of organizational politics than those run by managers with low power motive and low need for achievement. The study also found that managers who are able to accept other individuals are less likely to indulge in organizational politics than those who are unable to interact well with others.