Education

Political activities are rarely talked about openly in an organization, but they frequently absorb significant amounts of senior management time. While the political activities that accompany decisions about resource allocation may not be discussed at management committee meetings, they are often the major topic of conversations at lunch, cocktails, and one-on-one meetings. These discussions frequently center on who is going to be promoted to an open position, what group is in power, who is going to influence strategic decisions, how budgets are going to be allocated across businesses or divisions, which functional areas have the inside track with the CEO, and who will benefit from the latest formula to distribute salary and bonus pools. The problem is that in most organizations it is culturally unacceptable to say that a given decision is political. Yet political processes are an inevitable part of the allocation of scarce resources.

The Transformational Leader
–Noel M. Tichy / Mary Anne Devanna