When we influence people by using discretionary behaviours to promote personal objectives we are applying organizational politics. Discretionary behaviours allow us to more flexibility and personally input, as they are not explicitly prescribed or prohibited by the organization. Organizational politics are linked to one or more power sources and flourish under the right conditions.
Some of the conditions for organizational politics are scarce resources, complex and ambiguous rules in resource allocation decisions and tolerant or actual reinforcement by the organization. People use political tactics to protect their resources and maintain the status quo when budgets are drastically reduced. If there are no simple and clear rules in resource allocation decisions, potential recipients use political tactics to influence the person who has been given discretionary power. Political tactics are common in companies whether practice is tolerated and sometimes even reinforced or rewarded.
Personal values and gender can influence person’s decision to engage in organizational politics. A high need for personal power, an internal focus of control, and a Machiavellian personality promote the use of political tactics. Men will advertise their achievements and take personal credit for success of others who report to them. Men will blame someone else other problems. As a gender, women try to avoid political tactics such as blaming tactics and direct impression management. Women don’t forces spotlights on themselves and share the credit with others. Women take personal blamed even when they have not caused the problem. Men and women are different it comes to organizational roles; however, there are also women who are excellent corporate politicians and some men who are inept at organizational politics. We can compare gender differences in an occurrence at Apple Computers. A male CEO of Apple Computers, Gil Amelio, once sent a letter claiming his accomplishments before stepping down. A female Apple executive vice president, Ellen Hancock, simply thanked Apple employees for the opportunity to work with them and their support.
From this we can discern that gender and personal values are major influences in the political and power structures in a company. We know that people can have a personal philosophy of deceit to influence others and gain personally power. We can see that men and women are different with it comes to political behaviour. We can see that different people have different needs for political power and this need for political power is not always positive.