Page 334 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Managing corporate politics
Table 17.1 Political skills and the management of change

Resources Process Form
Formal authority Negotiation Politics of:
Control of resources Influencing Budgets
Control of information Mobilizing support Careers
Control of agenda Mobilizing bias Succession
Control of access symbols Use of emotion Information
Ceremony and ritual Organizational structures
Professional ‘mystery’ Appraisal

Kissinger (1979) when he discusses the new role that Nixon and he had agreed
for the National Security Council at the beginning of Nixon’s first term:

A President should not leave the presentation of his options to one of the
Cabinet departments, or agencies. Since the views of the departments are often
in conflict, to place one in charge of presenting the options will be perceived
by the others as giving it an unfair advantage. Moreover, the strong inclina-
tion of all departments is to narrow the scope for Presidential decision, not to
expand it. They are organised to develop a preferred policy, not a range of
choices. If forced to present options, the typical department will present two
absurd alternatives as straw men bracketing its preferred option – which usu-
ally appears in the middle position. A totally ignorant decision-maker could
easily satisfy his departments by blindly choosing Option 2 of any three
choices which they submit to him. Every department, finally, dreads being
overruled by the President, all have, therefore, a high incentive to obscure
their differences. Options tend to disappear in an empty consensus that at the
end of the day
We have already noted that Deal and Kennedy (1982) define corporate culture as
encompassing how people in a company are likely to act in given situations both

inside and outside the organization. It includes a set of beliefs, a code of behav-
iour and minimum standards of performance and ethics. It will influence service
quality and the way in which people are treated, whether customers or clients.
Deal and Kennedy go on to argue that organizations with ‘strong’ cultures (i.e.
clearly identifiable) are likely to be more effective, basing the conclusion on evi-
dence collected on 80 or so corporations in the USA. They believe that a strong
corporate culture comprises the following key features:
■ Characteristic and clear approach to the corporate environment – markets, clients,
stakeholders and so on.
■ Values – shared by the people who make up the organization.
■ Heroes – people who represent and communicate these values, people who pro-
vide others with ‘role models’.
■ Rites and rituals – systems and procedures which it is expected that people will
follow.

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