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Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes organisational politicians. Study the contents of the table and try to answer the questions that
follow it:

Table 15.2: Personal Characteristics of Effective Political Actors

Political behaviour may be legitimate or illegitimate.
Legitimate Political Behaviour refers to normal everyday politics
1. Complaining to your supervisor.
2. Bypassing the chain of command.

3. Forming coalitions.
4. Obstructing organisational policies.
5. Excessive adherence to rules, and
6. Developing contacts outside the organisation through one's professional activities.

Illegitimate Political Behaviours are those activities that violate the implied rules of the game.
Illegitimate activities include:
1. Sabotage.

2. Whistle-blowing.
3. Symbolic protests.
4. Group of employees simultaneously applying for casual leave.
The extreme illegitimate forms of political behaviour pose a very real risk of loss to organisations.

15.4 Political Strategies and Influence Tactics

Influence is the process of affecting the thoughts, behaviour or feelings of another person. The
other person could be the boss (upward influence), an employee (downward influence), or a
co-worker (lateral influence). To understand how employees strengthen their power in
organisations, we can look at certain political behaviour. The ways people obtain and use power
to meet personal and other objectives in an organisation basically involve some form of assessing

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