Political Behaviour Analysis

1. To what extent are power and politics already at play in this situation?

Answer: In Incident 1 both the scientists are equally competent to receive the internal new product development award but scientist A is bit reserved and quiet while scientist B is an extrovert and have good networking skills. The award is most likely to be received by scientist B as he is an extrovert and can use his power and skills to manipulate those in charge to make the decision in his favor. In this situation scientist A is not doing anything on his part to receive award on the other hand Scientist B is playing office politics by talking about why his product is good hence creating majority.

In incident 2, there might be the case of male dominance in office in which male employees are paid more and get early promotion in comparison with women employees. The male employee might also have used his network and created references in order to negotiate a special off cycle pay raise.

In Incident 3, the colleague who gave him advice wanted to create a dominant position and to create a thought in Saul’s mind that he is superior to him. Also by preventing Saul from listening to music while doing work might hinder Saul’s concentration in work, hence reducing his scope of promotion and creating and opportunity for that colleague to grow rapidly. The colleague is playing politics indirectly in this situation.

1. How might one of the actors in the incident use power and politics to achieve advantage in this situation?

Answer:

Incident 1 - Scientist A being modest in dealings with higher management can use politics to convince higher management about the growth which his product can achieve in future. He can also ask is co-workers a favor to give a word in his favor to those in charge.

Incident 2 – The young woman can make use of the public statements given by firm’s CEO supporting career advancement for women to turn situation in her favor. She can also try to involve other woman colleagues in the firm to create a majority and pressurizing the CEO for promotion of woman in firm.