Abstract
Industrial, work, and organizational (IWO) psychologists have paid far less consideration to the counter view: that organizations are inherently political, and that political behavior is a natural and endemic feature of work environments, resulting from competing views about how work should be performed, the goals to be achieved, and the conflicting needs of individuals, groups, and organizational functions. This chapter refocuses attention on the questions 'what is individual-level political effectiveness?' and 'how is it developed?' Defining political effectiveness as 'the ability to understand and navigate political work environments, in order to acquire power, influence others, and achieve political goals' the chapter reviews the existing IWO-psychology literature on organizational politics, and examines why the discipline has such a conflicted relationship with politics at work (i.e., why researchers conceptualize political behavior as 'good' or 'bad' - not both). The chapter discusses how studying politicians could afford valuable insight into the nature of political work and inform a broader understanding of how political effectiveness is developed. Finally, the chapter outlines a model of the likely antecedents and processes of political effectiveness, and identifies future directions for research and practice in this area.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | The SAGE handbook of industrial, work & organizational psychology |
| Editors | Denise Ones, N. Anderson, C. Viswesvaran, H. K. Sinangil |
| Publisher | Sage |
| Pages | 228–247 |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |