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The politics of business and management (Analysing the political context,…
The politics of business and management
Background
People think politics is a dirty words and do not want to be associated with a political context
Politics is everywhere in the shape of different political
contexts
The words 'politics'
Came from ancient Greek
Reminds us of 3 important concepts
Polis (institutions)
A city in ancient Greece
Politics should be understood as a public space (polis) of and for citizens
Remind you of the government and public institutions
Values and interests
Politics concerns competing values and interests
Power
Def -
the ability to influence or to control the behaviours of people
Politics can be understood as the actions implemented for achieving and for exercising power
Understanding the political context
Two perspectives
Societal perspective
Organisational perspective
A political game - Crozier and Friedberg (1980)
A concrete mechanism through which people and/or organisations structure their power relations and regulate them
The interpersonal and often inter-organisational practice of business and management can also be understood as a system of political games
Where different actors, depending on the issue, can take part in formal and informal coalitions.
Understanding political contexts and engaging effectively in political games are increasingly important skills for any individual working in any organisation, whether located in the private, public or voluntary sector
Analysing the political context
Definition of political analysis (Yaffee and Chadwick, 2004)
A process of
Disaggregating the key players of a specific political context
Identifying how they influence progress toward your goals
Developing strategies to interact with them to advance your goals
Definition of political analysis (Nash et al., 2006)
A process of mapping a political context that consists of identifying and describing those elements of the political context that shape the way in which processes work
Understanding the main actors and the main interests, values and power dynamics existing amongst them in a given context.
Stakeholder analysis
A tool that can be used for a political analysis
Def (Freeman, 1984, p. 46)
Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisations objectives
Stakeholders exist in both the internal and external environment
All kinds of organisations need to be able to understand who the main stakeholders are and their main characteristics.
Bryson (2004)
The main purpose of stakeholder analysis is to identify the relevant stakeholders and their interests
To clarify the stakeholder views of the organisation
To identify the key strategic issues
To begin the process of identifying coalitions of support and interest amongst them
Weible (2006, p. 96)
Should address these kinds of questions
Who are the stakeholders to include in the analysis?
What are the stakeholder interests and beliefs?
What strategies and venues do stakeholders use to achieve their
objectives?
With whom do stakeholders form coalitions?
A dynamic activity
Johnson et al. matrix (2008)
See Book 3 p 38
Map stakeholder power against their level of interest
For every cell of the matrix there is the type of strategy that an organisation should adopt in relation to each stakeholder group that falls into that category
Classification developed by Mitchell et al. (1997)
Classified stakeholders according to power, legitimacy and urgency of their claims, resulting in the identification of seven kinds of relevant stakeholder
Managing the political context
To ensure long term success you need political astuteness skills
Political aastuteness def
Deploying political skills in situations involving diverse and sometimes competing interests and stakeholders, in order to create sufficient alignment of interests and/or consent in order to achieve outcomes
Political nous (Baddeley and James, 1990, p. 46)
Emphasise the importance of scanning changes in the internal and external environment of organisations; of managing relationships with the key stakeholders; and of envisaging scenarios to mobilise actors and energies existing in the organisation
Hartley and Fletcher’s political astuteness framework
1 Personal skills
The ability of listening to others and of being curious
2 Interpersonal skills
The ability to influence others behaviours and to negotiate
effectively with other people
3 Reading people and situations
Analysing or understanding the power dynamics among different actors and using knowledge of institutions, processes and social systems to understand what is happening or what might happen in the near future
Knowledge of institutions, people and/or social processes
4 Building alignment and alliances
The ability to use political astuteness skills is further challenged because it calls into question not only your ability to make the right analysis of the political context, but also to make the right moves
5 Strategic direction and scanning
The ability to develop a vision and a strategic direction for the future by scanning and managing different possible scenarios