How Internal Politics Impact Organizational Effectiveness

My journey in health IT began quite serendipitously more than a dozen years ago. I 'm sure many of you have this same shared experience. A mentor said to me one day, 'hey Jack, I think you 'll be good at this, do you want to go to San Jose to help us with user testing for a new project with IBM? ' Ever since that faithful day, I had been involved in shaping how clinicians interface with information technology and I 'm proud to have played a part in the transformation of health care delivery for my organization.

Bolman and Deal (2013) stated that in the political model individuals competed for power and scarce resources. Bolman and Deal also noted that conflicts were common because needs and perspectives were different between individuals. Degn (2015) noted that managers attempted to sell a message and gain influence from individuals to obtain a certain goal. According to Bolman and Deal (2013), power can be concentrated in the wrong place, so goals were not completed.

The political frame addresses organizational and personal politics. It is important to identify who opposes your projects as well as who supports them. This step will help discover the main interest groups that would be most affected by the project outcome. The important issue in IMS project related to the political frame is the power shifts from functional managers to project managers after the initial stage of the project. This unplanned power shift to an inexperienced project manager who does not have much knowledge about the organization to deal with internal and external politics resulted in failure of the IMS project.

Dynacorp is a worldwide information systems and communications business. In 1990 the company started to have fewer earnings than in the past, so the CEO tried to change the design of the company to run better. In this paper, I analyze this organization though the political lenses to better understand how changing the structure can help improve revenue and quality. As discussed in the book, the political lens sees the organization in terms of conflicts of interests, power, and goals among individuals and groups within the organization. The way to understand the dynamics of political conflict is to understand who has power, from where that power comes, the basis of the power and how much

Synopsis: Doug Aiken took over Tech Depot and replaced the symbolic leader who founded the company, when Aiken took charge he immediately introduced a new management plan, measuring everything from sales of products to employees. He saw himself as the omnipotent leader (mgt p39) Sales dropped after two years and everything Aiken was working for diminished. He did not gets the results that were expected by the company. Many of the staff expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs The board decided they were in need of a new CEO, so they hired

To explain these tensions O’Leary uses three lenses: Bureaucratic politics, Organizations and Management and Ethics with the help of three in-depth case studies and 21 mini cases. These case studies involve the

For this assignment, I had the pleasure reviewing the organizational structure and culture of Carolina HealthCare System (CHS) a medical organization. In my interview, I spoke with an employee that has been a part of CHS for over seven years preceding the completion of his military term. Coming from the United States Navy his views on organizational structure and culture was completely different from his experiences that he has had since being employed with CHS. I will attempt to bring these views and structure elements to the light as well as ideas in which he can possibly improve his overall experience. Our interview shades on the fact that all employee 's perspective on organizational structure is not always as it appears in black and white.

The third frame we are looking at is the Political Lens which looks at the power within an organization. Organizations for this lens are looked at as arenas so to speak, in that the people working within the company compete for power and scarce resources. The actions of bargaining, coercion, compromise, and negotiations are a part of everyday life within these establishments. If power is too concentrated inside a workplace, it can result in having a problem or problems. However, the same thing goes if power is too delegated in an organization, it can cause problems because it can result in nothing getting done. Making decisions within an organization involves assigning the scarce resources among the individuals who work for the company. Decision

The design of an organization is a “formal, guided process for integrating the people, information, and technology of an organization” (Glickman et al., 2007). A good organizational design increases the likelihood that an organization will succeed; that its’ values will be realized and its mission will be attained. An organization begins with a strategy or a purpose, is followed by its philosophy or values, then identifies the mission and finally evaluates the environment and its’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the organization (Kelly & Crawford, 2008).

Of course, politics can also do the opposite and motivate employees with like mindsets. Discussing political issues such as Medicare and Medicaid or Obama’s healthcare reform plans like the Affordable Care Act can result in encouraged employees who want to strive to meet the needs of these changing healthcare regulations in their favor. On the other hand, such can have the opposite effect as well, demotivating employees because their political views do not harmonize with the present perspective of the healthcare facility. In order to mitigate the challenges of entering politics in the realm of healthcare, it is important to cease discussing politics in the workplace, period. Politics is an easy subject to talk about, but is also easy to get upset over and cause division in the workplace. Issues such as these, can be avoided by explaining to the staff members that politics and getting upset, or displaying disruptive behavior over the topic will not be tolerated in the

The political lens sees an organization as “an arena for competition and conflict among individuals, groups, and other organizations whose interest and goals differ and even clash dramatically” (Ancona, Kochan, Scully, Van Maanen, & Westney, 2005: M-2, 33). It assumes that “In the political perspective, the roots of conflict lie in different and competing interests, and disagreements require political action, including negotiation, coalition building, and the exercise of power and influence, all of which recognize that rationality is local” (Ancona et al., 2005: M2, 33). I will analyze and explain the concepts within the political landscape to explain the new front end / back end structure at Dyna Corporation,

Power and politics have always been around but seldom openly discussed. Power is learned at an early age through family and schools. Ordinary people such as scholars hesitate to talk about power. It is often equated with force brutality, unethical behavior, manipulation, connivance, and subjugation.

Successful medical organizations have as their guiding principles a professionally stated purpose which encompasses and details their mission statement, vision statement, values statement, and broad strategic goals. The organizational structure is established on these statements, and the function of each department and the duties of each employee are based upon fulfilling the purpose of these statements. Additionally, these statements must encompass the various aspects of the organization and its stakeholders. As Moore, Ellsworth, and Haufman (2011) purport, “ Any organization planning as though it exists in a vacuum is ignoring factors critical for its survival” (p. 16). Without these guiding principles to serve as a direction for the

In order to explore individual meanings, definitions, examples and attitudes about organizational politics other authors used a purely qualitative methodology (Buchanan, 1999; Buchanan and Badham, 1999). This research uses a case study as the research strategy that allows researchers to concentrate „on a single phenomenon or entity (the case), from which the researcher uncovers the interaction of significant factors characteristic of the phenomenon. The case study focuses on holistic description and explanation”. Merriam (1998:29). Moreover, one review found that case studies to be the most popular qualitative research strategy primarily due to its potential to generate novel and groundbreaking theoretical insights (Piekkari, Welch & Paavilainen, 2009).

Previously practitioners have widely recognized that organizations are considered to be political in its dealing and that organizational politics is a natural tendency. Managers and theorists consider the use of political behavior as a necessity in the organization to get their desired works done at the workplace (Buchanan, 2008).