Political Dilemmas at Work: How to Maintain Your Integrity and Further Your Career

Conclusion

SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY

Political Dilemmas at Work contains both challenges and opportunities. By learning and practicing, we can start to see the informal structure of the organization at work. Rather than becoming paralyzed by the dilemma, we will now be able to take deliberate action to move things forward. Recognizing and acting on the reality of organizational politics offers the potential to dramatically improve our careers, success, and organizational performance. This last section is how we—as wise and politically savvy individuals—share this with the rest of our organization and capture the ultimate opportunity of Political Dilemmas at Work.

Our example company, Xennic has its problems as we have seen. To the individuals involved, these problems appear extremely difficult. For Xennic as a whole, the dilemma of its organizational politics is increasing the risks at a delicate point in its history. As each individual grapples unaided with career-threatening dilemmas, things are likely to go from bad to worse for Xennic. As team members, they seem to be denying the reality of their organizational life and are making moves and countermoves to forward their own agendas. At this point, they need to pull together and work together to overcome the challenges presented by their merger and the ongoing market pressures. They all need to develop their capability to act with integrity and avoid the politicking. This will provide the best hope for promoting a new ...