Politics at Work [antikvár]

PREFACEThe first édition of Politics at Work was published in 1985. At that time we were in the vanguard of a wave of books on the politics of organizations and it is gratifying to have survived into a second édition.The appeal of the first édition was based partly on the general importance of the subject which was at that time just beginning to be recognised. Management teaching at colleges and universities has since embraced the political side of organizations and it is now built into most full-time management courses. The subject is widely taught on the rapidly growing Master Of Business Administration (MBA) programmes. Teachers of management are beginning to realise that we can no longer consider we have done our job if we allow naive young people to leave us believing that management is only about loyalty, honesty and hard work.What has surprised and pleased us most is the increasing acceptance by Management Development functions within organizations that practising managers need to learn about power and politics if they are to be effective managers. In our own consulting work we have run hundreds of programmes with titles such as 'Influencing Skills', 'Managing Change' and 'Proactive Management'. Such programmes were initially aimed at senior managers; now they are commonly focused on junior managerial grades.The acceptance of the need to 'empower' managers by encouraging a proactive disposition and teaching political skills is a core part of the transformation of management thinking, which also includes ideas such as 'Customer Care', 'Total Quality Management', 'Strategie Thinking' and 'Culture Management'. We have labelled this more confident, assertive, and at its best, inspirational management philosophy new wave management. It was beginning to happen in 1985 but now there can be few practising managers who have not been affected by it.No longer are line managers being seen by their executives as bureaucrats to be tightly controlled. In a rapidly changing and increasingly hostile environment it is necessary to allow managers to manage. Central controls are diminishing, authority is being passed down, rules are being interpreted more flexibly, managers are being encouraged to question the status quo and even to rock the boat. Being proactive is the name of the game. This is a fun time to be a manager. But new authority and freedom brings new responsibility and pressure.We have taken the opportunity of this second édition to introduce some new wave ideas because they will be an important part of the political situation in which many managers do, or will soon, find themselves. They also offer many useful ways of thinking which stand comfortably alongside our political approach.