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Keywords
Managers, Stakeholders, Organizational politics, Organizational change
Abstract
Despite the abundance of practical advice for managing contemporary organisations, managers still seem to struggle with their role. Trying to manage a plethora of stakeholder interests can create a considerable array of paradoxes and double binds that often leave well-intentioned executives feeling frustrated and disillusioned. This is because too much attention has been given to understanding what managers do at the expense of why they do it. Examining the importance of personal motive is key in helping managers cope with these difficulties because it highlights the centrality of power and politics in managing. This paper builds on this perspective by developing the idea of a legitimate political mindset, showing how the adoption of this perspective enables managers fundamentally to redefine the content of their work and their managerial activity patterns for the benefit of their businesses, not just themselves.
Politics, the missing link?
There is no shortage of advice about how to be an effective manager. A glance along the titles lining the bookstores at busy airports will confirm that there is an abundance of possibilities to choose from. And it seems that there needs to be. Management theorists and the media alike bombard the business world with the notion that nothing can be taken for granted any more. The core message is something to the effect that the complexity of organisational life is exponential - hence the corresponding explosion of best practice advice. In consequence, executives are offered a copious array of potential solutions for managing employees, customers, suppliers, strategic partners and other stakeholders, not to mention themselves.
Nonetheless, managers often seem to struggle with their role. The wisdom of current management theory and prescription would appear to be insufficient for their needs. They are confronted with organisational paradoxes and double binds, leaving them with that frustrating feeling of "damned if I do and damned if I don't" (Dopson and Neumann, 1994; Westenholz, 1993). Is it simply that the management task has become too complex, despite the wealth of available advice? The case of Dan, an executive in the publishing sector illustrates the issue:
On the face of it Dan was doing well. In less than 12 months as UK managing director of...