Power, politics, and organizational change : winning the turf game

`Anecdotes and case illustrations, including checklists and guidelines are provided, making this book useful for post-experience and postgraduate students of management and organizational behaviour, and for senior undergraduates. This book will also be relevant to managers and employees involved in organizational change’ – European Forum for Management Development Power, Politics, and Organizational Change offers a theoretical and practical guide to the politics of change – an aspect of organizational life that plays a moresignificant role than is commonly admitted. The focus lies with the internalchange agent, rather than with external consultants, as change is now a keyelement in the roles of most managers, who typically combine changeresponsibilities with their regular day job. A fresh perspective is developed,emphasizing the context in which the change agent operates, explicit and tacitwarrants for particular actions, skills in accounting for one’s political behaviour, and the reputation of the change agent.David Buchanan and Richard Badham argue that the change agent who is not politically skilled will fail. This implies that it is necessary to be able and willing to intervene in the political processes of the organization, to push particular agendas, to influence decisions and decision makers, to deal with criticism and challenge, to cope with resistance, to maintain one’s reputation.Some managers regard political calculations and activities as distasteful. Some textbooks advise the change agent to avoid involvement in the turf game.This book argues that such avoidance tactics are both naive and unprofessional.