How Frequent is Organizational Political Behaviour? A Study of Managers' Opinions at 491 Workplaces

Book chapter, 2007

“How Frequent is Organizational Political Behaviour?: A Study of Managers’ Opinions at 491 Workplaces”, written by Jan Wickenberg (Chalmers University of Sweden) and Sven Kylén (University West of Sweden), investigates the extent to which Swedish managers report the existence of political behaviour in their companies during change activities. Political behaviour is an important factor in organizational change, supported by several scientific case studies. According to some reports, public organizations exhibit a smaller degree of political behaviour. This study was developed to report upon observed behaviours from 491 workplaces in Sweden. It found that political behaviour existed in 95% of workplaces, although to a moderate extent. The most frequent political behaviors were informal decision-making and lobbying activities to get influential individuals to think in a certain way. This study did not find any significant differences pertaining to political behaviour between publicly and privately owned organizations or among individual lines of business. The authors suggest how managers, industry and the academic systems could use these findings in order to become aware, better prepared and be more able to handle organizational politics and change management.