Organisational politics: lessons in workplace influence

Learning how to influence decisions in the workplace is not a typical lesson during clinical training. But one a Charles Sturt academic Dr Andrey Zheluk says it's a must. The Master of Health Management and Leadership introduces students to the nuances of organisational politics. Andrey is a big believer that in the modern workplace, organisational politics cannot be overlooked. "In clinical courses, students are taught things like anatomy, physiology and drug interactions. It's not until they need to influence decisions that they realise there are issues of power or politics at play. "Often clinicians will say to me that they go to a meeting armed will all the scientific evidence, and when they present their case, they are basically ignored. There can be many reasons for this – they might be younger and have less clinical experience; there could be gender issues at play; they may not control the purse strings – but whatever it is, another form of power is being deployed. "Clinicians don't get any formal training in these dynamics, but they are dealing with them every day. And to overcome these dynamics, first you need to know they exist and learn to understand them. That's why I embed organisational politics into everything I teach." Recently Andrey took the lessons beyond his classroom and delivered a webinar to help health alumni understand the power dynamics at play in their workplaces so they can better advance their ideas and their careers.

In the webinar, Andrey stepped through a simple approach called power mapping, which is useful in building successful alliances, and provided a skills framework to guide navigating organisational politics. This framework requires individuals to place themselves and others under the microscope and explores things like motives and behaviours, interpersonal skills, reading people and situations, building alignment and alliances, and understanding strategic direction. "Organisational politics exists, and you shouldn't be offended by it. It's a tool you can use. It's a matter of realising power makes things happen and by mobilising power appropriately, it is possible to achieve change." Andrey says that while the organisational politics webinar was geared towards alumni working in health, there are lessons that can be applied to any workplace. Dr Andrey Zheluk has 30 years of clinical, industry and academic experience in health, as an executive and consultant in Australia and overseas.