Discuss the personal and organizational determinants of politics in organizations

What will be an ideal response?

Personal and organizational factors contribute to organizational politics. In regards to personal determinants, people who are high in Machiavellianism are likely to engage in political behavior; this is hardly surprising since they believe it is acceptable to use others for their personal needs. Social chameleons are adept at monitoring the effects of their behaviors on others, so they are attracted to organizational politics. Moreover, such people are socially adept, highly popular, extroverted, self-confident, aggressive, ambitious, devious, intelligent, and articulate–all of which are qualities well suited to politics.

Regarding organizational determinants, political behavior is likely to occur when goals and roles are ambiguous, the organization has a history or climate of political activity, and resources are scarce. Organizational politics often occur in connection with human resource management activities, such as performance appraisal, personnel selection, and compensation decisions. In addition, organizational politics occurs at the corporate level between units of large multinational corporations.