An Analysis of factors affecting organizational politics within IT companies in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Similar to real world, politics do exist within organizations. According to many studies organizational politics is a search of self-interest of individuals in the organization.. The questions how it affects employees and to what level it operators within organizations are key areas that were put into focus during the literature review conducted as part of this research. After a broad review of literature in this area more than 20 literature sources with specific content were identified and a critical evaluation was carried. From this review it was identified that workplace bullying, work related stress, high workload, poor leadership and poor performance appraisals to be key factors which enable politics to grow within an organization. The literature review also identified that information technology sector has a greater tendency towards politics. Therefore different concepts were further analyzed to identify which factors would have what kind of relationship towards organizational politics within Sri Lanka. Mainly the analysis was carried out around the three key factors of leadership, performance appraisals and job satisfaction. A structured questionnaire and statistical analysis software were used as research tools to collect and further analyze data. An inferential analysis was conducted in order to identify the connection between the independent variables and dependent variable. According to the results of the analysis there is a positive correlation between bad leadership and poor performance appraisals towards high level of politics within organizations. Furthermore, it was identified that there is no significant relation between job satisfaction and politics. The interrelation of independent variables was identified towards the dependent variable. The results from the research suggest that actions should be taken to minimize political harassments as a key consideration for organizations. The core question that the research attempts to answer “Is organizational politics an essential factor for an organization to maintain balance?” or “Is it a virus which could bring an organization to its own knees?” reveals that at the end of the day it is important to learn how to adjust to organizational politics rather than rejecting it, to grow up as a successful professional.