Leadership and the people factor

Introduction
According to Louis Groenewald (2012) “Leadership and people can’t be separated.” The attitude
that we as individuals portray towards others will either produce a positive or negative outcome
Louis Groenewald (2012). In this assignment we will define corporate politics and debate the
impact that it has on employee morale, conflict, performance and leadership within the workplace.
Corporate Politics and workplace conflict
Garbuio and Lovallo (2017:411) defines corporate politics as the behaviour and actions of
individuals in positions of power that use their authority to influence the outcome of decisions, often
in a covert manner, the intention of the overall outcome being in their favour (Jones and George,
2018:568). An example of corporate politics is making oneself irreplaceable; managers gain power
because they possess valuable knowledge and expertise that allow them to perform activities no
one else can handle (Jones and George, 2018:523). The self-serving nature of corporate politics
often carry negative consequences for organisations and members that results in conflict (Ferris,
Russ, & Fandt, 1989). According to Jones and George (2018:557) conflict can arise when the
goals, interests and values of individuals differ resulting in a clash, this can lead to objectives not
being met within the organisation. Conflict may not only exist between employees working in the
same department but can also exist between different departments within the same organisation, it
is therefore imperative that leaders are equipped with the necessary skills to manage conflict within
the organisation instead of eliminating conflict (Jones & George, 2018:557). As per Asad Saimon
(2018) in August 2010 conflict arose in the Ready Made Garment industry over wages. Labourers
decided to strike and fifty people were injured in the process. This could have been avoided if the
consequences had been taken into account.
The impact of workplace conflict on employee morale and overall performance
Corporate politics can result in employees being demotivated and likely to spend little or no effort in
their jobs, avoid the workplace, exit the organisation if given the opportunity and produce low
quality work (Ganta 2014:223). Corporate politics, if not managed appropriately may result in
dysfunctional work teams, stress on employees, favouritism, heavy workloads, and a culture that is
disabling and disempowering people (Oni-Ojo, Iyiola, Osibanjo, 2014). Conflicts with superiors may
lead to reduced level of commitment that can have a negative impact on the employee’s behavior
towards the goals defined by the organisation. Henry (2008:17) states that “conflict in organisations
can interfere with group processes and create huge interpersonal hostility. Employees may
become unwilling or unable to work and unable to achieve organisational objectives”. (Aniefoik,
Vongsinsirikul, Suwandee, & Jabutay, 2018: 356). Zhu, Yang and Bai (2016:1500) illustrates that
superior-subordinate relationships have a direct impact on the job performance and further
suggested that inter-organisational differences between superiors and subordinates could lead to a
decline in the organisational commitment of subordinates. Cropanzano, Howes, Grandey and Toth
(1997:162) states that due to an uncomfortable environment, “individuals will often try to disengage
in their duties or may be physically present, but their minds are elsewhere” and as a result of that
the overall performance of the organisation will be negatively affected.
The role of leadership
An effective leader will assist in managing or facilitating politics that may arise in the workplace.
(Jones & George, 2018:415). According to Forbes (2017) Leaders need to be knowledgeable in
their designated areas and lack of knowledge often leads to misunderstanding and
miscommunications between leaders and employees. According to Bass (1990:11) “leadership has
been conceived as the focus of group processes, as a matter of personality, as a matter of
including compliance, as the exercise of influence, as particular behaviour. He goes on to state that
leadership can be described as an instrument to achieve goals, as an effect of interaction, as a
differentiated role, as initiation of structure or a process of creating a vision. According to
(Wenderoth, 2016) (Harvard Business review) the harsh reality is that organisations are
hierarchies, and the social science bears out uncomfortable truths about politics and interpersonal
relationships. This impacts individuals who are only reliant on their work performance and do not
involve themselves in workplace politics. As per Techcrunch (2018), this is the reality for Jason
Fried, Founder and CEO of Basecamp, and Matt Mullenweg, Founder and CEO of Automatic
(makers of WordPress), who both run teams that are 100% distributed across six continents and
many time zones. Fried and Mullenweg are the founding fathers of a movement that has inspired
at least a dozen other companies to follow suit, including Zapier, Github, and Buffer. It takes a
leader with the right skillset and knows how to influence the effects of corporate politics in a
positive way and minimise the loss of production. Efficient utilisation of corporate politics can lead
to the organisation being reinvigorated (Javad & Sumond, 2018:25). Being skilled in corporate
politics as a leader is regarded as an activity that most would not give a second thought to (Han,
Wang, Sheard & Kakabase, 2016:281).
Organisational culture
Gordon & Tomaso (1992) consider corporate culture to be the pattern of shared stable beliefs and
values that are developed within a company through time. Jones and George (2018) define
“Organisational culture as shared set of beliefs, expectations, values, and norms that influence
how members in organisations relate to one another”. Understanding the organisation's core
values can prevent possible internal conflict. Kotter (2012) said organisational culture has the
capability to increase awareness about problem solving. It is important in organisations to manage
communication and minimise corporate politics or conflicts. Aligning the organisational culture can
assist in minimising corporate politics or conflicts. Leaders in organisations create and maintain
particular types of cultures; hence Hennessey (1998) indicated that the ability to understand and
work within a culture is a prerequisite to leadership effectiveness. The effectiveness of a leader is
a major determinant of the success or failure of an organization (Fiedler 1996). Organisations
perceive organisational culture as a necessity due to the fact that it’s a contributing factor to high
performance.
Contemporary management contextualised
In the mid twentieth century, performance was evaluated using the traditional scientific
management philosophy founded by Frederick Taylor (1856-1915), a systematic study of
relationships between people and tasks for the purpose of redesigning the work process to
increase efficiency (Jones and George, 2018). A main focus of contemporary management
research is to find methods to help managers improve the utilisation of organisational resources
and compete in the global environment, (Jones & George, 2018). Contemporary management
encompasses both the traditional and behavioural theories of management where behavioural
theories are a scientific approach to the way that humans behave in organisations regarding
motivation, communication, group dynamics and leadership.
Conclusion
Disruptive changes in technological advancement, globalisation and in the environment warrants
that managers and leaders adopt practices that include both traditional and contemporary theories
to manage these changes. In our research, it is evident that corporate politics is one of the causes
of workplace conflict and negatively impacts employee morale resulting in poor performance.
Leaders have the power of influence and with the right skills can manage conflict and not merely
eliminate it as not all conflicts are negative. Abinbev is an example of a global organisation that is
also localised in South that adopts both traditional scientific theory and contemporary theory to
ensure organisational success. The Abinbev business model is based on lean management
practice which postulates work standards from traditional theory and has an organisational culture
known as DPC (dream, people, culture) that drives specific behaviours expected from employees
which emanates from contemporary management theory (behavioural theory). The Abinbev
organisational culture is the golden thread that runs through everything they do.

Recommendations
Effective leaders must create and drive an organisational culture that can address and eliminate
corporate politics and workplace conflict. Leadership is required to address corporate politics in
order to create a framework for organisational success.
References
Aniefoik, A.G., Vongsinsirikul, S., Suwandee, S., and Jabutay, F. (2018). The Impact of Workplace
Conflict on Employee’s contextual performance and employees performance: A case study on
private universities in Thailand. International Conference on Business and Industrial Research
(ICBIR). Bangkok, Thailand.
Anon., (2012). The People Factor. Available from: https://www.leadershipplatform.com/the-people-
factor/ [Accessed 10 February 2019].
Barrister Ebe Oni-Ojo., Iyiola, O. O., and Osibanjo, A. O. (2014). Business Management
Department, Managing Workplace Conflicts in Business Environment: The Role of Alternative
Dispute Resolution (ADR). European Journal of Business and Management, 6 (36). Covenant
University, Ota, Nigeria.
Bass, B.M. (1990b). In Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership. 3rd edition. 11. New York: Free Press.
Cropanzano, R., Howes, J.C., Grandey, A.A., and Toth, P. (1997). The relationship of
organizational politics, support to work behaviours, attitudes, and stress. Journal of Organisational
Behaviour, 18:159-180.
Ferris, G.R., Russ, G.S., and Fandt, P.M. (1989). Politics in Organisations. In R. A. Giacalone & P.
Rosenfeld (Eds). Impression management in the organisation, 143-170.
Fiedler. F. (1996), “Research on Leadership Selection and Training: One View of the Future,”
Administrative Science Quarterly, 41:241–250.
George, G., & Gordon, N. D. T. (1992). Predicting Corporate Performance From Organizational
Culture: Journal of Management Studies, v 29.
Garbuio, M., and Lovallo, D. (2017). Does organizational politics kill company growth?, 27(4):410-
433.
Henry, O. (2008). Organisational Conflicts and its effects on Organisational Performance.
Research Journal of Business Management, 2 (1):16-24.
Hennessey, J.T. (1998). Reinventing Government: Does Leadership Make the Difference?. Public
Administration Review, 58(6): 522–32.
Jones, G.R., & George, J.M. (2018). Contemporary Management. McGraw-Hill Irwin: Boston.
Kotter, J. (2012). Corporate culture and performance. New York: Free press.
Saimon, A. (2018). http://www.assignmentpoint.com . [Online] Available from:
http://www.assignmentpoint.com/business/management/assignment-on-conflict-management-with-
real-life-example.html [Accessed 10 February 2019].
Techcrunch, 2018. https://techcrunch.com. [Online] Available from:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/18/distributed-teams-are-rewriting-the-rules-of-officeless-politics/
[Accessed 10 February 2019].
Wenderoth, M.C. (2016). Great Leaders Embrace Office Politics. Harvard Business Review.
[Online] Available from: https://hbr.org/2016/04/great-leaders-embrace-office-politics [Accessed 2
February 2019].
Zhu, Y, Yang, H and Bai, G. (2016). Effect of Superior-Subordinate Intergenerational Conflict on
Job Performance of New Generation employees. Scientific Journal Publishers Limited, 44(9):1499-
1514.
http://www.zeepedia.com/read.php?
behavioral_theories_of_management_the_hawthorne_studies_principles_of_management&b=54&
c=9