Works
- Power In and Around Organizations, 1983
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
The strategic candidates game. Mintzberg describes political games played inside organizations, and among those played to effect change, the strategic candidates game is the promotion of a proposed strategic change through the system by a sponsor or champion. Anyone with a candidate and some means of influence can play, and the game draws on alliances, expertise, budgets, and sponsorship.
The whistle-blowing game. In the whistle-blowing game, an insider, often low in the hierarchy, who sees behavior that violates a social norm or law uses privileged information to inform an outside party who can remedy it. Because the player bypasses the chain of authority and questions its legitimacy, retribution is a risk, so the contact is often made secretly.
What it explains
Mintzberg explains that politics is one of several systems of influence in an organization, alongside authority, ideology, and expertise, and that people promote change through recognizable games. Sponsoring a proposal through the system is the most common of them.