LESSON 25:

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

In the previous lectures we have discussed about Rational dividual (or group of individuals) to modify the conduct of
Organization, employee’s duties towards the firm, and firm’s others in a desired way without having one’s own conduct
duties towards the employees. In this lecture we will discuss modified in undesired ways.
about another type of organization, that is, Political Organiza-
The Political Model of Organization
tion.
Points to be covered in this lesson:

Concept of Political Organization

To anyone who has ever worked within a large organization, the
goal-directed and efficient structure that the rational model of the
organization attributes to business firms will seem a bit
incomplete if not altogether unreal. Although much of the
behavior within organizations accords with the orderly picture
drawn by the rational model, a great deal of organizational
behavior is neither goal directed nor efficient nor even rational.
Employees within organizations often find themselves embroiled
in intrigues, in on-going battles for organiza-tion resources, in
feuding between cliques, in arbitrary treatment by superiors, in
scrambles for career advancement, in controversies over what the
organiza-tion’s “real” goals are or should be, and in disagreements
over strategies for pursuing goals. Such behaviors do not seem to
fit within the orderly pattern of the rational pursuit of
organizational goals. To understand these behaviors and the
ethical issues they raise, we must turn to a second model of the
firm, one that focuses less on its rational aspects and more on its
political features: The “political model of the organization.”
The political analysis of the organization that we shall now
sketch is a more recently developed view of organizations than the
rational analysis. Un-like the rational model, the political model of An exam-ple of an organizational coalition and the non-formal
the organization does not look merely at the formal lines of power it can exert even over formal authorities is provided by
authority and communication within an organi-zation nor does it this account of life in a government agency.
presume that all organizational behavior is rationally de-signed to We had this boss come in from Internal Revenue [to run this
achieve an objective and given economic goal such as profitability OEO department]. He wanted to be very, very strict. He used to
or productivity. Instead the political model of the organization have meetings every Friday- About people coming’ in late,
sees the orga-nization as a system of compet- ing power people leaving’ early, people abusing’ lunch time. . . . Every
coalitions and of formal and infor-mal lines of influence and Friday, everyone would sit there and listen to this man. And
communication that radiate from these coalitions. In place of the we’d all go out and do the same thing again. Next Friday he’d
neat hierarchy of the rational model, the political model pos- have another meeting and he would tell us the same thing.
tulates a messier and more complex network of clustered power (Laughs.) We’d all go out and do the same thing again.
relationships and crisscrossing communication channels. (Laughs.) He would try to talk to one and see what they’d say
In the political model of the organization, individuals are seen as about the other. But we’d been working all together for quite
grouping together to form coalitions that then compete with each awhile. You know how the game is played. Tomorrow you
other for resources, ben-efits, and influence. Consequently, the might need a favor. So nobody would say any-thing. If he’d
“goals” of the organization are those es-tablished by the want to find out what time someone came in, who’s going to
historically most powerful or dominant coalition. Goals are not tell him? He’d want to find out where someone was, we’d
given by “rightful” authority, but are bargained for among more always say, “They’re at the Xerox.” Just anywhere. He couldn’t
or less power-ful coalitions. The fundamental organizational get through.
reality, according to this model, is not formal authority or As this example shows, behavior within an organization may
contractual relationships, but power: the ability of the in- not be aimed at rational organizational goals such as efficiency
or productivity, and both power and information may travel
completely outside (even contrary to) formal lines of authority

72 11.292
and communication. Nonetheless, formal managerial authority
and formal communication networks provide rich sources of
power.
If we focus on power as the basic organizational reality, then the
main ethical problems we will see when we look at an organiza-
tion are problems connected with the acquisition and exercise of
power. The central ethical issues will focus not on the contrac-
tual obligations of employers and employees (as the rational
model would focus them), but on the moral constraints to
which the use of power within organizations must be sub-
jected. The ethics of organiza-tional behavior as seen from the
perspective of the political model, then, will focus on this
question:
What are the moral limits, if any, to the exercise of power within
organizations? In the lecture that follows we will discuss two as-
pects of this question:
• What, if any, are the moral limits to the power man-agers
acquire and exercise over their subordinates?
• What, if any, are the moral limits to the power employees
acquire and exercise on each other?
Overview
• The political model of the organization sees the orga-
nization as a system of competing power coalitions and of
formal and infor-mal lines of influence and communication
that radiate from these coalitions. In place of the neat
hierarchy of the rational model, the political model pos-
tulates a messier and more complex network of clustered
power relationships and crisscrossing communication
channels.
Activity
Discuss how the political model of organization is different
from the rational model of organization.

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