There is a rather long series of articles on office politics on a news website. in each article the format is standard, a case, and then dissection by psychologits (shrinks). well, what do shrinks know? in a larger scale of things, i will give them credit to be able to see it from a macro level, but ground reality is simple. water does not flow the way you want it to flow. it has its own mind. human beings are just the same. theories of constipation, procastination and squalor will not apply to all in situations when there are lots at stake. at best, there could be a general direction hat human beings go to, but then this is a rather “technical” explanation. a depressed person might kill himself or mightnot kill himself. now hows that for an explanation? rather generic. well, yes. but as they say, there is still a lot that needs to be discoverd about the human mind, and typecasting a person is getting that no where.
office politics like with politics everywhere, on the playing field, in the classrooms, everywhere are the same. the protagonist is the boss, and the pawns are the helpless people being outdone. but, is it possible to be able to survive in a highly politically charged environment, and yet remain neutral? well, i belive it is so. staying out is harder. people prefer to take sides, and the side they take, can be either one sided or two sided.
practicing the art of staying out, should be spread as the gospel truth!
You raise a bunch of interesting points. But I’m going to look at the ‘shrinks’..
The prediction of human behaviour (like any other prediction) is flawed and inaccurate. However, as with other statistical models, you can estimate how a majority of people in a similar situation would behave. This is the kind of observation that is carried out by an astute observer, not neccesarily a psychologist.
I’m may not be able to predict exactly how 1 person will react. But I could predict how 80 out of a 100 people might (statistically).
And of course, all advertising works on the same principle. As does any form of office politics.. the people who lead/ form a faction etc, are aware- consciously or otherwise, of their actions. And it does lead to some form of personal gain. Similarly, your ability to stay ‘neutral’ depends partly on your ability to find out what the sides ‘want’ and to avoid antagonizing them, while not taking sides either.