Office Politics: Survival of the Savvy

I'm researching for an article on office politics, and came across this book: Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success. Authors are Rick Brandon, Ph.D., and Marty Seldman, Ph.D.

The authors put forth that we can no longer refer to office politics as a "dirty pool" kind of game. Instead we need to learn to use it ethically and with integrity.

This same message is put forth by Samuel Bacharach, McKelvey-Grant Professor of Labor Management and Director of the Institute for Workplace Studies at Cornell University, in his book, Get Them on Your Side: Win Support, Convert Skeptics, Get Results (Platinum Press, 2005.

Political competence is so important that everybody needs it. It isn't taught in B-schools, and nobody really mentions it. But it's never been more critical than it is today in organizations where positional power carries less weight.

"It's the ability to understand what you can and connot control, when to take action, who is going to resist your agenda and whom you need on your side," says Bacharach. "It's about knowing how to map the political terrain and get others on your side, as well as lead coalitions."

It's critical and you'd expect more books that address how to develop finely tuned political skills.

Others than Art Kleiner's Who Really Matters: the Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success, I haven't read much on this topic. Have you? What do you recommend for reading about office politics?