Summary
Government agencies’ leadership instructs public administrators to acquire skills to deal with policy crises, political interests, and virtues through diplomacy and dispute settlement. Public political skills participate in posting promotions and achievements. It is unrealistic to detach politics from organizational management (Crawford et al., 2019). This research studies the manager as a politician possessing four skills: agenda-setting, mapping the politician terrain, networking and building coalitions, bargaining and negotiating.
Agenda Setting
An agenda is a plan of things to be done, affairs to be acted upon, or approved. In politics, an agenda is a set of policy issues that are the concern of debate and conflict resolution within the official system at any one time. Agenda setting is crucial for effective political management (Crawford et al., 2019). The manager, as a politician, constructs the change plan from a vision evaluating the long-term interests of main associates and a master plan to execute the vision. This acknowledges the competitive internal and external factors.
In the case of Values in conflict, Domenech has strategized the admission policy on diversifying the student body without betraying the school’s academic recognition. The school board terminated the strategy due to fear of a “reverse indiscrimination” accusation. The plan was accomplished gradually due to Domenech’s political leadership. Aruna Roy worked with the poor Indian family to develop a plan to help them. She confronted government officials with issues of transparency and corruption.
Mapping the Political Terrain
Effective mapping of the political terrain entails: investigating the chances of deploying internal and external participants, finding out platforms of unofficial communication, picking out key trustees of political influence, and predicting the competitors’ strategies (Crawford et al., 2019). Domenech came back to the board with a political proposal for building the second TJ School. The new TJ School will relieve the contest in joining TJ School. Domenech and his staff knew the board would not abide by any project that did not safeguard the school’s greatest honor. They agreed to preserve the admission process, which later changed to adhere to his vision.
Networking and Building Coalitions
The more responsibilities the manager has, the more dependent they are on others to succeed. The manager identifies the staff they need and starts a relationship with them. The importance of the relationship is to make them available in times of need and get work done (Crawford et al., 2019). P&G studied its relationship with its research and development global business units and realized that the China unit failed due to poor relationships with the others. During the first board meeting, Domenech was disappointed with the failure of the diversity plan. He was shocked by the lack of support from the main victims, like the NAACP and other minority classes. The main cause of the lack of support was the weak relationship.
Bargaining and Negotiating
Bargaining is a discussion between parties involved to gain accord. Negotiating is a process by which parties involved solves a dispute. The elements of bargaining are fabricating value and claiming it. Managers with good reputations have an easy time bargaining and negotiating for long-term organizational accomplishment (Crawford et al., 2019). They should also know how to control pressure and personal attacks, which can boil anger during negotiation. Even though Cutler continued distracting him with personal attacks, Maritz continually focused on his duty. The TJ school board was ready to listen to Domenech and his staff because they trusted him, and TJ’s second school became a long-time accomplishment.
Reference
Crawford, W., Lamarre, E., Kacmar, K., & Harris, K. (2019). Organizational Politics and Deviance: Exploring the Role of Political Skill. Human Performance, 32(2), 92-106. Web.