Introduction
Politics can be described as the process of allocating resources in the society to different individuals. The resources include power, favor, and money among others. The reason why politics is so central in this process is due to the fact that these resources are in limited supply, while demand is high. For example, only one individual can become a president of a country at a time. This been the case, a great deal of persuasion tactics are employed by the individual seeking the high office to influence the electorate to select him. Politics is also involved with the desire of one party to wield influence over another. In this case, the party seeking influence makes sure that their target of influence acts in ways that are beneficial to them. A presidential candidate seeks to influence the electorate to install them in office, an act that is beneficial to them.
Politics are not confined to presidential elections and lobbying sectors of the society. Holmes (2006) is of the view that almost all instances that involve interaction of human beings have political undertones. One party is always seeking to influence the other.
The office is such one place where politicking is rife. This process takes place when certain individuals in the organization wish to influence how organizational resources will be distributed (Brenner, 2005). The organizational resources are scarce. They include budgetary allocation, promotions among others.
Given this scenario, it is very important for any project manager or developer to have sufficient political skills to enable them influence the decisions of other people in the organization to support their project. Pinto (2000) is of the view that project managers need to influence people that they have no authority over to support their projects. These include their supervisors, sponsors among others. As such, a project manager needs to have political skills to achieve success for their project.
This is a white paper report detailing a plan to influence the management to provide technical and financial support for an IT project. This support is a scarce resource given that the organization has carried out downsizing procedures in the recent past. As such, a detailed political plan to influence the management is needed.
Summary of the Project that needs to be funded
An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project has already been formulated. The project is a computer based system that will be used by the organization to manage both external and internal resources at its disposal. These include tangible assets such as vehicles, buildings among others. It also includes financial and human resources of the organization. Intangible resources such as customer loyalty and inter-departmental communication can also be managed through ERP.
The project seeks to centralize the database that is used by all organizational systems. This way, integration of organizational operations will be achieved. Data redundancy and operational costs will also be reduced.
A Detailed Political Plan to Secure Funding for the Project
Despite the potential benefits that the organization stands to gain from this project, it is paramount for the developer to seek financial and other forms of support for it. This calls for persuasion techniques on the part of the developer, given that they have to focus the attention of the potential sponsors on these benefits. The following are the steps that the developer will take:
Identify the Target
The first step will be the identification of the target group for this plan. The target group is composed of those individuals in the organization that the developer wishes to influence. The CIO would have formed part of this group, but he has already approved the project, and has made it known that it is a potentially beneficial project. This leaves the executive managers, who need to be convinced so that they can fund this project. They need to be persuaded, just like the CIO. There is no need for seeking influence over parties external to the organization. This is given the fact that the project is to be funded fully from internal revenue.
Accessing the Target Group
Having identified the target group, the issue now is coming up with strategies to access them. It is pertinent to note that the managers are usually busy, and have little time for employees of lower cadre like the project developer.
However, it is also important to note that these managers are members of the organization’s inner circle (Rivard, Raymond, Bergeron & Aubin, 1999). Cable and Judge (2003) hold the view that organizations can be conceptualized as been composed of concentric circles. Individuals interact differently with members of the various levels. At the core of the concentric formation is the group of top executives who are influential in the allocation of organizational resources (Bartle, 2007). This is the circle that the developer of this project wishes to access so as to influence the members.
To this end, the project developer deems it fit to use the gatekeepers in accessing the executives. These are the individuals that jealously guard access to their charges from external elements (Holmes, 2006). The gatekeepers include the target’s friends and allies in the organization. They hold the key to the project developer’s success. This is given the fact that they are trusted by the executives, and hold sway over them.
The project developer will make efforts to interact with the gatekeepers. This will be done by forming friendships and alliances with them.
Selling the Project to the Executives
Having accessed the executives through their gate keepers, the project developer will now embark on the task of selling the project to them. This is not unlike the presidential candidates in elections who seek to sell their agenda to the electorate (Brenner, 2005). The only difference is perhaps the fact that the target in this case is a discerning lot that is not easily swayed.
Cable and Judge (2003) opine that the project manager’s influence tactics when dealing with top echelon executives depended on the leadership styles adopted by the target. The executive managers in this organization are more or less laissez faire advocates. The project developer will thus make use of exchange tactic to influence them.
The tactic will involve convincing the target that if they fund the project, they stand to gain in the exchange. The exchange factor comes in because they are offering funding in exchange for benefits to the organization. To this end, the project developer will make the benefits accrued from the project appear more than the costs of funding it.
This can be achieved by making the managers identify with the project. Right now, the organization is going through financial hard times and the managers are concerned with efforts to minimize costs and increase benefits. The project developer can use to their advantage. They may portray the project as just the perfect tool that the managers are looking for to cut back on costs. They will do this by highlighting the economical attributes of the project.
The developer also needs to make the project indispensable to the organization. They will highlight the fact that this is just the right time to implement such a project, and the managers can not afford to ignore such a venture.
Finally, the project developer will present the project to the managers in such a way that those who will be against the funding will be portrayed negatively. This will be achieved by tackling the most influential individuals in the group first. They are best convinced when they are consulted in confidence. It is also easier for the developer to deal with doubts expressed by a single individual in confidence than those expressed in a group setting.
When the influential members of the management cadre are convinced, it becomes easy to convince the rest also. This is because the other members of the group will like to conform to the views expressed by their leaders, and will be apprehensive of appearing as been opposed to popular sentiments.
Conclusion
Office politics is a reality in most organizational settings. It is a fact that many people use politics to advance their individual interests at the expense of others. However, politicking can be put to positive use by influencing the allocation of scarce organizational resources to beneficial projects. The current ERP is such one beneficial project, and the developer seeks to influence the managers in order to fund it.
References
Bartle, P. (2007). Monitoring, planning and implementation: Integrating the monitoring at all stages. Web.
Brenner, R. (2005). Devious political tactics: A field manual. Web.
Cable, D. M., & Judge, T. A. (2003). Manager’s upward influence tactic strategies: The role of manager personality and supervisor leadership style. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24(3), 197-214.
Holmes, A. (2006). CIOs influence project management and outcome. Web.
Pinto, J. K. (2000). Understanding the role of politics in successful project management. International Journal of Project Management, 18(2), 85-91.
Rivard, S., Raymond, L., Bergeron, F., & Aubin, M. (1999). Project manager’s influence tactics and authority: A comparison across project structures. ACM SIGPR Computer Personnel, 19(4), 6-20.