The place of organizational politics in strategic change

Abstract

This paper traces the development of strategic change models and their assumptions, arguing that managers have a good deal of choice in the strategies they adopt. It presents the idea of organizational politics as simply another tool that managers have to choose from when instigating strategic change and explains why Western managers feel uncomfortable with the notions of power and politics. The paper outlines the assumptions upon which the political model of change is based and argues that managers engage in political action in many subtle ways, particularly during times of change. Finally, it provides some examples of political strategies that managers use, arguing that political action is not all bad and that managers have much more choice in strategic change strategies than they are willing to acknowledge. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.