OzHR #24 - Organisational Politics

Politics, it's so easy to blur the lines between conflict, competitiveness and cahoots. Organisational politics is the use of social networks and power structures to get the job done. And that's where the contentiousness comes in, because the job can change - is it the job that everyone has agreed to, or the job of serving ourselves? Whatever our opinion of organisational politics, it's a fact of being around more than 2 human beings. So how do we deal with it, and use it to the organisation's advantage?

The chat will be Thursday 13 March starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Or join in from international waters at 4:00pm in Singapore, or 8:00am in London.

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions this week are:

1. Do you generally see organisational politics as a positive or negative activity? How you do approach highly political situations?

2. What do you think is the main difference in how men and women participate in organisational politics?

3. What are the key skills for being a formidable political player? What's the best way to learn these skills?

4. How can positive politics be fostered in an organisation? 

OzHR #23 - Translating vision to frontline management

Executives write a vision.
Middle managers share a vision.
Frontline managers live the reality of the organisation.

The excruciating difficulty of HR often isn't getting executives or middle managers on board, it's actually getting the frontline management to give a damn.

They've heard the messages millions of times before, and while you're saying one thing, another part of the organisation might be telling them another. And when it comes down to it, they might have had 10 visions come through with changing executive management, but they still just had to get the job done. They might be really engaged with their job, but for the most part, the organisation's vision probably isn't something they're too interested in.

You might read that and think "wrong, wrong, wrong." And you'd be right. But it's still true, true, true. So the question for HR is, how do we get these people on board - because an organisation might be led from the top down, but it's built from the bottom up. Frontline management is the key to making the vision a reality.

The chat will be Thursday 6 March starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Or join in from international waters at 4:00pm in Singapore, or 8:00am in London.

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions this week are:

1. Do you know the communications your frontline management receives? How do you ensure consistent messaging?

2. How can frontline managers be re-engaged with executive messaging when they have already disengaged themselves from it?

3. If a vision doesn't translate to the frontline reality, what's gone wrong? What is HR's role in the solution?

4. How can a frontline manager's visionary capability be lifted? Without it, should they be a manager in the first place?