Surviving and Thriving in Organizational Politics (Part 1)
April 13, 2016 by Ricardo Azziz, MD, MPH, MBA
Considering that graduation season is soon upon us, it seems like an appropriate time to remember that no matter what we do or what our current station is, most of us operate in some sort of organization. And a good time to remind ourselves that surviving and thriving in these institutions requires proactively engaging with and managing their internal politics.
Politics with a small “p,” which the Oxford Dictionary defines as “the activities associated with the governance of [an] area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.”Politics that are inherent to the operations of any complex organization, especially universities, defined as they are as organizations of ambiguous purposes in vertically-oriented structures that are only loosely connected (Keeling et al, 2007).
Ricardo Azziz, MD, MPH, MBA
A educator-scientist-executive with over 20 years of leadership experience in higher education, research, and healthcare, Dr. Azziz currently serves as Regents’ Professor, Augusta University; Senior Fellow, American Association of State Colleges & Universities; Visiting Scholar, Pullias Center for Higher Education, University of Southern California; and former founding CEO, Georgia Regents Health System.