The political dynamics of organizational development

Politics as a driving force in companies – a topic that companies generally reject. They accept concepts of micro-politics that focus more on careers and more or less describe the structure of influence in networks. But companies reject political concepts to describe their own company and to conceptualize change. Politics is irrational for most companies – and they insist that their own company follows the laws of rationality and logic. Emotional aspects tend to be disruptive noises and barriers that need to be contained using equally rational methods. Empathy, for example, is becoming a management tool and is trained as a method in seminars.

However, if we look at the organizational changes that go hand in hand with the topic of agility, analyse the leadership guidelines that are developing in the direction of relationship competence and look at the considerations on a more democratic legitimization of hierarchy, then it becomes clear that genuine political concepts should have their place in organizational development. Based on a sociological-political analysis by Didier Eribon, we transfer a political question to the situation in companies:

Eribon: »We are thus faced with the question of who has the right to speak and who participates in which political decision-making processes and in what way – and not only in the development of solutions, but already in the collective discussion about which questions are legitimate and should therefore be tackled. If the left proves incapable of organizing a resonance space where such questions can be discussed and where aspirations and energies can be invested, then the right and the radical right draw these aspirations and energies to themselves.« (Didier Eribon, Rückkehr nach Reims, Berlin 2016)

Rephrased and related to the situation of companies, the sentence would read as follows (changes in italics): We are thus faced with the question of who has the right to speak and who participates in which entrepreneurial decision-making processes and in what way – and not only in the development of solutions, but already in the collective discussion of which issues are legitimate in the first place and should therefore be tackled. If the hierarchies prove incapable of organizing a resonance space where such questions can be discussed and where aspirations and energies can be invested, then forces outside the company draw these aspirations and energies to themselves.

If you want to attract truly committed employees and leverage the potential of diversity, you cannot avoid answering this genuinely political question. In organizational development, we only see cultural change if employees can make the company their company in this development process.