The Fable of the Sharks

Man is a wolf to man. Managers abuse their power; subordinates shirk their duties; they all lie to get away with it. All organisations generate privileges, particularly for those who sit at the top;office politics result from people competing against each other to gain or retain these privileges for themselves. Yet, while it is true that some background noise of internal politics is inevitable in any human enterprise, certain conditions can either turn it into a relatively mild, manageable nuisance or,conversely, make it grow so big that it eventually brings the organisation to its knees. This is particularly relevant today. As a result of the dramatic changes the business environment has suffered in the last thirty years,office politics at many large organisations have become even more dangerous and widespread than they used to be. In the midst of turbulent change, conflicts of vested interests frequently result in companies sailing straight into their worst nightmare, simply because those who hold the power to steer them away from danger are also all-too-often those who are most interested in keeping things as they are - even at the expense of the business 'long term viability. This book is about the dynamics of power in large corporations, the disguises it adopts and the damage it causes. Its purpose is to expose the factors that make office politics wax or wane, the tell-tale signs that can reveal when it is reaching dangerous levels, and the reasons why otherwise competent managers all-too-often seem to purposefully look the other way. For all real-life human organisations suffer this split personality syndrome: they are associations of individuals in pursuit of the common good,yet at the same time they are also political swamps of internal conflict. Anyone who would like to better understand why office politics and management bullshit seem to be even more widespread now than ever before should read this book.