Organizational Politics as Experienced in Different Organizational Structures

Behavioral theory premises that a correlation exists between a defined set of factors and how individuals behave in their work environments. Recently, a significant shift in work structures has transpired. Traditio-nally, work was concentrated in formal, structured, hierarchical con-structs. Today, however, the trend is a movement towards less forma-lized, unstructured work environments such as virtual organizations. This book explores how the organizational behavioral dynamic of power/politics may differ across traditional and virtual organizational structures. It explores this concept both from a theoretical viewpoint and in a research study using executives with experience in both organizational constructs. It concludes that a potential relationship between components of organizational structure and the way the power/politic dynamic is exhibited and perceived does exist. However, although current theory and literature would lead to an expectation that the political experience would be more positively perceived in formal structures, this study found an indication that the political experience is perceived more positively in virtual structures.