Organizational Politics in the Workplace

Organizational politics is a phenomenon common in almost all institutions and is linked with undesirable consequences in employees. Defined as a broad term, organizational politics is the performed actions of an individual which focuses only on themselves or their own self-needs without considering the needs of other individuals or an organization. Although there has been a plethora of research around the world on this topic, studies describing organizational politics in nursing remain underexplored. A cross-sectional research design was utilized in this study. One hundred sixty-six Filipino nurses participated in this study. Five standardized tools were used: the Job Satisfaction Index, the Job Stress Scale, the Burnout Measure Scale, the Turnover Intention Inventory Scale, and the Perception of Organizational Politics Scale. Nurses employed in both private and government-owned hospitals perceived moderate levels of organizational politics. Positive correlations were identified between perceived organizational politics and job stress, turnover intention and job burnout. Negative correlations were found between perceived organizational politics and job satisfaction. When looking at the Filipino nurses responses, which were lower when compared to the finding in other international studies, a strong link was found between organizational politics perceptions and the four job outcomes (stress and burnout levels, turnover intention and job satisfaction). The conclusion of this study identified perceived organizational politics which predicted nurses’ stress and burnout levels, turnover intention and job satisfaction. This study revealed that Organizational Politics were strongly linked to low job satisfaction, increased stress and burnout level in nurses including intentions to leave their organizations. Implications for nursing included formulating strategies and interventions which could minimize the effects of workplace politics and foster employee efficiency and organizational productivity by policy makers and nurse administrators. Some suggestions that could be implemented would include: individualized nurse directed and additional organizational directed activities of adequate new staff orientation and continued training, offering of courses for specialty certifications, staff mentoring, leadership course and peer support.