THE ANALYSIS OF THE PERCEPTION OF

ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AMONG

UNIVERSITY FACULTY
Muhammad Asif Khan & Nasreen Hussain
Politics is a practice which is prevalent all over the world and Pakistan
is no exception of it. In every organization, you will observe politics.
Moreover, politics can be considered as top favorite past time of the
general public. Further, every single person has encountered politics in
his career in which he/she was directly or indirectly involved.
Faculty members have also witnessed that in order to move to a higher
position in their institution members do involve in some kind of
political behaviour.
So the purpose of this study is to identify that whether climbing to a
higher position is due to hard work or politics. It will look into the ways
that faculty members manipulate each other in order to move ahead in
an organization. For this purpose, the researcher looked into the
perception of organizational politics among the faculty members of
various universities.

Research Questions:
The following were the research questions:
1. To what extent are people involved in politics in an organization?
2.

To what extent does the idea of going along with others affect
excelling in an organization ?

3.

How far does an organization follow its policies regarding pay?

4.

How far does an organization follow its policies regarding

promotion?

Hypothesis:
The following hypotheses were tested in this study:
There is an association between powerful political groups and
employees survival in higher education institutions.
There is a significant relationship between employees perceived
satisfaction regarding pay and promotion and the stated pay and
promotion policies in higher education institutions.

Methodology of study:
The researcher used a questionnaire with several questions
which reflected participants past experiences and behaviors.
The researcher used purposive sampling method, which means
that the participants would be the people who have experienced
politics first hand. The data was collected from 200 full time
university faculty members who has a minimum of 3 years of
experience. Out of 200 questionnaires a total of 110 duly filled
questionnaires were received.
The instrument used for this study was the 15-item Perception of
Organizational Politics Scale (POPS)
The data collected was analyzed using SPSS 17.

Discussion
For the hypothesis1, there is an association between powerful political
groups and employees survival in a higher education institution. The
researcher came to the positive result that there is an association.
It means that there is a strong sense of politics even in the higher
education institutions. Studies has shown that one has to side with the
powerful group in order to survive otherwise a loner seems to have no
chance of survival and he might end up with loosing his job. Moreover,
the studies also concluded that politics cannot be completely
eliminated from the work place; rather one has to learn to live with it.
Further, The faculty reports directly to their immediate heads so the
heads should provide an environment which should be free from biases
to the subordinates due to the influence of superiors.

For the hypothesis2, there is a significant relationship between

employees perceived satisfaction regarding pay and promotion and the
stated pay and promotion policies in a higher education institution. The
researcher came to a positive result that there is a significant
relationship.

It shows that if the institution is following the policies regarding pay

and promotion, the employees would be satisfied. But on the other
hand, if the institution is not following its pay and promotion policies
then it will lead to political environment. Hence when a political
attitude is rewarded in the form of a promotion or pay increase, that
attitude is reinforced and is repeated time and again. It will become
really hard to concentrate on the work given in such a politically
oriented institution. The top management should tune the human
resource practices so that politics do not get nasty. Moreover, they can
opinion of experts to identify and handle such politics.

Conclusion:
It is concluded that when it comes to politics, the faculty members also
behave in the same as employees do in other institutions. The
management needs to streamline their policy to manage this.