Pwc Organizational Behavior

Problem Statement
Since politics and power plays are rampant in organizations, PwC is also not exception. The political behavior of the previous CEO of the business have negatively affected the enterprise consulting department’s performance. This also brought a negative image to the company.
Political and Power Behaviors
The CEO had a close relationship with the client of the EC department, for the reasons to manipulate pricing of the department. For favorable clients, CEO provided an executive order to reduce prices. The reason for the political behavior is to ensure his progress in his career with the network. It is more of a personal gain rather than a marketing strategy. In fact, the partners of the organization questioned his methods,

On the other hand, as a comeback, the CEO pressures the department to speed the implementation processes. Further, he also takes revenge from long term employee once they leave the company. One instance is that, CEO spread a bad reputation of an Associate Director to the prominent businesses such as Hayleys. Thus, hindering other people’s career progress.
Affected stakeholder of political Behavior
Stakeholders Target/Agent of Political Behavior Power Level in organization Description
CEO Agent Very High He has a huge influence over the organization and ability to alter strategy
COO Target High Ability to influence the decision of the CEO, but not completely
Partners Target High Ignoring their 5-year succession plan for the department
Associate Director Target Medium Often deny proposals from the director for department

“Power is the probability that a person can carry out his or her own will despite resistance” – Max Weber (1947).
Power and politics play a huge role in organizations nowadays. This influences the decision-making process and interaction among employees which ultimately influence the culture of the organization as well.
As mentioned in the problem statement, power and the political behavior of the CEO has negatively affected the performance of the enterprise consulting department of PWC and also has created a bad impact on the organization as a whole.
Hellriegel, et al. (2001) describe any political behavior pertains into influencing the behavior of the people of the organizations and the course of the organization in order to protect the “self -interest, need their own need and advance their own goals”. Whereas organizational politics is defined “variety of activities associated with the use of influence tactics to improve personal or organizational interest” (Jarrett, 2017). With various authors’ perceptions on the political behavior, it is deducible that political behavior is rampant throughout the