focus on an organization of your choice whose functioning you are familiar with

8/12/2019 Focus on an Organization of Your Choice Whose Functioning You Are Familiar With

1/9

Focus on an organization of your choice whose functioning you are

familiar with. This may be a business organization, the university you

are attending, your former school, your hall of residence etc,

a. Identify its dominant legitimate and illegitimate political behavior.

b. Describe the causes of these types of behaviors.

c. Describe the consequences of those behaviors

d. Examine the merits and demerits of the political behaviors

e. Suggest ways of improving or consolidating the situation


2/9

Organization of my choice is Mt. St. Marys Namagunga

Background of Mt. St. MARYS NAMAGUNGA

Mt. St. Marys College is a girls boarding school for O and A levels. It was founded in 1942by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa, a congregation of nuns originating in

Ireland. The school is located in Lugazi, Mukono district. The school is located on the

Kampala-Jinja Highway, approximately 44 kilometres (27 mi), by road, east of Kampala,

Uganda's capital and largest city.Its location is approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi), by

road, west of Lugazi, the nearest town and approximately 17 kilometres (11 mi), by road,

east of Mukono.

The idea to start the school was born out of a need to promote the then very much

neglected education for girls and women in this country. The group of Missionaries that

started the school had within their ministry the mission to uplift the standard and status of

women in African society.

At its inception in 1942 the school started with only 12 students. In 1946 it was officially

opened as the first secondary school for girls in Uganda and by then it had 65 students. In

1964 the Government took over the management and up to date the school is a Nationalschool and Government aided.

The school motto is:

Per Scientiam ad Vertutem (Through Knowledge to Virtue) and indeed the school strives at

all times to instill integrity and virtue in all the students alongside the good academic

knowledge the system offers

Mission

To provide quality education to the girl child and inculcate moral values for sustainable

individual and societal development

Vision


3/9


4/9

Discipline:

Discipline is a strictly emphasized norm at the College. A set of rules and regulations are inplace to help all at St. Marys i.e. staff, parents and students to achieve the schools aim,

vision and mission as well as the national objectives in order to nurture proper future

leaders. Because the girls are not yet adults, they are still in the process of developing a

value system based on established morals and social codes of society. Students are

expected to be gentle towards staff, parents and fellow students at all times. Smartness and

cleanliness is emphasized at all levels including the some areas such as the school uniform,

classrooms, laboratories, the school compound among others. Students are taught other

values such as honesty, integrity and self-respect to persons among others.

The dominant illegitimate political behavior in St. Marys Namagunga is almost non-

existent because of the power exerted by the administration

Causes or Factors contributing to the political behavior in St. Marys Namagunga

There are a number of individual and organizational factors that contribute to political

behavior. However, the following are the causes of these types of behavior in St Marys

Namagunga

Since the power in St Marys Namagunga is controlled mostly by the administrators and the

school takes a pyramid that concentrates power at the top implying that there is much

power available to distribute among the many people who would like more of it but since it

is not the case with the school, then the competition for power becomes more intense.

The school has subjective standards of performance set for the staff as well as the students.

This sometimes makes the students often to resort to illegitimate political behavior

because they do not believe that the school has an objective and fair way of judging their

performance and suitability and therefore strike.


5/9


6/9


7/9

consequences, leaders should combat political behavior when it is excessive and

dysfunctional. Some steps that can help accomplish this follow.

Administrators should develop Power Contacts and Relationships by identifying powerful

persons cultivating friendly, cooperative relationships with powerful school members and

outsiders to make the administrators cause much easier to advance. These contacts can

benefit students by supporting their ideas in the school meetings.

To control politics,Administrators must be aware of its causes and techniques.

Open communication also can constrain the impact of political behavior. For instance, open

communication can let everyone know the basis for allocating resources, thus reducing the

amount of political behavior. When communication is open, it also makes it more difficultfor some people to control information and pass along gossip as a political weapon for

example why there is a reduction in the time for recreation which if not communicated can

result in striking of the students.

Setting good examples at the top of the organization can help reduce the frequency and

intensity of politics in the school. When leaders are nonpolitical in their actions, they

demonstrate in subtle ways that political behavior is not welcome. It may be helpful for the

leader to announce during a staff meeting that devious political behavior is undesirable and

unprofessional.

Another way of reducing the extent of political behavior is for individuals and the

organization to have goal congruence, i.e., share the same goals, with thorough

understanding of what they mean. If political behavior will interfere with the company and

individuals achieving their goals, workers with goal congruence are less likely to play office

politics excessively.

Conclusion

Politics can sometimes be constrained by a threat to discuss questionable information in a

public forum. People who practice devious politics usually want to operate secretly and

privately. They are willing to drop hints and innuendoes and make direct derogatory


8/9

comments about someone else, provided they will not be identified as the source. An

effective way of stopping the discrediting of others is to offer to discuss the topic publicly.


9/9

References

Dr. E B Mugerwasclass notes on organizational behavior

Dubrin, Andrew J. (2001). Leadership.(3rded) New York: Houghton Mifflin

Morgan, Gareth (1996). Images of organization(2nded). Newbury Park: Sage

Pfeffer, Jeffrey (1992). Managing with power: Politics and influence in organizations.

Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

focus on an organization of your choice whose functioning you are familiar with

Documents