ASSESSMENT: |
| 1) | Joe's job involves acquiring and servicing outside clients. His manager has just left the company, and he and his colleague, Moira, are in the running for the manager's job. Working late at the library and on the Internet, Joe unearths financial information on Moira's clients as well as his own. With this information, he assesses that his clients are financially stronger and are, therefore, better prospects for long-term relationships. Joe shows his information to the vice president to back up his claim that he has contributed the most to the department. |
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Dirty Trick |
| 2) | Moira has a friend who works at one of Joe's client companies. The friend tells Moira that she has just uncovered some mistakes in work Joe did for her company. Moira goes right to her vice president and reports the errors, making the case that with her record of excellent accuracy she is the better choice for the job of manager. |
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Smart Move |
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| 3) | Dwight's main job seemed to be making sense out of his boss's fuzzy thinking. Then the boss got the credit for good ideas. Finally Dwight rebelled. Listening to his boss make a convoluted plea to top management for funding for a new project, Dwight just smiled to himself as the executives in the room shook their heads in total puzzlement. Leaving the meeting, Dwight said quietly to an influential executive, "I think I might be able to clear up some of the confusion here . . ." |
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| 4) |
At a division meeting, Sara was asked to comment on recommendations made by the general manager of her division. An expert in her field, Sara squelched her immediate reaction, which was, "This is garbage." Instead she said, "These recommendations aim at some very important goals. To do justice to them, we should anticipate every obstacle that might arise. First, let's look closely at . . . " After the meeting, Sara's colleague turned to her and remarked, "You undercut everything the general manager said and nobody even realized it." |
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Smart Move |
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| 5) | George is a difficult boss to work for, very demanding and sometimes demeaning. But he does know his way around the organization, so people who work with him learn how to get access to whatever they need. When George's boss complemented Bill, who reports to George, on his handling of an important project, Bill replied, "It was a big task but a pleasure to work on after George opened doors for me so I could get the information I needed." |
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Smart Move |
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Dirty Trick |
| 6) |
The company was set to implement a new quality control process and all the managers were unhappy about it. They agreed they would resist when the process was officially announced at a meeting with top executives. Early in the meeting, Lydia expressed her concerns about the new process. But as the meeting dragged on and the executives began to get visibly irritated with the resistance, Lydia suddenly announced, "Perhaps it's time for a change. I'll pilot the new program in my department." Afterward, two of Lydia's colleagues criticized her for setting herself up to look like a hero at their expense. |
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Smart Move |
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| 7) | Roger was a member of a work team that implemented an innovative cost-saving process. He commuted on the same train as a senior vice president and told the executive about the process. "I couldn't have done it without the rest of the team," he said. "They really helped me a lot." |
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Smart Move |
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| 8) | Ricardo wanted to transfer out of his department. When his boss was assigned to a cross-departmental task force, Ricardo, who was known as a good writer, volunteered to write the task force report. The task force members accepted with relief and Ricardo attended all task force meetings. After the task force completed its project, one of the other members invited Ricardo to join her department. He accepted. |
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Smart Move |
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Dirty Trick |
| 9) | For many months Kim went out of her way to help her colleagues in R&D, volunteering to do research, staying late to run computer simulations, pitching in to help them meet deadlines. Then Kim drew up a proposal for a new project for herself that would require extensive involvement by all of them. Before delivering her proposal to the head of R&D, she showed it her colleagues. "I hope I can count on your cooperation," she said to each of them. "We've worked so well together in the past." |
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Smart Move |
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Dirty Trick |
| 10) | When Carl found out that his boss, Elaine, was hoping to be named head of a new division to be located in California, he offered his help. He suggested they rush his new product to market, pointing out that a successful product introduction would increase her visibility. Elaine gave Carl the extra support he needed to move the product forward, including access to influential high level people in the organization. Carl used these new relationships to great advantage. His product hit the market with fanfare --and he got the job in California. |
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Smart Move |
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Dirty Trick |
Politicking isn't all bad. At it's best, it's about smart moves to position yourself where you can do the most good (just ask any candidate for office). But sometimes the line between smart moves and dirty tricks looks pretty fine. Take the quiz that follows to see how well you can tell the difference. Read each situation and then click on Smart Move or Dirty Trick --whichever best characterizes the behavior described.
Your answer...
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ASSESSMENT: |