The Impact of Politics on Human Resources Teams Across Asia

The Chapman Consulting Group today hosted an HR roundtable discussion for 15 select HR Heads. Regional HR Leaders from high-profile multinationals in the Financial Services, Technology, Medical Devices, Professional Services, Shipping, Media, and Industrial sectors met over lunch at the Singapore Cricket Club to discuss the topic of “Equipping our Regional HR Teams to Better Deal With Politics”. The discussion was led by Jane Horan, founder of The Horan Group, a strategic consulting practice specialising in teaching the rules of political awareness headquartered in Singapore.

Training to be Political

There are often negative connotations to politics: if a company is seen as ‘political’, it often denotes a company where power is based with the personalities who know how to ‘throw their weight around’ or who can manipulate their personal connections to get their own way. This is indeed one definition of a ‘political’ organisation. But by focusing on this negative interpretation of the word we ignore that fact that sometimes the best companies can also be ‘political’ in a good way. So long as the politics are played in order to get the best business result for the company, rather than fulfill any one individual’s personal agenda, then a ‘political’ company can actually be a more successful way to run an organisation. After all, being successful in a corporate setting is best defined by being able to win support from your colleagues that allows you to effectively implement an successful business idea.

As HR practitioners who had risen to the level of regional HR Leaders, all the participants around the table were adept at dealing with the politics that arise out of dealing with the leaders and employees of a multinational corporation. For some, this is purely instinctive. Some people have an uncanny knack of quickly understanding which people hold the power in any given situation, and they can follow the ‘shifting sands’ as this power is transferred to different people via promotions, leadership switches and portfolio changes.

However most of us need to be taught how to pick up on these clues. In the best case scenario, we learn our corporate savviness by being taught by a good mentor. Before entering a high-level business meeting, a good HR mentor will ask their team-member to watch out for where the power lies in the room, and to understand how alliances can play a part in the success or failure of a business idea. After the meeting, the HR team can assess how to come to a decision that is best for the business, and how to ensure that this decision can be ‘sold’ to all protagonists. Similarly before taking a call with an HR Leader overseas, a good HR mentor will teach their team how they choose to influence stakeholders in order to achieve a unified plan for HR in the region.

Unfortunately not all of us are lucky enough to work with a mentor like this. To ensure that everyone has the same chance to pick up on these skills, Horan led the discussion about whether companies should incorporate political training into their soft skills training programmes. The participants in the room agreed that much more could be achieved by teaching HR team members these skills as a way of ‘bridging the gap’ between HR Managers of today and HR Leaders of the future.

Conclusion

For some people in the room, the issue of politics boiled down to that of cultural awareness, and in knowing how to deal with stakeholders in various countries around the region or in global headquarters. For others, especially in companies that had undergone many recent changes including recent mergers and acquisitions, being ‘politically savvy’ was a more complicated equation. With goal posts changing frequently, it becomes difficult to read where the influence lies from one month to the next. In these situations, the ability to get things done hinged either in getting buy-in from the very top of the tree or by selecting the right ambassadors on your side at a grass roots level.

Whichever way you define it, most people in the workplace understand that an appreciation and awareness of politics is a necessary constituent of a good HR Leader. Those people who only define politics in the narrowly defined term of ‘manipulation’ may also be the ones who never reach their full potential in the field of Human Resources.