Political tactics in building construction industry from the architects' perspectives

Abstract

Political behavior in organizations has been the subject of numerous studies. The emergent picture from these studies is that political behavior in organizations is an inevitable part of any human-based activity. Architectural design practice is one of those human-based activities. Political behaviors are inevitable reality of any human based activity. Political behavior can have functional or dysfunctional consequences. The key challenge facing architects is managing political behavior in order to reduce or eliminate dysfunctional consequences of political behavior. Managing political behavior starts with understanding and identifying political tactics used by social actors involved in architectural design practice. The research presented in this thesis builds on this premise. It empirically explores (1) the use of political tactics by primary social actors of any construction project (i.e., clients, main-contractors and subcontractors) (2) communication channel used in send politically motivated messages by social actors and (3) frequency of political tactics used throughout different stages of a construction project. The research findings reveal that political tactics are commonly used in architectural design practice and political tactics are most frequently used by social actors in the construction process. Furthermore, research findings suggest that social actors use oral communication channels rather than written communication channels for sending politically motivated messages, and the main-contractors heavily use political behavior in the architectural design practice. Key words: organizational politics, political tactics, political behavior, architectural design and construction practice in Turkey.