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K-STATE BUSINESS PROFESSOR AND ETHICS EXPERT SAYS TREAD LIGHTLY WHEN DISCUSSING POLITICS WITH CO-WORKERS AND AVOID THE TOPIC ALTOGETHER WITH CLIENTS

by Erinn Barcomb-Peterson

 

When McCain and Obama supporters share a cubicle wall, talk at the office water cooler can get pretty heated.

But talking politics at work isn't inherently a bad thing, according to a Kansas State University business professor.

"I personally think that it's good for morale for employees to feel they can have their own opinions and express them freely over coffee or on break," said Diane Swanson, professor of management at K-State, where she also is the von Waaden Business Administration Professor. "It's an office, it's an organization, not a gulag. I strongly feel that employees should feel free to express opinions, even if they are different from those of the prevailing office culture."

However, because political issues can be polarizing, Swanson said employees and their managers should tread lightly to avoid causing conflict.

"I would encourage managers to walk a fine line and balance two things," she said. "They need to signal to employees that they have the right to free speech and free thought but to express them appropriately. The appropriate part is the rub."

If politics causes problems among co-workers, Swanson said employees should be aware of ways to deal with it. At some companies, this might include the help of an ombudsperson or conflict resolution specialist.

Above all, managers have the opportunity to be good role models for civil discourse, Swanson said, and it's a role many have already learned to play.

"Most managers get where they are because they have a sensibility about things," she said. "They're skilled at forging social bonds and keeping them. Most are skillful about avoiding conversation topics that are divisive. They know not to go too far in a conversation that's getting strained."

Being socially fluid in this way is becoming increasingly important, Swanson said, as globalization sometimes means that technology is the only way employees connect with clients -- and sometimes each other.

"It's an art form to forge relationships from a distance anyway without adding something polarizing to the communication," she said.

In this vein, politics is a topic that employees and managers both should steer clear of when working with clients, Swanson said.

"The issue should not even be coming up in most conversations with customers," she said. "I personally would have no problems with a manager advising employees to avoid such conversations with customers."

Businesses like media outlets and public relations firms should be particularly wary of the way politics play in conversations with external stakeholders, Swanson said.

"There shouldn't be obvious biases, especially with not-for-profit charitable organizations," she said. "It's just not helpful to ask for money while drawing a line in the sand politically."

Regardless of how important the election seems between now and Nov. 4, Swanson said that at work it's important to keep politics in healthy perspective.

"Elections come and go, but you will be with your co-workers a lot longer than the election lasts," Swanson said. "You're not going to be working alongside the president elect."