The politics of backstabbing Scott Rosen belleved that he was making progress as an assistant manager of a financial services company $-$ until he noticed that his colleague, another assistant manager, was attempting to push him aside. On repeated occasions. Rosen would observe his colleague speaking with their manager behind closed doors. During these conversa$-$tions, Rosen's colleague would attempt to persuade the Supervisor that Rosen was incompetent and mismanaging his job, a practice that Mr Rosen found out after the fact. Rosen recounts one specific instance of his colleague's backstabbing efforts When a subordinate asked Rosen a question to which Rosen did not know the answer, his colleague would say to their supervisor, "I can't believe he didn't know something like that.$\text{'}$ On other occasions, after instructing a subordinate to complete a specific task. Rosen's colleague would say, 'I wouldn't make you do Something like that.$\text{'}$ What was the end result of such illegitimate political tactics? Rosen was demoted, an action that led him to resign shortly after, while his colleague was promoted. "Whatever I did, I lost,$\text{'}$ recounts Rosen. What leads individuals to behave this way? According to Judith Briles, a management consultant who has extensively studied the practice of backstabbing, a tight job market is often a contributing factor. Fred Nader, another $**$management consultant, believes that backstabbing is the result of 'some kind of character disorder'.

One executive at a technology company admits that blind ambition was responsible for the backstabbing he did. In $1999,$ he was assigned as an external sales representa$-$tive, partnered with a colleague who worked internally at their client's office. The executive wanted the internal sales position for himself. To reach this goal, he systematically engaged in backstabbing to shatter his colleague's credibility. Each time he heard a complaint, however small, from the client, he would ask for it in an e$-$mail and then forward the information to his boss. He'd include a short message about his colleague, such as: $\text{'}$I$\text{'}$m powerless to deal with this. She's not being responsive and the customer is beating on me$.\text{'}$ In addition, he would fail to share important information with her before presentations with their boss, to convey the impression that she did not know what she was talking about. He even went so far as to schedule meetings with their boss on an electronic calendar but then altered her version so that she was late.

Eventually, he convinced d lo the that she was orer. worked. He was transferred to the main office, while his colleague was moved back to the main office. Incidents such as these may nettie uncommon in the workplace. Given today's comical enort eritonment, employees may be using political games to move ahead. To guard against backstabbing $8$ oe McDonald, a management consultant, recommends telling supervisors and other key personnel that the backstabber is not a friend. He states that this may be effective because backstabbers often claim to be friends of their victims and then act as if oners because of this professed ietive information win others because of this professed friendship. In any event, it is clear that employees in organizations need to be aware of illegitimate political benaviour. Companies may need to adopt formal policies to safeguard employees against such behaviour; however, it may be the case that behaviours such as backstabbing and spreading negative rumours are difficult to detect. Thus, both employees and managers should try to verify information to avoid the negative repercussions that can come from backstabbing and other illegitimate behaviours.

Imagine that a colleague is engaging in illegitimate political behaviour toward you. What steps might you take to reduce or eliminate this behaviour?