Office Politics and Politics

I’m not really good at penning any issues related to politics; neither discussing them critically. Below are the two useful definitions describing the distinction of the two terms which originally derived from the word of “Politics”:

Office politics "is the use of one's individual or assigned power within an employing organization for the purpose of obtaining advantages beyond one's legitimate authority. Those advantages may include access to tangible assets, or intangible benefits such as status or pseudo-authority that influences the behavior of others. Both individuals and groups may engage in Office Politics."
Office politics also refers to the way co-workers act among each other. It can be either positive or negative.

Whereas Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religous institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers to the regulation of a political unit and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.

Political science (also political studies) is the study of political behavior, and examines the acquisition and application of power. Related areas of study include political philosophy, which seeks a rationale for politics and an ethic of public behavior, and public administration, which examines the practices of governance.

My hypothesis is that, both the concepts of “politics” are actually interrelated with one another – as both are being employed by means of obtaining the ultimate aim – that is “profit”.
And of cause, literally, “profit” itself could be defined into several terms – the most typical are that of the “monetary and material profit” which are tangible, and “profit” which are intangible – those could not be seen by our very vision – they could be in the forms of “verbal recognition”, “legitimate empowered authority”, etc.

Basically, within the organization, politics itself is the process where the system and policy are being fomulated and implemented – while, office politics on the other hand, is the “game” played within the political system and policy of the organization. As mentioned in the precedent paragraph – the consequences could be favourable and unfavourable.

(Sources are extracted from Dressler G., 2005: Human Resource Management - Tenth Edition)