Organizational/office politics training: a managerial necessity.

The ability of managers to succeed in health care organizations depends in part on their "political" skills. Memorial Hospital of South Bend, a 526-bed tertiary care facility, supports the professional development of its managers and secretarial staff by offering an in-service program to (1) sensitize participants to the need for political skills, (2) suggest techniques to succeed politically, and (3) emphasize the importance of ethical political actions. The in-service is upbeat and concrete and focuses on solving real problems of participants. This article has described an in-service program that was taught to over 250 managers and secretarial staff from 1985 to 1989.