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Public Adminstration QUESTION #9546
Question 1
The Power and Politics School (Farrell and Peterson, 1982) proposed a three-dimensional typology of political behaviour in organizations. A senior civil servant who lobbies the Finance Division using informal personal contacts to secure additional budget allocation is engaging in political behaviour that is best characterized as:
  • Internal, vertical, and legitimate — within the organization, upward in hierarchy, through sanctioned channels
  • Internal, vertical, and illegitimate — within the organization, upward in hierarchy, through unsanctioned informal channels✔️
  • External, lateral, and legitimate — outside the organization, across hierarchical levels, through formal means
  • Internal, lateral, and illegitimate — within the organization, horizontally, through unsanctioned informal channels
Correct Answer Explanation
The typology evaluates: location (internal/external), direction (vertical/lateral) and legitimacy (sanctioned/unsanctioned). Lobbying Finance Division is internal to government, vertically directed (upward to Finance), but conducted through informal personal channels rather than formal budget procedures — making it internally vertical and illegitimate under formal administrative norms.