Risk or Reward? Exploring Organizational Politics Through Gameplay

This article discusses using the Risk: Office Politics board game to teach management within the context of organizational politics. Risk: Office Politics is a parody version of the board game Risk. In this article, we discuss how game play can help instructors tie in important related topics such as political skill, power, and personality characteristics that can impact organizational politics and perceptions of politics. After introduction to the topics, students play the game and then reflect on what they have learned through a structured debrief and reflection assignment. Students devise and deploy strategies to help them acquire power and resources to advance their positions in a simulated workplace while navigating a drama-filled work environment. Then, they analyze how their own and their classmates’ personality types, political skill, and tactics affected power dynamics and the outcome of the game.