Organization Design is a doctrine about the general distribution and structure of authority, responsibilities and resources in organization. Poor organization design is a common cause of office politics because ineffective organization structure allow too much room for the negotiation for authority and resources. Hidden Organization Chart is an organization chart in the chief executive's mind rather than the official one. It means that the chief executive has bias and personal favor to individual executives but does not act openly and his delegation is based on the hidden organization chart rather than the official one. This is a common bad and unfair management practice.
Delegation is the distribution of specific work, responsibilities and authority.
In an effective organization, delegation must be based on the organization structure. Otherwise, there would be structural overlap, confusion, conflict and politics. Conflict may be minimized if the focus is on the whole organization rather than individual department or individual. Western management style may easily lead to office politics because its focus is on the performance of individuals and departments rather than the organization as a whole. Furthermore, western management style believes more in personal success, individualism and heroism than the eastern counterpart.