© Kamla-Raj 2014 J Soc Sci, 41(3): 487-497 (2014) Investigating Managerial Practices to Minimise Negative Organisational Politics at the Zimbabwean National Electricity Provider Emmanuel Mutambara, Christoff J. Botha * and Christo Bisshoff Potchefstroom Business School, North-West University, South Africa) KEYWORDS Negative Politics. Positive Politics. Labor Turnover. Contemporary Organizations. Load Shedding. Dysfunctional Politics. Megawatts. Zimbabwe ABSTRACT The present research investigates managerial practices for reducing negative politics at a national electricity provider in a Southern African Development Community (SADC) country. The study is triggered by rive organisational politics that has rendered the national electricity provider dysfunctional and less productive over the years. The present research provides a theoretical review on managerial practices for reducing negative politics as well as exploratory factor analysis that identified common factors of managerial practices. The data was subjected to the Bartlett test of sphericity and the Kaiser Meyer Olkin (K-M-O) measure of sampling adequacy to ensure that factor analysis was the appropriate statistical tool. The results showed that managerial participation and managerial fairness are potential measures for minimising dysfunctional politics. The present research paper recommends for a comprehensive managerial support strategy that encompass upholding transparency and fairness, instituting an effective organisational communication strategy, forming alliances, engaging key stakeholders and ensuring equitable distribution of resources as fundamental managerial measures that can take the national electricity provider to the next level, proceeding forward continuously. * Address for correspondence: Telephone: 27 18 299 1672 Fax: 27 18 299 1416 E-mail: Christoff.botha@nwu.ac.za INTRODUCTION It has been a long time since citizens of Zim- babwe received a steady supply of electricity. Load shedding dates back to the year 1995 and to date it has reached deteriorating alarming lev- els despite being endowed with the natural wa- ters of the Zambezi River’s Kariba dam and the Hwange coal plant for hydro and thermal electri- cal power generation respectively. Shumba (2014) acknowledged that Zimbabwe’s electrici- ty crisis continues to worsen as load shedding has become the order of the day with most key industries that includes mining, agriculture and tourism being negatively affected. Zimbabwe presently generates 1,300 megawatts of electric- ity which is way short of daily national require- ments of about 2,200 megawatts (Matimaire 2014). Matimaire (2014) viewed that the national electricity provider estimates to generate 6, 200 megawatts in the next decade to sufficiently power the economy but due to organisational politics meddling within the organisation, the challenge may remain a tall order. There could be various reasons for the down surge of sup- ply of electrical power such as the effects of the crumbling economy due to the changing land- scape of the government’s political environment, the changing land redistribution policies that has driven away potential investors, the chang- ing laws on company ownership and acquisi- tions and the prevailing deteriorating investment climate in the country, corruption, skills short- age and poor planning. While all these could present as substantial reasons for the power utility’s failure to generate adequate electricity for the economy, inability by managers at the national electricity provider to effectively har- ness negative politics pose as a serious threat to the generation of adequate electricity for the economy advancing forward. A case in point is where the current Zimbabwean government has appointed officials whose expertise and experi- ence is questionable in terms of competently managing the affairs of a technical massive or- ganisation such as the national electricity pro- vider by Zimbabwean standards (Staff Reporter 2014). Negative political interferences at the national electricity provider dates back to two decades suggesting that political bickering with- in was a challenge and is still a real challenge for the utility provider. Evidentially, the suppressed industrial action and the rive politicised work- ing relationship amongst senior managers and