This is an account of power, negotiations and political networks in organizations. It integrates major organizational paradoxes and forms a bridge between the theory of organizations and the practice of professional consulting work. The practical handling of a wide range of specific organizational problems, such as the division of scarce resources, personal frictions in management teams, tensions in the hierarchy, demotivation, conflicts of power and interest, and resistance to change and role conflict, should make it beneficial for managers, lecturers and students in organizational development, behaviour and management