Only those equipped with solid political skills can get away with ingratiating themselves to senior staff.
They say flattery will get you nowhere - but it turns out it's actually a pretty healthy skill to have in the workplace, especially when things go pear-shaped.
Sucking-up to bosses and co-workers does more than grease the wheels of promotion - it can also protect you from stress, according to researchers.
People often feel ignored or excluded by colleagues or superiors at work, according to a research published in the Journal of Management Studies. This adult form of bullying has been dubbed workplace ostracism by authors of the study: Coping with Workplace Ostracism: The Roles of Ingratiation and Political Skill in Employee Psychological Distress.
The researchers found that when facing ostracism on the job, those who responded by ingratiating themselves were less likely to experience the tension, emotional exhaustion and depressed mood that often resulted - delivering a bonus to their mental and physical health.
A quick word of caution, though, before you rush off to compliment your boss on her end-of-year figures: unless carefully deployed, ingratiation can come across as self-serving and manipulative. In fact the researchers found that only those equipped with solid political skills could pull it off. The less savvy of those studied who used the same tactic often just made the situation worse.
So what does a politically skillful person looks like? One of the study's authors, Ho Kwong Kwan, described someone who sounds genuine when they speak, tries to show real interest in other people, and pays close attention to other people's facial expressions.
Kwan, a Ph.D candidate in management at Drexel University in the US, said companies should take steps to reduce workplace ostracism by recruiting people with strong political skills and by building political skill in their staff though training, counselling and mentoring.
But can the fine art of ass-kissing really be taught? According to professor Gerald Ferris, a Florida State University researcher and author of Political Skill at Work, you tend to be born with this political skill - but it can be shaped and taught to some degree if you have a natural propensity.
"The training of political skill is similar to the training that professional actors go through to hone their craft and skills. Interestingly, this may be why one of the newer and more popular forms of management and executive education and development is to take acting classes."
"Chief executive officers of companies, for example, have been doing so at increasing rates. They all have speech-writers to tell them what to say. But, they need training to show them how to say it with meaning, sincerity, and conviction. That is, they essentially are being trained to be politically skilled, and in so doing, to inspire confidence and trust in what one says," said Ferris.
Four ways to suck-up with skill:
Show sincerity: Appearing to be honest and forthright are key.
Your perceived motives are important because you'll need to be seen to have no ulterior motives.
Widen your sphere of influence: To have a stronger effect on others, you'll need to nurture an unassuming and convincing personal style.
Get inside their heads: Learn to be sensitive to others. Start to observe others in diverse social settings to improve your understanding of social interactions.
Know the right people: Learn to identify and develop diverse contacts and then build strong, beneficial alliances and coalitions.
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