Every organization is a court. The CEO is the monarch. Senior executives are the nobility. Middle managers are the gentry. Staff are the commoners. Like historical royal courts, modern organizations have unwritten rules, invisible hierarchies, and political dynamics that determine who rises and who falls. These dynamics operate beneath the surface of org charts and official policies. Understanding court politics means recognizing that formal structure is just the visible layer. Beneath it runs a system of alliances, rivalries, favors, and power plays that determines actual outcomes. The comparison to royal courts is not metaphorical but structural. Both are hierarchical systems...