Apparently its survey of the staff of the UK's 50 "best places to work" found that 74% claim their colleagues avoid politicking and backstabbing as a way to get things done – up from 63% in a similar survey in 2003.

"With promotions increasingly based on merit, the incentive for employees to climb over their rivals to reach the top has diminished," according to Williams Johnson Mota, the institute's business development and sales manager.

Of course it has; keep telling yourself that while your colleagues stab you in the back and trample all over you in their scramble up the career ladder.

And bear in mind that Amazon's top 50 selling "business life" books include such titles as 21 Dirty Tricks at Work, The Way of the Rat, and Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office.

Personally, I'm with Rob Yeung, author of The Rules of Office Politics, who argues

“A lot of people like to think that their organisations are not political and that they can get on without being political. But the fact is that the most hard-working people do not make it to the top — it’s the politically savvy that get there.”

Not that that means you have to be nasty to be good at office politics. Co-operation, fair play and even a spot of sucking up all have a part to play – and apparently have done ever since we were swinging around in trees, according to some biologists.

Oh yes, and if you think HR is all about upholding the highest standards of fairness at work and all that, you really need lessons from a master like US blogger the HR Capitalist, who has even managed to turn email signature monitoring into a tool of office real politick.