> the standard definition of the term outside of obvious casual adaptations of the term like "office politics."

From my limited reading about the topic, that is not the case. According to wikipedia, politics is the practice and theory of influencing other people on a civic or individual level[1]. I have taken just one, very 101 like course on Governance and the most prominent theories that were discussed used politics in the broader sense (but detailed from a narrower perspective due to the scope of the class). Group theory[2], for instance, calls nearly all interactions between interest groups as political. Elite Theory [3], also used similar connotations.

  [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralism_(political_theory)
  [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics
  [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_theory