Interaction of job‐limiting pain and political skill on job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior

An Examination of the Inverse Relationship Between Dimensions of Political Skill and Interpersonal Conflict at Work: Exploring Perceived Control as a Mediating Factor

Political skill has been established as an antidote to workplace stress and strain. However, despite the scholarly attention it has attracted, we still know very little about mediating mechanisms that explain this relationship and the role of political skill dimensions in mitigating workplace stressors. Thus, in this study, we investigate the impact of perceived control as a mediating mechanism between the political skill dimensions (i.e., social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, apparent sincerity) and interpersonal conflict (i.e., stress arising due to social interactions). Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the data collected from 370 employees in a textile organization. The study found that perceived control mediated the relationship of social astuteness, interpersonal influence, and networking ability with interpersonal conflict. It, however, did not mediate the link between apparent sincerity and interpersonal conflict. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are also discussed.

Losing the benefits of work passion? The implications of low ego-resilience for passionate workers

Purpose

This research assessed the interactive effects of employee passion and ego-resilience (ER) on relevant work outcomes, including job satisfaction, citizenship behavior, job tension, and emotional exhaustion. The authors hypothesize that higher work passion is associated with less positive work outcomes when employees are low in ER.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected data from three unique samples (N's = 175, 141, 164) to evaluate the moderating effect across outcomes. The authors conducted analyses with and without demographic controls and affectivity (e.g. negative and positive). The authors used a time-separated data collection approach in Sample 3. The authors also empirically assess the potential for non-linear passion and ER main effect relationships to emerge.

Findings

Findings across samples confirm that high passion employees with elevated levels of ER report positive attitudinal, behavioral, and well-being outcomes. Conversely, high passion employees do not experience comparable effects when reporting low levels of ER. Results were broadly consistent when considering demographics and affectivity.

Research limitations/implications

Despite the single-source nature of the three data collections, The authors took steps to minimize common method bias concerns (e.g. time separation and including affectivity). Future research will benefit from multiple data sources collected longitudinally and examining a more comprehensive range of occupational contexts.

Practical implications

Passion is something that organizations want in all employees. However, the authors' results show that passion may not be enough to lead to favorable outcomes without considering factors that support its efficacy. Also, results show that moderate levels of passion may offer little benefit compared to low levels and may be detrimental.

Originality/value

As a focal research topic, work passion research is still in early development. Studies exploring factors that support or derail expected favorable effects of work passion are needed to establish a foundation for subsequent analyses. Moreover, the authors comment on the assumed “more is better” phenomenon. The authors argue for reconsidering the linear approach to predicting behavior in science and practice.

"Who Champions or Mentors Others"? The Role of Personal Resources in the Perceived Organizational Politics and Job Attitudes Relationship

Drawing insight from affective events theory, this study presents a new dimension of perceived organizational politics and job attitudes. The motivation for this study was based on the fact that perceived organizational politics affect job attitudes and that personal resources (political skill and work ethic) moderate the direct relationship between perceived organizational politics and job attitudes in the context of the higher-education sector. In this regard, the data was collected through purposive sampling from 310 faculty members from higher-education institutions in Pakistan. To test the relationships among the variables, we employed structural equation modeling via the AMOS software version 24.0. The results indicated that perceived organizational politics were significantly negatively related to job satisfaction. Moreover, perceived organizational politics were non-significantly related to job involvement. Political skill and work ethic weakened the relationship between perceived organizational politics and job satisfaction. We anticipated that these personal resources could mitigate the negative effect of perceived organizational politics and job attitudes. This study also suggests organizations to train their employees to develop essential personal skills.

Suffering doubly: How victims of coworker incivility risk poor performance ratings by responding with organizational deviance, unless they leverage ingratiation skills

Building on conservation of resources theory, this study investigates the relationship between employees' exposure to coworker incivility and their job performance ratings, while also considering the mediating role of their deviant work behaviors and the moderating role of their ingratiation skills. Results based on multisource, three-wave data from employees and their supervisors in Pakistani organizations show that disrespectful coworker treatment diminishes employees' performance evaluations, because they seek purposefully to cause harm to their employing organization, as a way to vent their frustrations. This mediating role of organizational deviance is mitigated to the extent that employees have a greater ability to ingratiate with others though. This study accordingly identifies a key mechanism - deviant work behaviors that undermine organizational well-being - through which coworker incivility leads to negative performance consequences, and it reveals how organizations can subdue this process by honing pertinent personal resources within their ranks.

When does job stress limit organizational citizenship behavior, or not? Personal and contextual resources as buffers

Anchored in conservation of resources theory, this study considers how employees' experience of job stress might reduce their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), as well as how this negative relationship might be buffered by employees' access to two personal resources (passion for work and adaptive humor) and two contextual resources (peer communication and forgiving climate). Data from a Mexican-based organization reveal that felt job stress diminishes OCB, but the effect is subdued at higher levels of the four studied resources. This study accordingly adds to extant research by elucidating when the actual experience of job stress is more or less likely to steer employees away from OCB – that is, when they have access to specific resources that hitherto have been considered direct enablers of such efforts instead of buffers of employees' negative behavioral responses to job stress.

The Relationship between Workplace Incivility and Helping Behavior: Roles of Job Dissatisfaction and Political Skill

This article investigates the mediating role of job dissatisfaction in the relationship between employees' perceptions of workplace incivility and their helping behavior, as well as the buffering role of political skill in this process. Three-wave, time-lagged data collected from employees and their supervisors revealed that employees' exposure to workplace incivility diminished their helping behavior through their sense of job dissatisfaction. This mediating role of job dissatisfaction was less salient, however, to the extent that employees were equipped with political skill. For organizations, this study accordingly pinpoints a key mechanism-namely, unhappiness about their job situation-through which rude coworker treatment links to lower voluntary workplace behaviors among employees, and it reveals how this mechanism can be better contained in the presence of political skill.

Investigating the Role of Psychological Contract Breach, Political Skill and Work Ethic on Perceived Politics and Job Attitudes Relationships: A Case of Higher Education in Pakistan

This study aims to investigate how a Psychological contract breach can mediate the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes and how political skill and work ethic can influence the negative association between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes. A systematic sampling method was used with a sampling size of 310 faculty members of public sector universities of Pakistan. Data were analyzed by using partial least squares structural equations modeling PLS-SEM to test the hypotheses by Smart PLS software. The findings revealed that the perception of politics is significantly and negatively related to job attitudes and indirectly through psychological contract breach. Moreover, the results indicated a significant moderating effect of work ethic on the relationship between the perception of politics and job attitudes. However, political skill did not moderate the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes. Moreover, research implications and limitations are elucidated.

The Impacts of the High-Quality Workplace Relationships on Job Performance: A Perspective on Staff Nurses in Vietnam

Employees’ working relationships were long determined to be crucial to their overall wellbeing and performance ratings at work. However, a few studies were found to examine the effects of positive workplace relationships on employees’ working manners. This study aimed to investigate the effects of healthy workplace relationships on employees’ working behaviors, which in turn affect their performance. In doing so, an integrated model was developed to examine the primary performance drivers of nurses in Vietnamese hospitals and focus on the effects of high-quality workplace relationships on the working attitudes of the staff. This study analyzed a questionnaire survey of 303 hospital nurses using a structural equation modeling approach. The findings demonstrated the positive effects of high-quality workplace relationships on working manners including higher commitment, lower level of reported job stress, and increased perception of social impact. Notably, the results also demonstrated that relationships between leaders and their staff nurses make a significant contribution to the quality of workplace relationship and nurses’ performance. In addition, the social impact was illustrated to positively moderate the association between healthy workplace interactions and job stress; however, it had no significant effect on job commitment. Unfortunately, job commitment was surprisingly found to not be related to performance ratings. This paper provides some suggestions for the divergence of performance drivers in the hospital context in Vietnam.

Impact of Information Intervention on the Recycling Behavior of Individuals with Different Value Orientations—An Experimental Study on Express Delivery Packaging Waste

Changing residents’ recycling behavior at the source of waste generation is a fundamental way to solve the environmental and resource problems caused by express delivery packaging waste. Information intervention is a common means to help transform individual environmental protection behavior. In this study, behavioral experiments were used to examine the changes in individual express packaging waste recycling behaviors under the intervention of written and pictorial information. Differences in information processing and behavior decision-making among individuals (N = 660) categorized as self-interested, pro-relation, or pro-social were analyzed. Results showed that (1) recycling behavior is divided into persuasive, purchasing, disposal, and civil behavior. (2) Recycling behavior is differs significantly due to an individual’s education background, state of health, and interpersonal relationships. (3) Both written and pictorial information can positively change an individual’s recycling behavior, and their effectiveness is not significantly different. (4) Pictorial information has a stronger impact on purchasing behavior than written information. (5) Feedback from written information cannot effectively promote the overall recycling behavior of self-interested groups, but it can improve the overall recycling behavior of pro-relationship groups and pro-social groups. (6) Information intervention cannot effectively impact civil behavior, even among pro-social individuals. The research provides an important theoretical reference and practical basis for improving individual recycling behavior at its source.

Chronic pain in the workplace: A diary study of pain interference at work and worker strain

Chronic pain is both prevalent and one of the leading causes of work-related disability. Somatic experiences of pain and pain interference with daily activities at work may lead to psychological distress and strain in workers. In accordance with the appraisal theory of stress, we proposed a model in which pain interference mid-workday predicts negative affect and end-of-workday emotional exhaustion in workers who interact with customers. Further, we proposed that pain interference predicts variance in negative affect and exhaustion beyond somatic experiences of pain, based on our theoretical proposition that pain interference represents a secondary stress appraisal. Participants (N = 86 full-time workers with chronic pain) completed 2 online surveys per day for 5 consecutive workdays. Results from multilevel path analysis supported our hypotheses; pain interference predicted both negative affect and end-of-day emotional exhaustion while controlling for somatic experiences of pain (pain severity). Further, pain interference indirectly predicted end-of-day emotional exhaustion via negative affect while controlling for somatic pain experiences. Results highlight the importance of pain interference as a stressor at work for individuals working with chronic pain and point to the need for effective interventions for this working population.

The Moderating Effect of Employee Political Skill on the Link between Perceptions of a Victimizing Work Environment and Job Performance

Research has generally revealed only a weak link, if any at all, between victimization-related experiences and job performance. Drawing on the commonly used conservation of resources perspective, we argue that such inconsistent evidence in the organizational literature stems from an over-focus on personal resources at the expense of considering the role of social resources. Victimization is an interpersonal phenomenon with social ramifications. Its effects may be better captured when measured from the standpoint of the social environment, and analyzed relative to an employee’s capacity to effectively regulate those social resources. With the latter capacity being encapsulated by the construct of political skill, we conducted two studies to explore the moderating influence of employee political skill on the relationship between employee perceptions of a victimizing work environment and employee task performance. In Study 1, employees with low political skill exhibited reduced task performance when perceiving a victimizing environment, and this link was found to be mediated by tension in Study 2. Those with high political skill exhibit no change in performance across victimization perceptions in Study 2, yet an increase in performance in Study 1. We discuss our findings relative to the victimization and political skill literatures.

Political skill reduces the negative impact of distrust

Purpose

A number of studies have explored the benefits (e.g. enhanced job performance and reduced strain), of being politically skilled. Within the framework of uncertainty management theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of high political skill to affective commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived job mobility, under conditions of distrust in management.

Design/methodology/approach

Sales representatives were surveyed and moderated multiple regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data.

Findings

The authors found that as distrust increased, affective commitment decreased for all persons, but was most pronounced for persons low on political skill. However, distrust in management had no impact on job satisfaction for those high on political skill, allowing persons high on political skill to enjoy their jobs despite high levels of distrust (an intrapsychic benefit of political skill). Finally, as distrust in management increased, persons high on political skill had increased perceived job mobility.

Research limitations/implications

This study is cross-sectional, limiting conclusions about causality in the relationships studied and leaving open the possibility of reverse causation.

Practical implications

This research has important implications, such that, under conditions of distrust, persons low on political skill are less committed, more dissatisfied, and feel a sense of job immobility, which could lead to poor work outcomes, such as decreased job performance.

Originality/value

The study is the first to examine how being politically skilled benefits employee outcomes when the employee distrusts management.