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

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.

R, Prabhu N. Is knowledge hiding in higher education a political phenomenon? An explanatory sequential approach to explore non-linear and three-way interaction effects

Purpose

This study addresses a central research question: Is individuals’ propensity to hide knowledge a “political phenomenon” among researchers in the Indian higher education institutions? Drawing upon social exchange and uncertainty management theories, the authors examine how a three-way interaction effect of perceptions of organizational politics, political will and political skill contributes to knowledge hiding. In addition, this study aims to develop a nuanced understanding of the knowledge hiding phenomenon in the Indian higher education context.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a mixed-method study design with an explanatory sequential approach. The authors gathered data through a cross-sectional survey of 286 researchers (Study 1) followed by two focus group discussions (Study 2) involving 13 academic researchers from five Indian universities. The sample includes full-time faculty members, postgraduate and full-time doctoral students engaged in research.

Findings

The results of Study 1 indicate that researchers’ perceptions of organizational politics positively relate to their knowledge hiding. The findings of this study also suggest that the positive relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and knowledge hiding turns negative for individuals with high political will and high political skill. The focus group discussions (Study 2) explore significant predictors of knowledge hiding. This study unveils various characteristics of knowledge, knowledge hider, knowledge seeker and interpersonal dynamics as the key drivers of knowledge hiding in Indian academia.

Originality/value

The significant contributions of this study are to provide new insights into the relationship between organizational politics and knowledge hiding and to unravel the various factors that incite knowledge hiding among researchers in the Indian higher education context. This study is one among the few in the knowledge hiding literature to adopt a mixed-method research design with an explanatory sequential approach.

Perceived Abusive Leadership, Narcissistic Personality, and Employee's Political Behaviors: A Moderated-Mediation Model

Limited research has explored the potential explanatory mechanisms for the link between abusive leadership and non-negative employee-based behaviors in the effectiveness of organizational management. Based on affective response theory to construct a theoretical model, this study enhances the mapping of how employee-perceived abusive leadership triggers employee affective responses and influences their political behaviors to facilitate task-related goals. It also investigates how the moderating effects of employee-perceived leader's narcissistic personality interact with the variables of the main effects. This study was implemented in Taiwan's financial and insurance institutions. Using a sampling framework via a market survey agency, participants completed three online surveys within a 3-week period. 350 employed participants registered for the study. Based on the findings, we suggest that managers in a hierarchical organization may be able to intentionally vary their leadership style to arouse employees' negative emotions without hindering, and perhaps even improving, employees' motivation to achieve their task aims. When leaders demonstrate their self-confidence in the workplace, employees perceive less anxiety at work and less need to adopt workplace political behaviors to solve work troubles. This research suggests managers should recognize employee-perceived abusive leadership as an influential factor that contributes to illuminating the processes underlying workplace perception-to-behavior and leader–member interactive links, as well as the boundary conditions of mediating and moderating these processes.

Forty years of political skill and will in organizations: a review, meta-theoretical framework and directions for future research

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the scholarship on political skill and political will so that the authors might inspire future work that assesses these constructs individually and in tandem.

Design/methodology/approach

The “political skill” and “political will” concepts were introduced about 40 years ago, but they only have been measured and produced empirical results much more recently. Since that time, substantial research results have demonstrated the important roles political skill and political will play in organizational behavior. This paper provides a comprehensive review of this research, draws conclusions from this work and provides a meta-theoretical framework of political skill and political will to guide future work in this area.

Findings

Scholarship in this area has developed quite rapidly for political skill, but less so for political will. The authors hope that recent developments in a political will can set the stage for scholars to create a theoretical and empirical balance between these two related constructs.

Originality/value

The authors corral the vast and widespread literature on political skill and will and distill the information for scholars and practitioners alike.

"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.

Be Aware Not Reactive: Testing a Mediated-Moderation Model of Dark Triad and Perceived Victimization via Self-Regulatory Approach

Generally, it is difficult to work efficiently in a toxic environment. Surprisingly, leaders are found to be liable for such toxic atmosphere because they possess certain traits that employees perceive as victimization. This research assesses the relationship between the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and perceived victimization with a focus on the mediating effect of abusive supervision and the moderating effect of mindfulness. For this purpose, we surveyed 274 employees in the healthcare sector of Pakistan by using random sampling technique in three waves. To analyze the data, the structural equation model with partial least squares and PROCESS were used. The findings suggest that abusive supervision plays a mediating role in the association between the dark triad and perceived victimization. The results did not support the mediating role of abusive supervision in the association between narcissism and perceived victimization, however, the mediated moderation model was supported. Further, the findings suggest that mindfulness weakens the effect of abusive supervision on perceived victimization. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the results are also discussed.

How does political skill lead to job and organization engagement? Role of self-evaluations

Purpose

Political skill is a valued resource employees use to achieve success. Earlier research has mostly focused on the effect of political skill on others rather than on the self of the politically skilled individuals. Specifically, there is disconnect between political skill and employee engagement research as both these fields have been growing in isolation. Drawing from theories of engagement and conservation of resources, this study bridges this gap in knowledge by investigating how political skill leads to job and organization engagement of politically skilled employees via impacting their self-evaluations of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and organizational identification.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a survey method, data were obtained from 188 employees who worked in three private schools of Lahore, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model.

Findings

This study found that individuals who used political skill by practicing social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking and sincerity rated themselves high in OBSE and organizational identification. As a consequence, high OBSE enhanced their job engagement, whereas high organizational identification increased their organization engagement.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first studies to present political skill as a driver of job and organization engagement. It reveals that the self-evaluations of OBSE and organizational identification mediate the political skill–engagement relations in unique manners.