A Reliability Generalization Study of the Political Skill Inventory

Ryan K Jacobson,Chockalingam Viswesvaran

doi:10.1177/2158244017706714

Ryan K Jacobson, Chockalingam Viswesvaran

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017706714

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Journal: SAGE Open	Publication Date: Apr 1, 2017
Citations: 10	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Florida International University

Abstract

Measures of political skill have been shown to be significant predictors of job performance across a variety of occupations and have consistently been related to positive work-related behaviors and outcomes. A reliability generalization study was conducted on the Political Skill Inventory (PSI), currently the most frequently utilized measuring instrument for assessing the construct of political skill, to determine the weighted mean internal consistency reliability estimate of the PSI and its four dimensions across samples while also examining the effect of six potential sources of measurement error that may impact the internal consistency reliability of the PSI and its four dimensions. Across the samples that reported a reliability estimate for the Ferris et al. 18-item PSI measure, the weighted mean reliability coefficient alpha of the PSI was .89 (k = 77, N = 15,987) and that for the six-item measure of the PSI was .81 (k = 11, N = 2,123). Potential sources of measurement error variance that could impac...

Highlights

An increasing amount of research regarding the correlates and consequences of organizational politics has been conducted in recent years as internal politics have proven to be quite pervasive in the private as well as the public sector jobs (Zettler & Lang, 2015)
Of the 98 articles, we included only those that met the following criteria: (a) the study administered the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) scale, (b) a reliability coefficient was reported in the study, (c) the reliability coefficient reported was from their own local sample, and (d) the study was available in English
The averaged reliability estimates across the four individual scales of the PSI administered in English was noticeably greater (α = .83) than the averaged reliability estimates across the scales administered in non-English languages (α = .73)

Summary

Introduction

An increasing amount of research regarding the correlates and consequences of organizational politics has been conducted in recent years as internal politics have proven to be quite pervasive in the private as well as the public sector jobs (Zettler & Lang, 2015). Previous research has suggested that those with political skill improve their own performance by getting colleagues to assist them, assertively controlling negotiations and sales, and enhancing social networks that help them perform better (i.e., back-up staff and technical equipment; Zettler & Lang, 2015) The original six-item PSI did not include items for the purposes of assessing the networking ability and apparent sincerity dimensions of the political skill construct reflected in the organizational politics literature (Ahearn et al, 2004; Ferris et al, 2005)

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