Antecedents and Consequents of Organizational Politics: Mediating Role of Relationship Conflict

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct relationship of perception of organizational politics (POP) with multi-level antecedents and its consequents. It further aims at exploring the mediation effect of relationship conflict on the relationship between the three levels of antecedents and POP. Primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire from 294 faculty members working in Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University. Hypotheses were tested using partial least square-structural equations modelling (PLS-SEM). Out of the five proposed antecedents, only relationship conflict was found to be significantly related to POP. Therefore, the structural model was re-specified. Results indicated that relationship conflict mediated the relationship between three of the remaining four predictors (scarcity of resources, workforce diversity and role conflict) and POP. It does not mediate POP's relationship with the need for power. Among consequences, POP was positively related to job anxiety and intention to turnover and negatively related to organisational commitment.