Further Validation of the Perceptions of Politics Scale (Pops): A Multiple Sample Investigation

Abstract

Although political behavior in organizations is ubiquitous, measuring it is often difficult. In one attempt to create such a measure, Kacmar and Ferris (1991) developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Politics Scale (POPS). Later, Nye and Witt (1993) examined the dimensionality of POPS and its construct validity by comparing it with the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS; Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison & Sowa, 1986). The present research extends these previous studies by using structural equation modeling to evaluate the dimensional, reliability, and validity of POPS across three different studies utilizing nine different samples for a total of 2758 respondents. Results suggested that some of the original POPS items were ineffective and needed to be removed or replaced. Hence, some of the original items were deleted and additional items were generated and tested to produce a refined and revised version of POPS.