Mediating role of perceived organizational politics in relating job characteristics to morale

Abstract

Organizational politics has been perceived to be an integral part of every work organization. Moreover, the perceptions of employees about the organizational politics are considered to have a significant influence on the morale of employees. However, the nature and degree of this influence may differ from job to job and individual to individual. Thus, the present study tries to investigate the mediating role of organizational politics in between the job characteristics and morale of the employees. Job characteristics included in the study are job ambiguity, skill variety, feedback and autonomy, whereas the morale is a composite construct of job satisfaction and affective commitment. The empirical evidence is based on the national level sample data collected through self administered questionnaires from executives of multitude of Pakistani industries such as health, manufacturing, energy, financial services, education, telecommunication and information technology. The sample comprised of 577 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the fitness of casual relationship. Several practical implications are drawn to benefit the practicing managers. Key words: Job characteristics, morale, job satisfaction, affective commitment, organizational politics.