Political Skill and Career Success: Exploring the Mediating Role of Mentoring and Moderating Role of Career Adaptability

Abstract

What determines success in academia? Both researchers and academics have disagreements regarding the notion of success and its determinants in academia. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of political skill on employees’ subjective career success and the mediating and moderating role of mentoring and career adaptability in the said relationship respectively. The hypothesized relationships were tested utilizing a representative stratified random sample of 362 faculty members employed in the public sector universities of Pakistan. Results revealed that political skill positively influences subjective career success. The mediation model was supported and as expected: mentoring mediated the link between political skill and career success. The moderated relationship between mentoring and career success was stronger for individuals with higher career adaptability. The study adds to the understanding of underlying mechanisms involved in the political skill-career success nexus. Moderating role of career adaptability in the relationship between political skill and subjective career success was also probed, which further adds to the theoretical contribution of the study. The findings suggest that academics must realize that they need to be politically skilled, should be proactive in seeking mentoring relationships and should better equip themselves to cope with the work uncertainties.