The Impact of Machiavellianism on the Impression Management: The Mediating Effect of Organizational Politics

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of perceptions of organizational politics and the influence of Machiavellianism tendency on Chinese employees. For the empirical analysis, 332 samples of Chinese enterprises employees were surveyed and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that, Machiavellianism showed a positive influence on perceptions of organizational politics. Second, perceptions of organizational politics have a positive effect on supervisor-focused impression management, but these perceptions do not affect job-focused impression management. Third, Machiavellianism influenced supervisorfocused impression management and perceptions of organizational politics have mediating effects. It was noted, however, that mediating effects did not appear when Machiavellianism was seen to influence job-focused impression management. The implications of this study are as follows: First, management of personality traits of employees should be done, but negative behaviors can be reduced. Second, extra caution should be exercised so that organizational institution and culture are not applied to political power. Third, employees’ Machiavellianism can lead not only to perception of organizational politics but also management of impressions related to supervisor. Finally, it was found that employees with strong Machiavellianism tend to receive political power through supervisor-focused impression management rather than being through job-focused impression management. As a result, it was analyzed that the management of employee’ characteristics should be prioritized in order to minimize the negative behavior of employees in Chinese enterprises.