Employee Political Skill Research Articles

The joint effects of supervisor knowledge hiding, abusive supervision, and employee political skill on employee knowledge hiding behaviors

PurposeKnowledge hiding, intentionally withholding work-relevant information, is detrimental to organizations, yet practiced by supervisors and employees. Based on social learning and social exchange theories, this study aims to uncover the effects of supervisor knowledge hiding, abusive supervision and employee political skill on employee knowledge hiding behaviors, namely, evasive hiding, playing dumb and rationalized hiding. We compare the two destructive supervisor behaviors in their predictive values toward employee knowledge hiding and examine the role of employee political skill in mitigating their effects.Design/methodology/approachBased on survey data collected from 598 German-speaking employees, we used path analysis to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe two destructive supervisor behaviors and employee political skill predicted employee evasive hiding and playing dumb; supervisor knowledge hiding additionally predicted employee rationalized hiding. The predictive value of supervisor knowledge hiding was 2.5 times larger than that of abusive supervision and political skill. The effects of destructive supervisor behaviors were weaker for more politically skilled employees.Originality/valueWe examine two destructive supervisor behaviors conjointly and show the differences between them regarding their predictive value toward employee knowledge hiding. Furthermore, we investigate the role of political skill in knowledge hiding.

Managing the Uncertainties Inherent in Prohibitive Voice: How Leadership Interacts With Employee Political Skill.

Drawing from the uncertainty management theory, we examine how authoritarian leadership and humble leadership interact with employee political skill to predict prohibitive voice. We conducted a two-wave survey study of 43 managers and 176 subordinates in a power company in China. Our findings indicate that authoritarian leadership has a minimal negative effect on the psychological safety of employees with higher political skill, which in turn leads to a minimal negative effect on their prohibitive voice. Moreover, humble leadership is positively associated with prohibitive voice for employees with lower political skill. For employees with higher political skill, no type of leadership behavior has a significant influence on their prohibitive voice. We outline the implications of these findings for both theoretical and managerial practices.

Undermining alienative commitment through spiritual leadership: a moderated mediation model of social capital and political skill

PurposeThe purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between spiritual leadership and employees' alienative commitment to the organization, both directly and indirectly, via employee social capital. We also test the role of employee political skill as a boundary condition of the indirect spiritual leadership–alienative commitment link.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged data were collected from 491 employees in various manufacturing and service organizations. Data were analyzed using structural modeling equation in Mplus (8.6).FindingsSpiritual leadership was negatively associated with alienative commitment, both directly and indirectly, via social capital. Employee political skill moderated the indirect relationship between spiritual leadership and alienative commitment, such that the relationship was stronger when employee political skill was high (vs low).Practical implicationsThe demonstration of spiritual leadership's behaviors by both managers and employees can develop employees' social capital at work, which in turn can reduce employees' negative commitment to the organization. Likewise, improving employees' political skills can help leadership diminish alienative commitment.Originality/valueThe present work contributes to the literature on spiritual leadership by foregrounding how and why spiritual leadership undermines employee alienative commitment to the organization. By doing so, the study also enhances the nomological networks of the antecedents and outcomes of social capital and contributes to the scant literature on negative alienative commitment. Given the prevalence and negative repercussions of alienative commitment for employees' and organizations' productivity and performance, our findings are timely and relevant.

Is Political Skill Always Beneficial? Why and When Politically Skilled Employees Become Targets of Coworker Social Undermining

The benefits of political skill at work have been extensively documented and highlighted. Existing research also reports unexpectedly equivocal and even positive relationships between employee political skill and coworker social undermining, suggesting that politically skilled employees can become targets of coworker social undermining. However, there is a lack of research explaining why and when employee political skill can lead to coworker social undermining. This research, drawing from social rank theory and the theory of rivalry, offers a novel lens to answer these questions. Specifically, I theorize that employee political skill evokes coworker social undermining by affecting coworker perception of status threat, particularly when the coworker views the focal politically skilled employee as a personal rival. Findings from four studies—one correlational two-wave study and three experiments—provide support for these predictions. Further, nonrival competition and interpersonal disliking as alternative potential explanations to the hypothesized moderating effects of rivalry were ruled out. This study provides a theory-driven explanation of an unintended consequence of employee political skill and offers a more balanced understanding of the effects of political skill at work. Theoretical and future research implications are discussed.

Do you lose by doing more? How organizational citizenship behavior directed to the organization relates to career development

AbstractBased on social exchange theory, we develop a moderated mediation model, which posits that the indirect relationship between organizational citizenship behavior directed to the organization (OCBO) and organizational reward growth via leader–member exchange (LMX) is moderated by employee political skill. Overall, two studies using cross‐sectional data and three‐wave data supported our model. Specifically, results suggest that (1) OCBO was positively related to LMX; (2) there was a stronger positive relationship between OCBO and LMX when employee political skill was high rather than low; (3) LMX mediates the relationship between OCBO and organizational reward growth; and (4) the indirect effect of OCBO in predicting organizational reward growth via LMX was stronger when employee political skill was high rather than low.

Employee followership predispositions: Their perceptions of narcissistic traits in supervisors

We investigated the relationship between employee perceptions of narcissistic supervision and employee followership. Further, we investigated the influences of employee proactive personality, self-efficacy, political skill, and team political climate on said relationship. Data were from 383 employees of a large Chinese IT enterprise (female = 37.33%, mean age = 36.85 years, SD = 8.57 years; mean year of experience = 2.34 years, SD = 1.56 years). Multi-level structural equation modelling and bootstrap analyses resultsindicated that follower proactive personality positively moderated the relationship between follower self-efficacy and employee followership. Follower self-efficacy and team political climate influenced employee followership under narcissistic supervision. These results suggest employee work predispositions to likely buffer the influences of narcissistic supervision on employee followership.

직원의 정치적 기술, 협상, 정신적 피로간 관계연구 : BLM 리더십의 조절효과를 중심으로

대인관계는 소규모 팀 단위로 함께 일하는 직장 내에서 매우 중요한 요소라 할 수 있다. 높은 수준의 정치적 기술을 지닌 사람들은 대인관계에 대한 민감성을 갖고 있어서 네트워크를 구축하는 것에 능숙하여 직면한 상황에서 자신의 행위를 적절하게 바꿈으로써 자신에게 유리한 방향으로 타인을 유도할 수 있다. 하지만 이런 대인관계에 대한 민감성이 정신적 피로와 같은 스트레스를 줄이기 위한 활동임에도 불구하고, 실제 필요한 자원을 확보하지 못하게 될 경우 오히려 정신적 피로를 높이는 상황이 될 수도 있다. 이에 개인의 정치적 기술과 정신적 피로간의 관계에서 개인 특유의 협상의 매개효과를 검증하고자 하였다. 또한 리더십과 같은 환경요인이 어떠하냐에 따라 정치적 스킬이 개인 특유의 협상에 영향을 미칠 것이라 예상하였고, 특히 최근 경영환경의 악화, 코로나19로 인한 비대면 근무방식의 확대로 인해 관심이 높아지고 있는 결과만을 문제삼는 BLM(Bottom-Line Mentality) 리더십이 미치는 조절효과에 대한 가설을 검증하였다. 분석결과 직원의 정치적 기술과 개인 특유의 협상간 관계(+), 개인 특유의 협상과 정신적 피로간 관계(-), 그리고 개인 특유의 협상의 매개효과와 BLM 리더십의 조절효과가 지지되었다. 이에 본 연구에 대한 이론적, 실무적 시사점과 한계를 논하였다.

Impact of employee's political skill on abusive supervision: does gender matter?

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate if employees possessing good political skill face less abusive behavior from their supervisors. Moreover, the gender of the subordinate has been tested as a moderator between political skill and abusive supervision. Cultural and social factors prevailing in the research settings of Pakistan provide an ideal situation to test the relationship between political skill and abusive supervision.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from 178 employees representing different sectors of Pakistani industry. To test the relationship between political skill and abusive supervision, simple linear regression was run and moderation was tested using PROCESS macro.FindingsFrom the analysis, the major findings prove that political skill lessens abusive supervision. Moreover, due to the cultural settings, male subordinates use political skill more proficiently to avoid abusive supervision as compared to female subordinates.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that in order to maintain harmony in the work environment, employees must learn political skill to avoid abusive supervision. Moreover, females must be given more chances to utilize their political skill to get positive outcomes.Originality/valueThis study fills up a significant gap in the literature, as there is scarce literature available that investigates the relationship between political skill and abusive supervision, specifically in Pakistan.

POLİTİK YETİNİN ÖRGÜTSEL SAPMA DAVRANIŞI ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİSİNDE MERİTOKRASİNİN ROLÜ

Working life has now become a structure that is more than just permanent by doing their jobs in the best way. Individuals who want to protect themselves against the effects of extreme competition and create value in the companies they work for, they also have to demonstrate their different social competencies in this process besides performing their duties in the best way. The social skills that individuals possess are of great importance in addressing the problems posed by behavioral processes in organizations. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of employee political skill levels and perceptions of meritocracy on organizational deviance behavior that range from productivity antagonism to aggression in organizations and are covered in a wide range of topics. The data of the study was obtained by applying a face-to-face survey method together with a simple random sampling technique in Istanbul. The analyses were conducted using the IBM SPSS 20.0 statistical program over 412 survey forms that were returned from the participants. As a result of these analyses, it was found that participants exhibited less personal and deviant behaviors (dimensions of organizational deviance behavior) as their levels of social competence (dimensions of political competence) increased. In addition, it has also been observed that meritocracy has a regulatory role in the impact of political skill on organizational deviation.

Supervisor Reactions to Avoidance Job Crafting: The Role of Political Skill and Approach Job Crafting

Avoidance job crafting refers to employees proactively changing work boundaries by reducing tasks and/or interactions with others. Although avoidance job crafting may help employees to address work demands, if noticed by others, specifically supervisors, it may trigger negative reactions from them. While previous research posits that job crafting is largely unnoticed by supervisors, using a dyadic supervisor‐employee study (N = 141 dyads), we found that supervisors were in fact aware of their employees’ avoidance job crafting, which related to a reduction in supervisor support. This relationship was moderated by employee political skill (but not approach job crafting), such that high avoidance job crafting in combination with high political skill resulted in fewer negative outcomes, presumably because supervisors were less likely to notice their employees’ avoidance job crafting. In a second, vignette study (N = 92 supervisors), we experimentally replicated the relation between observed avoidance job crafting and negative supervisor reactions, and found that this relation can be explained by supervisors perceiving avoidance job crafting as destructive work behavior. Our findings introduce the supervisor perspective to the job crafting literature and highlight the importance of engaging in avoidance job crafting in a skillful way that aligns with the external context.

Employee Political Skill, Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi, and Work-Family Conflict: The Cross-Level Moderating Role of Family-Friendly Practices.

Many studies have examined the negative effects of work-family conflict on society, organizations, and individuals. Nonetheless, alleviating employee work-family conflict is a topic worthy of further investigation. Few studies examine the antecedent variables of work-family conflict from personal skill and Guanxi perspectives. Studies that test the moderating role of family-friendly practices at the organization level are also rare. Accordingly, we collected data from 404 employees of 51 organizations. The research data are time-lagged and multileveled. The results of hierarchical linear model (HLM) show: (1) Employee political skill negatively affects employee perceived work-family conflict; (2) Employee political skill positively affects supervisor-subordinate Guanxi; (3) Supervisor-subordinate Guanxi partially mediates the relationship between employee political skill and employee work-family conflict (that is, employees can use their political skill to build high-quality supervisor-subordinate Guanxi, further reducing their perceived work-family conflict); (4) Organization family-friendly practices negatively moderate the relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and work-family conflict (that is, in organizations with high level family-friendly practices, the negative relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and work-family conflict becomes weak); Furthermore, by coding with Mplus software (Muthen & Muthen, Los Angeles, CA, USA), we also find: (5) Organization family-friendly practices moderate the indirect effect of employee political skill on employee work-family conflict. The results have both theoretical and empirical implications. Further research directions are addressed at the end.

Employee Political Skill, Organizational Citizenship Behaviour and Performance among Employees in Kenyan Universities: Moderation Approach

The main aim of the study was to assess moderating role of organizational citizenship behaviour on relationship between employee political skill and employee performance in Kenyan universities. The study was grounded on social exchange theory. The study used positivism paradigm, explanatory research design, and combination of simple random and stratified sampling on a target population of 6147 employees in selected universities in Kenya. A sample size of 567 academic and non-academic staff selected based on Yamane’s formula to determine selection of respondents to be served with structured questionnaires. The reliability of the data collection instrument was presented using Cronbach Alpha while factor analysis was used to validate the instrument. Data was analysed quantitatively with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 24.0). Findings from Hayes model 1 showed that there is a positive and significant moderating effect of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (R-sqΔ=.14, β= .48, p=.00) on the relationship between employee political skill and employee performance. Conclusively, Organizational Citizenship Behaviour significantly affects the relationship between Employee Political skill and Employee Performance. The study recommends leaders in institutions to instil the resource of employee political skill through a blend of organizational citizenship behaviour so as to enrich performance among employees. Additionally, it calls for broadening research and utilizing the existing theories on this topic on a global view.

Leader's integrity and employee silence in healthcare organizations.

Drawing on the social exchange theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between a leader's behavioral integrity and employee acquiescent silence. Specifically, the authors take a relational approach by introducing employee's relational identification as the mediator. The moderating role of employee political skill, in the relationship between behavioral integrity and employee acquiescent silence, is also considered. The data of this study encompass 913 front-line nurses from 13 university hospitals in Turkey. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the proposed model. The results of this study support the negative effect of behavioral integrity on employee's acquiescent silence, as well as the mediating effect of employee's relational identification. Moreover, when the level of employee political skill is low, the relationship between behavioral integrity and acquiescent silence is strong, whereas the effect is weak when the level of political skill is high. The findings of this study suggest that healthcare administrators' words and deeds should be consistent while interacting with their subordinates, as it leads to positive interpersonal relationship, which, in turn, lowers employee silence. Moreover, healthcare administrators should pay more attention to the buffering role of employee political skill for those subordinates with low relational identification and higher workplace silence. This study contributes to the literature on workplace silence by revealing the relational mechanism between behavioral integrity and employee silence. This paper also offers a practical assistance to employees in the healthcare industry and their administrators interested in building trust and high-quality manager-employee relationship, as well as lowering workplace silence.

How authentic leadership influences employee proactivity: the sequential mediating effects of psychological empowerment and core self-evaluations and the moderating role of employee political skill

This study aims to examine the relationship between authentic leadership and employee proactive behavior. Based on self-determination theory, we argue that such a relationship is sequentially mediated by psychological empowerment and core self-evaluations. In addition, political skill plays a moderating role in the third stage. These hypotheses are validated by a sample of 65 leaders and 275 subordinates from two private enterprises in mainland China. Results show that authentic leadership (Time 1) influences employees’ proactive behavior (Time 3) through the psychological empowerment (Time 1) and core self-evaluations of employees (Time 2), and the relationship between core self-evaluations and proactive behavior is positively moderated by employees’ political skill. In addition, bootstrapping results also verify the moderating role played by employees’ political skill in the indirect relationship between authentic leadership and proactive behavior through core self-evaluations. Theoretical and managerial implications are further discussed in the light of these findings.

The Moderating Effect of Employee Political Skill on the Link between Perceptions of a Victimizing Work Environment and Job Performance.

Research has generally revealed only a weak link, if any at all, between victimization-related experiences and job performance. Drawing on the commonly used conservation of resources perspective, we argue that such inconsistent evidence in the organizational literature stems from an over-focus on personal resources at the expense of considering the role of social resources. Victimization is an interpersonal phenomenon with social ramifications. Its effects may be better captured when measured from the standpoint of the social environment, and analyzed relative to an employee’s capacity to effectively regulate those social resources. With the latter capacity being encapsulated by the construct of political skill, we conducted two studies to explore the moderating influence of employee political skill on the relationship between employee perceptions of a victimizing work environment and employee task performance. In Study 1, employees with low political skill exhibited reduced task performance when perceiving a victimizing environment, and this link was found to be mediated by tension in Study 2. Those with high political skill exhibit no change in performance across victimization perceptions in Study 2, yet an increase in performance in Study 1. We discuss our findings relative to the victimization and political skill literatures.

Work-to-Life Spillover Effect of Leader–Member Exchange in Groups: The Moderating Role of Group Power Distance and Employee Political Skill

While prior studies have focused on the effect of leader–member exchange (LMX), representing a dyadic differentiated exchange relationship between a leader and followers, on employees’ job-related outcomes, how LMX at the group level influences one’s life domain has been ignored. The present study shifted attention to the relationship between LMX mean and employee life satisfaction as well as the boundary conditions. Using a sample of 471 employees from 53 groups and hierarchical linear modeling, we examined the cross-level main effect of LMX mean on life satisfaction and the moderation of group power distance and individual political skill. The results revealed that LMX mean had a work-to-life spillover effect on employee life satisfaction. Employee political skill positively moderated the relationship between LMX mean and life satisfaction, whereas group power distance negatively moderated the relation. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.

The Effect of Political Skill and Social Network Structure on Innovation and Career Success

I examine how political skill affects employee career success as well as an employee’s ability to successfully initiate innovation within an organization. Integrating a sociopolitical view on innovation with the interactionist perspective on creativity and innovation, I find that employee political skill is positively related to both successful innovation initiation and career success, with successful innovation initiation mediating the relationship between political skill and career success. Moreover, I find that the number of structural holes an employee has in their social network moderates the relationship between political skill and successful innovation initiation such that the relationship is stronger when an employee has a network rich in structural holes. Hypotheses were tested in a large micro-processor manufacturing firm using a sample of 114 employees responsible for generating technological innovations in support of the development of computer microchips. Implications for theory and future re...

Coping with Workplace Ostracism: The Roles of Ingratiation and Political Skill in Employee Psychological Distress

abstractThe study reported here examined the relationship between workplace ostracism and employee psychological distress (i.e. job tension, emotional exhaustion, and depressed mood at work) by focusing on the joint moderating effects of ingratiation and political skill. Data from a two‐wave survey of 215 employees in two oil and gas firms in China indicated that as predicted, workplace ostracism was positively related to psychological distress. Moreover, the findings showed that when employee political skill was high, ingratiation neutralized the relationship between workplace ostracism and psychological distress, but when it was low, ingratiation exacerbated the relationship.

The moderating role of subordinate political skill on supervisors' impressions of subordinate ingratiation and ratings of subordinate interpersonal facilitation.

Nearly 2 decades ago, social influence theorists called for a new stream of research that would investigate why and how influence tactics are effective. The present study proposed that political skill affects the style of execution of influence attempts. It utilized balance theory to explain the moderating effect of employee political skill on the relationships between self- and supervisor-reported ingratiation. Additionally, supervisor reports of subordinate ingratiation were hypothesized to be negatively related to supervisor ratings of subordinate interpersonal facilitation. Results from a combined sample of 2 retail service organizations provided evidence that subordinates with high political skill were less likely than those low in political skill to have their demonstrated ingratiation behavior perceived by targets as a manipulative influence attempt. Also, when subordinates were perceived by their supervisors to engage in more ingratiation behavior, the subordinates were rated lower on interpersonal facilitation. Implications of these findings, limitations, and future research directions are provided.