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PurposeThis study aims to examine perceptions of politics among public sector employees as a possible mediator between the supervisor's leadership style and formal and informal aspects of employees' performance (Organizational Citizenship Behavior – OCB).Design/methodology/approachThe Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was distributed to employees of a public security organization in Israel (N=201), asking them to evaluate their supervisor's style of leadership. Employees were also asked to report their perceptions of organizational politics using the scale developed by Kacmar and Ferris. In addition, supervisors provided objective evaluations of the levels of their employees' in‐role performance and OCB. The intra‐structure of the leadership variable was examined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with structural equation modeling. Two alternative models were examined: first, a model of mediation and second, a direct model with no mediation.FindingsThe research resulted in mixed findings that only partially support the mediating effect of organizational politics on the relationship between leadership, in‐role performance and OCB. A direct relationship between leadership and performance (in‐role and OCB) was also found.Research limitations/implicationsThe differences between the models do not allow clear answers as to the mediating or direct effect of organizational politics in the relationship between leadership and performance. The implications on causality are also limited.Practical implicationsManagers should recognize the advantages and disadvantages of different leadership styles as these may affect organizational politics and eventually, formal performance and organizational citizenship behaviors.Originality/valueThe findings of this paper contribute to the understanding of the relationships between leadership, performance, and politics in the workplace and in the public sector in particular.

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Using a well-grounded theory of organizational citizenship behavior, this study attempts to extend the meaning of the good soldier syndrome beyond its common boundaries of the business sector. We follow Bettencourt's (2004) conceptualization and model of changeoriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) to explain why and how public employees engage in activities targeted at changing and improving the public work environment and its job processes even when no formal rewards are offered in return. We extend Bettencourt's model and demonstrate its usefulness and contribution to public administration organizations, focusing especially on leadership behavior, leader-member exchange relations, and perceptions of organizational politics in public agencies. A field study of 217 public personnel in a large public health care organization yields interesting findings, demonstrating the uniqueness of change-oriented OCB over classical OCB measures (individual and organizational), the general positive effect of leadership on OCB and the moderating effect of perceptions of politics in this relationship. Implications of the findings are developed and discussed in the context of modern public administration.