Impact of organizational politics on employee work outcomes in higher education institutions of Pakistan

Abstract

Purpose Organizational politics has been a topic of conceptual and empirical interest for researchers and practitioners for many years. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between organizational politics and employee work outcomes in educational institutions. In addition, this paper also aims to assess the moderating role of social capital. Design/methodology/approach Employee perceptions about organizational politics and its impact on their work outcomes have been assessed empirically with a sample of 270 full-time employees in higher education institutions of Pakistan. The data have been collected from faculty members of five universities of Pakistan using survey method. SPSS and AMOS have been used to analyze the data and SEM has been used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results indicate a moderating effect of social capital on the relationship between perceived organizational politics and employee outcomes, and the most significant employee outcomes are job stress, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The findings of the study support the view that organizational politics has negative association with employee job stress and turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications Higher education sector in Pakistan is facing certain challenges, which affect talent retention. The findings of this study will help the administration of higher education institutions to develop effective strategies to cope with the challenges of organizational politics, such as motivation, satisfaction and retention of their employees. Originality/value The study adds to the literature on organizational politics by highlighting and validating its adverse effects on employee work outcomes in the context of Pakistani higher education.

The nexus of physical, cognitive, and emotional engagement with academic staff turnover intention: The moderating role of organizational politics

“…Academic staff in Pakistan perform their duties in an environment where they are exposed to the effects of counterproductive organizational politics (Asrar‐ul‐Haq et al., 2019). As a result, organizational politics hinder their engagement level and become the basis for high turnover intention.…”

“Who Champions or Mentors Others”? The Role of Personal Resources in the Perceived Organizational Politics and Job Attitudes Relationship

“…To understand the impact of POP at workplace, we conducted this study on faculty members of the higher-education sector of Pakistan. Particularly, this research focused on teachers' underlying severe stress caused by POP which is a great challenge that affects not only the progress of the higher educational institutes but also students' productivity (Anjum et al, 2018 ; Kachhawa and Gajraj, 2018 ; Asrar-ul-Haq et al, 2019 ). Therefore, we targeted faculty members from higher educational institutes of Pakistan.…”

“…Recently, the notion of POP has captured the attention of scholars owing to its significance in organizational studies (Deale and Lee, 2016 ; Cho and Yang, 2017 ). In this regard, different perspectives have referred to this concept in the academic domain, particularly issues pertaining to organizations (Atta and Khan, 2016 ; Asrar-ul-Haq et al, 2019 ). Following this logic, a substantial number of scholars and a series of academic papers have highlighted POP through the lens of several theories (Lin and Sun, 2018 ; Crawford et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Undoubtedly, employees will inevitably have perceptions about the context of the political environment in an organization (Hochwarter et al, 2020 ). These perceptions entail negative and positive outcomes, since perceptions permeate within the corridors of an organization (Asrar-ul-Haq et al, 2019 ). In light of this, perceived organizational politics (POP) have become a major issue for organizational researchers (Vigoda, 2002 ; Miller et al, 2008 ; Drory and Vigoda-gadot, 2010 ; Naseer et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Education is viewed from different angles, especially at higher levels, as a license for individual freedom and productivity in general (Li et al, 2018 ). Furthermore, scholars have expounded that the workforce in higher education is susceptible to politics in many ways, which adversely impacts their performance (Asrar-ul-Haq et al, 2019 ).…”