Personal Initiative and Job Performance Evaluations: Role of Political Skill in Opportunity Recognition and Capitalization

Abstract

In recent years, personal initiative has been found to predict job performance. However, implicit in this direct initiative–performance relationship are more complex process dynamics that can be better understood when contextual antecedents, moderators, and mediators are considered. Drawing from perspectives of proactive behavior as a goal-directed process, a research model of personal initiative was tested in a three-study investigation intended to build upon and advance prior work. Specifically, the model indicates that climate for initiative interacts with the social astuteness dimension of political skill (i.e., opportunity recognition) to influence the demonstration of personal initiative, and this first part of the model is tested and supported in Study 1. Then, personal initiative is hypothesized to interact with the interpersonal influence dimension of political skill (i.e., opportunity capitalization) to predict supervisor assessments of job performance, and this part of the model is tested and supported in Study 2. Study 3 provided a test of the entire model and demonstrated support for moderated mediation, thus adding increased confidence in the validity of the theory and findings through constructive replication.

Navigating uneven terrain: The roles of political skill and LMX differentiation in prediction of work relationship quality and work outcomes

“…Additionally, politically skilled members are socially astute, which enables them to evaluate social contexts and adjust their behavioral responses accordingly (Ferris et al, ; Wihler, Blickle, Ellen, Hochwarter, & Ferris, ). This ability to read and react to situations, including supervisor demands, allows followers to perform consistent with unstated supervisor expectations.…”

“…Similarly, in environments where actual LMX differentiation is high, social astuteness enables politically skilled individuals to recognize (i.e., perceive) the leaders' differential treatment of followers within the work group. Thus, politically skilled individuals will recognize the differentiated LMX environment as an opportunity (Wihler et al, ) to improve their relationship with the leader, or as an environment susceptible to changing relationships, which necessitates effort to maintain an existing high‐quality relationship with the leader. So, for both perceived and actual LMX differentiation, the social comparison process will operate the same because awareness of each is gained, and then reacted to, as we note earlier.Hypothesis Individual perceptions of LMX differentiation moderate the relationship between political skill and LMX, such that the positive relationship will be stronger when LMX differentiation is perceived to be higher (Study 1).…”

Refining the Openness–Performance Relationship: Construct Specificity, Contextualization, Social Skill, and the Combination of Trait Self- and Other-Ratings

“…The construct validity of the Social Skill scale was tested and supported in a study by Wolf, Spinath, Riemann, and Angleitner (2009). In an additional multisource, multimethod validation study, we tested the relationship of the Social Skill scale with an objective test of 203 targets' emotion recognition ability from faces and voices (Momm et al, 2015) and with two peer ratings for each target of targets' social astuteness and interpersonal influence (Wihler, Blickle, Ellen, Hochwarter, & Ferris, 2014). Emotion recognition ability from faces, r(202) D .19, p < .01, and voices, r(202) D .21, p < .01; peer ratings of social astuteness, r(202) D .20, p < .01; and peer ratings of interpersonal influence, r(202) D .18, p < .05, were positively associated with the social skill facet of self-monitoring, additionally supporting its validity.…”

“…Similarly, future research could examine the differential moderation by social skill of the peer-rated versus teacher-rated personalityÀperformance relationship. In addition, studies can utilize measures of social skill aside from the one used in this study (see Wihler et al, 2014). We compared the NEO-FFI openness factor with the HPI learning approach facet.…”

Entrepreneurial Education: The Effect of Entrepreneurial Political Skill on Social Network, Tacit Knowledge, and Innovation Capability

“…objective of seeking to get insight into the role of political skill in the organizational variables that influence performance (Brouer et al, 2015;Harris et al, 2007;Tocher et al, 2012;Wihler et al, 2017). This study seeks to conceptually investigate the intricate relationship between social networks, tacit knowledge, and innovation in influencing the role of political skills in entrepreneurship education.…”