The contingent nature of the political skill-employee performance relationship.

Abstract

The prevailing perspective in the organizational politics literature is that political skill facilitates heightened employee performance. Indeed, meta-analytic results have consistently found a positive relationship between political skill and both task and contextual performance. However, the literature has neglected the possibility of a contingent relationship between political skill and employee performance, despite arguments that organizations are political arenas in which employees also need political will. This is problematic because although politics are described as an ever-present facet of organizations, the extent to which work environments are politicized varies (Pfeffer, 1981), and such contexts can either constrain or enhance organizational behavior (Johns, 2006, 2018). Therefore, underpinned by the multiplicative framework of performance (i.e., P = f(M × A × C); Hirschfeld et al., 2004), we argue that the effects of political skill on employee task and contextual performance are contingent upon employee political will and the degree to which the work context is politicized. Results from a sample of working adults and their supervisors provided support for our hypothesis. Namely, political skill and political will interacted to predict heightened levels of task performance and citizenship behavior within more political contexts, but not within less political contexts. The contributions of this study to the politics literature are discussed commensurate with this study’s associated strengths and limitations.

Looking at the bright side of workplace politics through the lens of social capital

“…It was only recently when Fedor et al (2008) demonstrated that positive and negative politics do not lie on the opposite ends of the same line and are not dichotomous, rather, they are two completely different dimensions and mean different things. Frieder et al (2023) demonstrated that aspects of politics, such as political skill and will, are associated with heightened job performance. This would go to show that perception of positive politics exists and is not always meant to be a frowned upon thing.…”