Ceasar Douglas

Development and Validation of the Political Skill Inventory

The present research was developed to examine the conceptualization and measurement of the political skill construct and to provide validation evidence for the Political Skill Inventory (PSI). The results of three investigations, involving seven samples, are reported that demonstrate consistency of the factor structure across studies, construct validity, and criterion-related validity of the PSI. As hypothesized, political skill was positively related to self-monitoring, political savvy, and emotional intelligence; negatively related to trait anxiety; and not correlated with general mental ability. Also, the PSI predicted performance ratings of managers in two samples. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are provided.

Political Skill in Organizations

Political skill is a construct that was introduced more than two decades ago as a necessary competency to possess to be effective in organizations. Unfortunately, despite appeals by organizational scientists to further develop this construct, it lay dormant until very recently. The present article defines and characterizes the construct domain of political skill and embeds it in a cognition—affect—behavior, multilevel, meta-theoretical framework that proposes how political skill operates to exercise effects on both self and others in organizations. Implications of this conceptualization are discussed, as are directions for future research and practical implications.

Leader Political Skill and Team Performance

The present study investigates the impact of the political skill of leaders on team performance. More specifically, this study examined the role of leader political skill in the performance of casework teams in a large state child welfare system. Team performance was operationalized as “permanency rate,” or the successful placement of children into legally final living arrangements (i.e., adoption, successor guardianship, or return to natural parents). After controlling for several contextually important factors (i.e., average caseload, average age of children served, average number of team placements, team member experience, leader experience, and team empowerment), leader political skill was found to explain a significant proportion of variance in team performance scores. Implications of these results, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.

Social Effectiveness in Organizations: Construct Validity and Research Directions

Social dynamics of interpersonal and group processes has been an active area of investigation in the organizational sciences for many years, as have the social effectiveness competencies that facilitate such process dynamics. In recent years, we have witnessed a proliferation of social effectiveness constructs in the field, which appear to reflect some convergence, but unique character as well. In this article, we examine the nature of these various social effectiveness constructs, their construct validity, and their relationships with important work outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of directions for future research and implications of the growth of interest in social effectiveness in organizations.

Social influence processes in organizations and human resources systems

Social influence processes in organizations involve the demonstration of particular behavioral tactics and strategies by individuals to influence behavioral outcomes controlled by others in ways that maximize influencer positive outcomes and minimize negative outcomes. Such processes necessarily draw from research in topic areas labeled impression management, self-presentation, interpersonal influence, and organizational politics. However, few efforts have been made to integrate this work for purposes of assessing our current knowledge base, and identifying gaps and thus areas in need of further investigation. The present paper provides a critical analysis and review of theory and research on social influence processes in the workplace, with particular emphasis on human resources systems, organized according to the What, the Where, the Who, and the How of influence. In the process, we identify neglected areas, including theory-building challenges, as well as key issues in need of empirical investigation.

Emotional Intelligence as a Moderator of the Relationship between Conscientiousness and Performance

This study investigates whether the relationship between conscientiousness and performance , is stronger for individuals who are high on emotional intelligence. The results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses supported the hypothesis by demonstrating that the relationship between conscientiousness and work performance is positive for individuals high (versus low) in emotional intelligence. However, the opposite pattern was found for those low in emotional intelligence; that is, increases in conscientiousness were associated with decreases in performance. Implications of these results are discussed, as are directions for future research.

Cohesion and satisfaction as mediators of the team trust - team effectiveness relationship: An interdependence theory perspective

Purpose – With extant research on the relationship between trust and effectiveness being inconclusive, the present study attempts to create a foundational investigation that examines the role of multiple mediators in the team trust – team effectiveness relationship. The authors identified the two emergent states of cohesion and satisfaction as intervening variables in the team trust – team effectiveness relationship, and tested this multi-mediation proposed model, within an interdependence theory perspective. Design/methodology/approach – MBA students at a large university in the southwestern USA were administered two waves of paper-based surveys, which were assigned to project groups. Individuals had been assigned to groups with the intent of maximizing diversity of age, gender, functional background, industry experience, and undergraduate major for each team (this is a goal of the MBA program, not the researchers). The first wave was administered one week after the groups had been formed and after all g...

A quality competitiveness index for benchmarking

The operations strategy literature has identified four primary dimensions on which a firm competes with another. These are: price, quality, flexibility, and delivery dependability. Of these, quality is perhaps the most critical dimension in terms of the impact on the degree of competitiveness imparted to a firm by a competitiveness dimension. In this paper, we propose a quantitative measure – quality competitiveness index (QCI) – to determine the degree to which a firm’s quality practices and policies are instrumental in improving its competitiveness. The QCI can be effectively employed for benchmarking among competing firms. More importantly, however, the process leading to the determination of QCI is itself an educative one – the weaknesses and strengths of a company with respect to its quality practices and policies come right to the fore and the company can usefully employ this information to improve competitiveness for quality.

Leader Political Skill, Relationship Quality, and Leadership Effectiveness: A Two-Study Model Test and Constructive Replication

Grounded in leader–member exchange, social exchange, political skill and influence theories, the present two-study investigation tests the model that leader political skill is related to both leader and follower effectiveness through leader–follower relationship quality. It is hypothesized that leader political skill is associated with leader effectiveness (Study 1) and follower effectiveness (Study 2) through relationship quality. The results support the hypotheses and were constructively replicated in Study 2, contributing to theory that leader political skill enhances relationship quality, which then ultimately affects leader and follower effectiveness relationships. Strengths, limitations, directions for future research, and implications for practice are discussed.

Organization redesign: the current state and projected trends

Redesign activity is taking place within organizations faced with rapidly changing business environments. In this article, the current state of organization redesign, the role of information systems, and the effect of redesign activities on job satisfaction and motivation are reviewed. The current state and projected trends are then related to a field study conducted at the Zeeland, Michigan, machine processing plant (ZMP) of Herman Miller. Interviews with both hourly and managerial personnel were conducted. The results of the interviews suggest that effective redesign efforts focus on the human or intangible aspects, as well as structural changes.