Darren C. Treadway

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.

The moderating role of subordinate political skill on supervisors' impressions of subordinate ingratiation and ratings of subordinate interpersonal facilitation.

Nearly 2 decades ago, social influence theorists called for a new stream of research that would investigate why and how influence tactics are effective. The present study proposed that political skill affects the style of execution of influence attempts. It utilized balance theory to explain the moderating effect of employee political skill on the relationships between self- and supervisor-reported ingratiation. Additionally, supervisor reports of subordinate ingratiation were hypothesized to be negatively related to supervisor ratings of subordinate interpersonal facilitation. Results from a combined sample of 2 retail service organizations provided evidence that subordinates with high political skill were less likely than those low in political skill to have their demonstrated ingratiation behavior perceived by targets as a manipulative influence attempt. Also, when subordinates were perceived by their supervisors to engage in more ingratiation behavior, the subordinates were rated lower on interpersonal facilitation. Implications of these findings, limitations, and future research directions are provided.

The interaction of social skill and organizational support on job performance.

The present study examined the moderating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on the relationship between social skill and supervisor-rated job performance. On the basis of regulatory and activation models of behavior, the authors argue that low-POS environments activate social skill because they reflect situations in which interpersonal acuity is required to demonstrate effective job performance. Accordingly, the authors hypothesize that social skill is more strongly related to performance among workers reporting low rather than high levels of organizational support. Results of hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses on data gathered from 2 samples support the hypothesis. These results suggest that the relevance of social skill to job performance may be dependent on contextual cues. Implications for substantive research, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research are offered.

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.

Political skill and influence effectiveness: Testing portions of an expanded Ferris and Judge (1991) model

The present study tested por tions of an expanded Ferris and Judge (1991) framework regarding influence processes in human resources decisions and actions. In particular, the roles of political skill and a particularly efficacious influence tactic, rationality, were examined with respect to their interactive effects on supervisor perceptions and evaluations. Online questionnaires were used to collect data from full-time, non-faculty employees of a large south-eastern US public university. To avoid problems associated with common method variance resulting from same source data, supervisors rated subordinates on outcome measures and subordinates supplied data on predictors. The final sample was comprised of a matched dyadic data set of 291 subordinates and their supervisors. Results indicated support for the hypotheses. Specifically, political skill was found to directly relate to the use of rationality and moderate the positive relationship between rationality and two supervisory perceptions known to affect supervisor ratings of job performance, notably supervisor liking of subordinates and perceived similarity to subordinates. Further, perceptions of liking and similarity were positively related to supervisor ratings of both task performance and two important contextual job performance components. Implications of the results, strengths and limitations of the research, and directions for future research are discussed.

The Interactive Effect of Leader-Member Exchange and Political Skill on Subjective Career Success

Whereas previous research has examined the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and objective measures of career success, it is likely that LMX is also an important predictor of subjective career success. Additionally, because of the political nature of an individuals career progression, it has been argued that ones personal style and resulting impressions are positively related to subjective career success. A sample of 295 retail workers was surveyed, and the results indicated that individuals in low-quality leader-member exchange experienced higher perceptions of subjective career success when they possess high levels of political skill.

Social Influence and Interpersonal Power in Organizations: Roles of Performance and Political Skill in Two Studies

This two-study investigation framed performance as one potential form of influence that interacts with political skill to affect power assessments. It was hypothesized that favorable performance is more likely to be leveraged into higher levels of interpersonal power when individuals possess high levels of political skill but not for individuals low in political skill. Study 1 (N = 97) demonstrated that individuals with positive performance were more likely to possess higher levels of interpersonal power if they were high in political skill. Furthermore, higher levels of performance were not related to power for individuals low in political skill. Thus, these results from Study 1 established support for the hypothesis. Study 2 (N = 384), using a multisource design, constructively replicated these findings. Contributions to theory and research, strengths and limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.

Status inconsistency: an antecedent to bullying behaviour in groups

Bullying is a common and constantly reoccurring phenomenon in organizations. The increasing diversity of the workplace is an accepted fact, which has the potential to increase the occurrence of status inconsistency. The purpose of this paper is to examine the theory of status inconsistency and its usefulness as a predictor to identifying when bullying might occur in a work group setting. In addition, the possible impact of bullying on group dynamics and ultimately group performance is explored. The central tenet of this paper is that bullying is a possible behaviour given a group members intense emotional feelings of stress related to status inconsistency. The paper concludes by highlighting a few managerial implications relative to effectively addressing bullying behaviour in groups and identifying future directions to better understanding and researching bullying in a group context. In a recent study, it was found that: (1) 78% of the respondents felt incivility [bullying] in the workplace has worsened in the past ten years; (2) 46% of the respondents considered quitting their jobs due to increasing pressure from bullies; (3) 12% of the respondents who experienced rude behaviour quit their jobs to avoid the bully and/or perpetrator; and (4) 37% of the respondents indicated their commitment to the organization had declined (Pearson, 1999).

Nonlinear Politics Perceptions—Work Outcomes Relationships: A Three-Study, Five-Sample Investigation

This research reports the findings of three studies (involving a total of five samples) developed to explore the nonlinear relationships of organizational politics perceptions with practically and theoretically relevant work outcomes. Study 1 hypothesized a nonlinear relationship between organizational politics perceptions and job satisfaction. In Sample 1 of this study, a nonlinear relationship was identified, best depicted as an inverted-U form, and Sample 2 replicated this finding. Study 2 hypothesized a U-shaped relationship between politics perceptions and job tension, which was identified in Sample 3 and corroborated in Sample 4. In a single-sample investigation (i.e., Sample 5), Study 3 extended nonlinear conceptualizations by considering moderation (i.e., in the form of perceived resources) and, thus, the possibility of restricted nonlinearity. Results indicated that politics perceptions demonstrated a nonlinear association with job tension (i.e., U-shaped form) only for those with fewer perceived resources. For those with higher levels of perceived resources, no relationship between politics perceptions and job tension existed. Implications of these findings for scholarship and practice are offered.