Garry L. Adams

Perceptions of organizational politics: Theory and research directions.

Organizational politics has intrigued academicians and practitioners for decades. Yet, serious scholarship on politics in organizations has emerged as a viable body of scientific inquiry just within the past twenty years. In general, theory and research on organizational politics has been sorted into the two categories of political behavior and its effects, and the nature of organizational politics perceptions. With few exceptions, these areas of inquiry have been treated as largely independent of one another. Whereas it is useful periodically to take stock of the current status of our knowledge base in particular areas of inquiry, we are often remiss in not engaging in such activity frequently enough. The present paper seeks to address this void by determining the status of theory and research on perceptions of organizational politics. First, we report on a comprehensive review of the literature designed to convey the current state of the field with respect to theory development, testing, and validation, as well as methodological considerations, including levels of analysis issues. Then, we propose future challenges with respect to construct expansion and validation, theory refinement, multi-level considerations, and integration with other constructs in the organizational sciences. Other issues that need to be addressed in future work are also examined in an effort to propose a revised model of politics perceptions to guide future research.

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.

Knowledge management systems and developing sustainable competitive advantage

Esta tesis analiza la relacion entre la gestion del conocimiento y las capacidades dinamicas, relacion poco explorada en paises en via de desarrollo. Teoricamente, las hipotesis planteadas en este estudio se asocian a partir de los principios de la Vision de la Firma basada en Recursos, la cual senala que el conocimiento es un recurso que posibilita la formulacion, la restructuracion y la implementacion de estrategias competitivas. En esta investigacion se formulan relaciones entre las dimensiones claves de la gestion del conocimiento (creacion, transferencia y uso de conocimiento) y las dimensiones claves de las capacidades dinamicas (monitoreo, aprendizaje, integracion, coordinacion y reconfiguracion), las cuales fueron probadas en una muestra importante de organizaciones intensivas en informacion y conocimiento de Colombia, mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) en Smartpls3. Los resultados advierten el impacto positivo de la gestion del conocimiento en las capacidades dinamicas, encontrandose relaciones que varian en intensidad entre las dimensiones-constructos fundamentales de ambas variables. Empresarialmente, estos resultados implican que la renovacion estrategica de una compania depende de su capacidad para gestionar el conocimiento.Recent literature in the strategic management field suggests that firms must learn to re‐bundle internal competencies and resources in order to maintain competitive advantages over time. Utilizing the resource‐based view of the firm and dynamic capabilities perspectives, this paper examines the roles that absorptive and transformative capacity play in organizational innovation, with specific emphasis placed on the role and effectiveness of knowledge management systems as a determinant of innovation practices.

Towards a “theoretical toolbox” for strategic sourcing

Purpose – The goal of this paper is to provide a broad foundation for future research in the area of strategic sourcing.Design/methodology/approach – The foundation is derived by drawing from various well‐established organizational theories. Specifically, strategic sourcing was viewed from the perspective of institutional theory, resource dependence theory, network theory, systems theory, resource/knowledge‐based views of the firm, transaction cost economics, agency theory, strategic choice theory, sociocognitive theory, and critical theory.Findings – By viewing strategic sourcing through the lens of ten organizational theories, this research provides multiple insights into many interrelated strategic sourcing questions, such as when to make, buy or ally, how many and which suppliers, and how to manage sourcing relationships. The paper offers a rich and diverse foundation to foster future theory‐building activities in sourcing and supply management research.Originality/value – While some of these theory b...

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.

The Roles of Recruiter Political Skill and Performance Resource Leveraging in NCAA Football Recruitment Effectiveness

The recruitment and selection of human resources represent the most important activities in which organizations of all types engage. However, there is much scholars still need to know about the predictors of recruitment effectiveness. Using a sample of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) university football coaches (N = 175) and their recruiting outcomes, the authors hypothesized that recruiting effectiveness is specifically affected by the individual qualities of the recruiters, in addition to the past performance of the team under the current head coach. The results supported the hypothesis, demonstrating that the interaction of recruiter political skill and head coach performance explained significant variance in recruitment effectiveness. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

Historicism in narrative reviews of strategic management research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of methodological issues that accompany the articles reviewing past research in strategic management.Design/methodology/approach – The topic of the philosophical underpinnings and implications of historicism in strategy reviews is examined by contrasting and explaining deterministic, indeterministic, and underdeterministic views of strategys intellectual history.Findings – Three diverse philosophical approaches to historicist interpretation are found to be embedded in key review articles in the field of strategic management.Practical implications – This paper indicates the need to develop and teach an accepted methodology of systematically reviewing and interpreting available knowledge in strategic management.Originality/value – The unique contribution of this paper is that it indicates new paths that are important not only for the development of an alternative way to construct a shared history of the subject but also for the deve...

Entrepreneur political skill and new venture performance: Extending the social competence perspective

Research on the social competence perspective holds that since operating high performing new ventures is dependent on entrepreneurs’ ability to influence stakeholder actions, entrepreneur social competence is likely critically important to new venture performance. Using a sample of 163 entrepreneurs throughout the USA, we extend such research by examining the entrepreneur political skill new venture performance relationship. Our results suggest that political skill, which is the component of social competence which specifically assesses an individuals ability to influence others actions within the business environment, is positively associated with new venture performance. Study results provide additional support for the social competence perspective.

Perceptions of organizational politics: Additional thoughts, reactions, and multi-level issues

In this response, we address three central themes of the Fedor and Maslyn and Dipboye and Foster commentaries. In doing so, we attempt to integrate their perspectives by presenting possible extensions to the current research stream. We suggest that these research extensions will generate a broader understanding of the perceptions of politics construct both across levels and between organizations.

The Role of Decision Support in Alleviating the Familiarity Bias

Decision support systems (DSS) have been designed in part to help circumvent human cognitive biases that hinder effective decision making. One bias that has been overlooked in the area of DSS is the familiarity bias. It has been researched primarily for making probability comparisons in the field of social psychology and for making investment decisions in finance, and it has been shown to impair quality decisions. This study explores the role of the familiarity bias in decision making under comparatively ignorant conditions and how decisional information support can be used to offset it. Results showed that the bias does exist and that information does help toward decision accuracy, but there may also be a limited amount of information that will be heeded by decision makers.