Yongmei Liu

Are You Willing and Able? Roles of Motivation, Power, and Politics in Career Growth

A comprehensive model of political behavior and its influence on career growth was presented and tested via a Chinese sample of 283 employee—supervisor dyads. Need for achievement and need for power were found to be positively related to political behavior, and perceptions of organizational politics strengthened the relationship between these personal needs and political behavior. Furthermore, for individuals high in political skill, increases in political behavior were associated with greater career growth potential rated by supervisors, whereas for individuals low in political skill, increases in political behavior were associated with lower ratings of career growth potential. Personal power mediated the moderated relationships among political behavior, political skill, and career growth potential ratings. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Measure invariance of the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) across five cultures

This research expands the study of political skill, a construct developed in North America, to other cultures. We examine the psychometric properties of the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) and test the measurement equivalence of the scale in a non-American context. Respondents were 1511 employees from China, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. The cross-cultural generalizability of the construct is established through consistent evidence of multi-group invariance in an increasingly stringent series of analyses of mean and covariance structures. Overall, the study provides systematic evidence that political skill can be treated as a stable construct among diverse cultural groups. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that translated PSI measures operationalize the construct similarly. With some exceptions, the item loadings and intercepts are invariant for the US and non-US responses, suggesting partial measurement equivalence. After verifying the accuracy of item translation, we conclude that any differences can be explained by variation in the cultural value of uncertainly avoidance and cultural differences on a low-to-high context continuum. Detected dissimilarities are addressed, and some suggestions regarding the correct use across borders of the instrument by managers and researchers are provided.

Proactive personality and citizenship performance: The mediating role of career satisfaction and the moderating role of political skill

The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of political skill in the relationship between proactive personality and citizenship performance, as mediated by career satisfaction.,The authors collected data from a diverse sample of 356 employees, and tested a moderated mediation model, in which proactive personality and political skill jointly impact career satisfaction, which in turn impacts citizenship performance.,The results indicate that career satisfaction mediates the relationship between proactive personality and two forms of citizenship performance, citizenship toward supervisor, and job/task conscientiousness. Political skill moderates these mediated relationships such that proactive individuals who are also politically skilled are more likely to demonstrate greater citizenship toward supervisor and job/task conscientiousness via increased career satisfaction.,The study suggests that proactive employees, due to their enhanced career satisfaction, tend to demonstrate greater organizational citizenship. Such positive tendencies are enhanced when proactive employees are equipped with political skill. Limitations include the use of cross-sectional design and single source data.,Organizations and human resources managers should be aware of the importance of personal career satisfaction and interpersonal competency in building organizational citizenship. Organizations may facilitate citizenship performance by recruiting individuals high in proactive personality and political skill.,Prior research has typically considered career satisfaction as an outcome variable. The authors examine career satisfaction as an intermediate variable leading to citizenship performance. The authors also examine the contingent effect of proactive personality.

Strategic emotional display: an examination of its interpersonal and career outcomes

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore an under‐researched, emotion‐focused influence tactic, strategic emotional display, and its interpersonal and career outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – The authors collected data from 258 matched supervisor‐subordinate dyads in a Chinese sample.Findings – The results indicate that individuals who use positive emotions in social influence tend to enhance their access to network resources and career growth potential, and those who use negative emotions in social influence tend to erode their network resources and hinder career growth potential.Research limitations/implications – A major limitation of the research is that the authors collected data on both strategic emotional display and network resources from the same source at the same time. Supporting prior research, the results indicate that individuals do use emotional expression as a social influence tactic at work, and that different emotion‐focused influence tactics are associated with different o...