How career plateau beliefs and leader interpersonal unfairness harm job performance in dysfunctional organizational settings

Abstract

Building on social exchange theory and attribution theory, this study unpacks the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational politics and job performance, considering the mediating effect of career plateau beliefs and the moderating effect of leader interpersonal unfairness. The findings provide empirical support for the theoretical predictions. An important reason for which perceptions of dysfunctional organizational politics reduce job performance is that employees develop beliefs that opportunities for their career development are limited. This mediating role of career plateau beliefs is particularly salient to the extent that employees are exposed to organizational leaders who treat them with disrespect. Organizations can mitigate the risk that highly politicized decision‐making processes lead to negative performance outcomes by stimulating fair interpersonal relationships.

Disappointed but still dedicated: when and why career dissatisfied employees might still go beyond the call of duty

“…That is, the energy-depleting effect of experienced career dissatisfaction may prevent employees from going beyond the call of duty, because they have limited discretionary energy available that would enable them to combine in-role with extra-role work activities (Quinn et al , 2012). This argument is consistent with COR theory: Resource depletion due to an unhappy career situation escalates into diminished extra-role work activities as employees seek ways to conserve their remaining energy and allocate it to necessary activities (De Clercq et al , 2020; Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000).…”

“…To test these research hypotheses, we collected survey data from employees who work in a large Mexican-based retail organization that sells indoor home products, such as floors, coatings, furniture and equipment for bathrooms and kitchens. The empirical setting of Mexico aligns with calls for more investigations of how resource-depleting work situations may thwart extra-role work behaviors in global settings (Bodla et al , 2019; De Clercq et al , 2020). Moreover, even if the arguments underpinning the hypothesized relationships are country-neutral – and we accordingly expect that these relationships can be generalized across many countries – the cultural profile of this country, marked by high levels of uncertainty avoidance and collectivism (Hofstede et al , 2010), is interesting because it suggests two possible opposing forces with respect to the negative relationship between career dissatisfaction and OCB.…”

“…In particular, the direct negative link between career dissatisfaction and OCB complements prior studies about the detrimental roles of other sources of work-related hardships relative to voluntary work activities, such as dysfunctional politics or workplace incivility (Khan et al , 2019; Liu et al , 2019). The frustrations that result from a sense that important career goals have not been met curtail these activities, due to the resource depletion that employees experience when they feel stressed about their poor professional development, whether now or in the future (De Clercq et al , 2020; Smith-Ruig, 2009). In this case, employees may lack the capabilities needed to go out of their way to help their organization with their voluntary efforts; they instead remain passive and dedicate themselves to “easier,” formally required tasks (Jawahar and Liu, 2016).…”

“…As a primary contribution to human resource management research, we accordingly investigate the role of career dissatisfaction (Nauta et al , 2009), an important determinant of employees' reluctance to engage in OCB, with particular attention to the circumstances in which such career adversity is less likely to escalate in this way. Previous studies indicate that the detrimental effects of career-related frustrations on negative work outcomes can be invigorated by factors such as psychological contract breaches (Lin et al , 2018) or leader interpersonal unfairness (De Clercq et al , 2020). We complement these findings with three additional factors that promise to help organizations diminish the chances that their employees, upset by their limited career progress, avoid energy-consuming, extra-role work activities (Quinn et al , 2012).…”

Perceived organizational politics, knowledge hiding and diminished promotability: how do harmony motives matter?

“…By considering both of these harmony motives, our study complements prior research that focuses on other moderators of the ways in which employees choose to vent their irritations with self-serving decision-making. For example, their moral courage (Cheng et al , 2019) or perceptions of leader interpersonal unfairness (De Clercq et al , 2019) may serve as catalysts and their political skill (Kacmar et al , 2013) or psychological capital (Abbas et al , 2014) may serve as buffers in these responses. Moreover, we add to prior research that shows how disintegration avoidance and harmony enhancement motives inform employees’ behavioral responses to perceived supportive psychological safety (Leung et al , 2015); we focus on how they inform reactions to an unfavorable work situation, created by the presence of dysfunctional political games in decision-making policies.…”