HRM Practice and Innovative Work Behavior: Organisational Politics as Mediator and Personal Locus of Control as Moderator

Abstract

The general objective of this study was to examine the effect of organisational politics on the relationship between HR practice and the innovative work behaviours of selected senior staff of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. A secondary objective was to examine the moderation of personal locus of control on the association between organisational politics and employees innovative work behaviour. The study adopted an explanatory research design, using a purely quantitative approach. The target population comprised of all senior staff of the University of Cape Coast. The G*Power 3.1 software was used to select 119 members into the sample for this study. Data were collected through a self-administered survey questionnaire and analysed, using the Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. The findings of this study suggest that organisational politics has a statistically significant positive influence on the link between human resource management practice and employees’ innovative work behaviour. Unexpectedly, the paper also found that the link between organisational politics and personal locus of control, on one hand, and that between personal locus of control and innovative work behaviour, on the other hand, were statistically non-significant and negative. Therefore, we recommend that since organisational politics is an inevitable element in every human institution, any attempt by management to improve the innovative work behaviours of employees must take into account the possible effect of organizational politics on the said intervention. 

The effect of electronic human resource management on electronic human resource management macro-level consequences: the role of perception of organizational politics

“…Contrary to numerous conclusions on the negative effect of stressors, positive outcomes have been recorded. Challenge-related stressors have been shown to be positively related to job satisfaction (Opoku et al, 2020), organizational loyalty (Spurk et al, 2021) and job performance (Abbas and Raja, 2019). This study posits that the work environment is characterized by the presence of challenge stressors.…”

“…(3) Challenge-hindrance stress model Research has so far portrayed perceived organizational politics as an organizational stressor (Landells and Albrecht, 2017;Opoku et al, 2020). Stressors are characteristics of the work environment that cause strain, and strains are the label for the resulting poor psychological or physical well-being (Opoku et al, 2020). Ill-health, anxiety and burnout are examples of strains that could result from experiencing workplace stressors.…”

“…First, e-HRM use is seen as redistributing power within organizational members: conferring more power on some and reducing the power of others. The beneficiaries of this power redistribution are likely to engage in positive organizational citizenship behavior, such as improved individual performance, job satisfaction and lower labor turnover (Opoku et al, 2020). Second, e-HRM use is seen as distributing non-randomly, the information required for coping with uncertainty, role ambiguity and role conflict (Opoku et al, 2020).…”

“…The beneficiaries of this power redistribution are likely to engage in positive organizational citizenship behavior, such as improved individual performance, job satisfaction and lower labor turnover (Opoku et al, 2020). Second, e-HRM use is seen as distributing non-randomly, the information required for coping with uncertainty, role ambiguity and role conflict (Opoku et al, 2020). By distributing information to e-HRM actors, the use of e-HRM therefore, allows organizational members to cope with uncertainty brought about by the work political environment.…”

“…One such variable emanating from this interaction is employees' perceived organizational politics. Viewed in a number of studies, as an organizational stressor (Vigoda, 2003;Ram and Prabhakar, 2010;Perrewe et al, 2012;Bodla et al, 2014;Rosen and Hochwarter, 2014;Saleem, 2015;Chinomona and Mofokeng, 2016;Mazzola and Disselhorst, 2019;Opoku et al, 2020), perceived organizational politics alongside e-HRM use can also be viewed as a necessity for organizational growth (Maslyn et al, 2017;Mazzola and Disselhorst, 2019). This positive aspect of perceived organizational politics has received little attention from researchers.…”