Perceptions of organizational politics: A restricted nonlinearity perspective of its effects on job satisfaction and performance

Abstract

This study examined a restricted nonlinearity perspective of the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) and work outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction and job performance), dependent upon the level of employee loyalty. Consistent with prior work, we conceptualized POPs as a demand that can have positive effects on job satisfaction and performance, up to certain levels, before negative effects are observed as levels of POPs continue to increase to more extreme levels. Drawing upon the transactional theory of stress, we then argued that this relationship would hold for more loyal employees. However, we hypothesized that these relationships would take a more linear and negative form for less loyal employees. Data analyses of a sample of 177 financial services employees offered mixed support for our hypotheses, replicating prior work that showed a nonlinear, inverse‐U‐shaped relationship between POPs and job satisfaction, and demonstrating an inverted U‐shaped relationship between POPs and both satisfaction and performance for more loyal employees, but not for less loyal employees. We discuss contributions to theory and research, limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications.

Does organisational politics always hurt employee performance? Moderating–mediating model

“…While selecting the control variables, I followed the recommendations offered by Ellen et al. (2022b).…”

“…Low levels of POP, like other organisational stressors (e.g. organisational constraints), can have a stimulating and mobilising effect on employees' behaviours (Ellen et al, 2022b;Hochwarter et al, 2022).…”

“…For example, Kane-Frieder et al (2014) find that engaged employees are less stressed, more satisfied and perform better even when they perceive a higher level of politics. Other studies also show a moderating effect between POP and employee outcomes via ruminations (Rosen and Hochwarter, 2014), psychological capital (Abbas et al, 2014), organisational structures (Yang, 2017), level of transcendence (Lawong et al, 2018), selfregulation (Palmer et al, 2020), organisational loyalty (Ellen et al, 2022b), or employee' political skills and leader-member exchange (Takeuchi et al, 2022). Moreover, some prior work (e.g.…”

“…, 2018), self-regulation (Palmer et al. , 2020), organisational loyalty (Ellen et al. , 2022b), or employee’ political skills and leader–member exchange (Takeuchi et al.…”

“…Moreover, some prior work (e.g. Ellen et al, 2022b;Hochwarter et al, 2022) suggested that POP has nonlinear impact on job satisfaction and performance; namely, that there is a positive relationship for lowto-moderate levels of POP and a negative relationship at moderate-to-high levels on POP.…”