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I have invited Jina Hwang, a doctoral candidate from the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management, at Alliant International University, to be included on my website for her interest and work on political behaviors and skills. My relationship with Jina began as that of a mentorship, and has developed into a more collaborative relationship. Her research is part of her doctoral dissertation and is of interest to both the scientific and practitioner communities.
Gary Ranker
Predicting Political Behavior in Organizations through Social Axioms, Personality, and Perception of Organizational Politics
Organizational Politics:
Organizational politics are commonly acknowledged as a fundamental component of organizational life. Organizations are widely recognized as ‘political arenas’ in which constant struggles for power and competing interests are attempted to be reconciled. The politics of an organization strongly influence both formal and informal organizational processes, interpersonal relationships, work environments, pay and promotion policies, etc. The prevalence and impact of organizational politics in most organizations forces individuals to participate in the politics of their organization. Often, playing the ‘political game’ is not an option and success is dependent on one’s participation and skill.
Perception of Organizational Politics:
Perceptions of organizational politics and actual organizational politics are usually related, but are not the same. Organizational politics are both objective and subjective and involve actual political events in an organization as well as perceived political events. Regardless of the actual organizational politics, individuals react based on their perception of reality which influences an individual’s attitude and responses toward the organization.
Political Skill:
Political skill originally referred to a competency involving the ability to exercise influence through the use of persuasion, manipulation and negotiation. More recently, it is described as an interpersonal style that draws on keen social perceptiveness and the ability to change one’s behavior according to different situations and demands in a way that evokes trust, confidence, genuineness, and effectively influences how others respond.
Political Will:
Before one engages in political behaviors, one must possess political will, or the willingness and motivation required to expend the personal resources involved. The degree of personal resources needed varies according to the amount and type of power one possess in the organization, as well as individual differences in some underlying components of motivation and behavior.
Political Behaviors:
Political behaviors are the enactment of tactical influence by individuals that is based on strategic goals, rational, and deliberate attempts to promote one self that can either be at the expense of others or in the support of others.
Summary of Research:
Political skill has been shown to be related to job performance, career advancement, job satisfaction, enhancing reputation, stress management, and effective leadership and team performance (Ferris, Davidson, & Perrewe, 2005). The importance and benefits of political skills are apparent, yet little is known about how these skills are developed and the conditions in which they are exercised.
Although one may possess the political skills necessary to be effective, (s)he must also posses the willingness and motivation to expend the personal resources necessary to act out political behaviors. This was conceptualized by Mintzberg (1983) as ‘political will’ and ‘political skill,’ in which political will is argued as a precondition that is necessary to engage in deliberate political behaviors. Further, he argued that in order for political behaviors to be effective, that one must posses the political skills necessary to strategically execute these behaviors effectively.
Despite the intuitiveness of the conceptualization of ‘political will- political skill’ proposed by Mintzberg over twenty years ago, only one study to the researcher’s knowledge has used an integrated model of political behavior (Treadway et al., 2005). The current study seeks to add to the scientific knowledge and understanding of the nature of political behaviors by identifying the antecedents and predictors of political behavior using Mintzberg’s (1983, 1985) framework. The practical relevance of the study will help individuals identify and assess their fit within the organization, as well as clarify and reveal the importance of political skill and behavior in organizations as a competency necessary for success. Additionally, benefits for practitioners include strategies and tools for selection and hiring processes, as well as providing development opportunities to develop political skills, such as coaching and training.
Purpose of Research:
The purpose of this research will be to develop and test a model of political behavior in organizations, based on Mintzberg’s (1983, 1985) framework to explore political behavior by identifying contributing factors that lead individuals to behave politically in organizations. In addition, the purpose of this study is to investigate the usefulness of social axioms and personality to predict one’s political will and the degree to which political will influences particular political behaviors. Further, an exploration of the moderating effects of one’s perception of organizational politics is included to account for the social context in which political behaviors are enacted. Finally, the frequency of political behaviors will be compared to reported salaries and promotions as a proxy to determine one’s political effectiveness.
Instruments
Social Axioms Survey (SAS) Leung et al., (2002)
- Social axioms, or general beliefs, are used to assess the degree to which factors of cynicism, social complexity, reward for application, spirituality, and fate control are components of political will and predict political behavior.
Mini Markers Five Factor Model Saucier’s (1994)
- Personality will be measured using the Five Factor Model: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
Perceptions of Organizational Politics (POPS) Kacmar and Ferris’ (1991)
- Examines perceptions of general political behavior, go along to get along, and pay and promotion policies.
Political Skill Inventory (PSI) Ferris et al., (2005)
- Political behaviors are characterized by political skill and are measured using a modified version of PSI that will measure the frequency of networking behaviors, interpersonal influence tendencies, social astuteness acts, and attempts to convey sincerity to predict political behaviors.
Demographic information
- Demographic information on gender, age, race, education, work experience, tenure and position in current organization is gathered to control for possible effects and specific hypotheses based on certain demographics will be formed.
References
Ferris, G.R., Davidson, S.L., & Perrewe, P.L. (2005). Political skill at work:
Impact on work effectiveness. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing.
Ferris, G.R., Treadway, D.C., Kolodinsky, R.W., Hochwarter, W.A., Kacmar, C.J.,
Douglas, C., et al. (2005).Development and validation of the political skill inventory. Journal of Management, 31, 126-152.
Kacmar, K.M. & Carlson, D.S., (1997). Further validation of the perceptions of politics
scale (POPS): A multiple sample investigation. Journal of Management, 23, 627-658.
Kacmar, K.M. & Ferris, G.R., (1991). Perceptions of organizational politics scales
(POPS): Development and construct validation. Educational and Psychological
Measurement, 51, 193-205.
Leung, K., Bond, M. H., Reimel de Carrasquel, S., Muñoz, C., Hernández, M., Murakami, F., Yamaguchi, S., Bierbrauer, G., & Singelis, T. M. (2002). Social axioms: The search for universal dimensions of general beliefs about how the world functions. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 33, 286-302.
Saucier, G. (1994). Mini-markers: A brief version of Goldberg’s unipolar Big-Five
markers. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63, 506-516.
Treadway, D.C., Hochwarter, W.A., Kacmar, C.J., & Ferris, G.R. (2005). Political will,
political skill, and political behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 229-245.
Valle, M. & Perrewe, P.L. (2000). Do politics perceptions relate to political behaviors?
Tests of an implicit assumption and expanded model. Human Relations, 53, 359-386.
Please check back regularly for updates and a link to participate in the survey in April 2007.
If you would like more information on the content or research presented, or would like to participate in the study, please contact:
Jina Hwang, M.S.
20210 Sheriffs Cove
Monument, CO 80132
Phone:(619) 208-3854
Fax: (719) 487-8450
Contact Jina Hwang
Website
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