When organizational politics matters: The effects of the perceived frequency and distance of experienced politics

Drawing from literature linking organizational politics with effects of challenge or hindrance stressors, this study investigated the effects of the frequency and psychological distance of positive and negative conceptualizations of perceived politics on the impact to the individual. It was hypothesized that the frequency of political behavior would exhibit an inverted-U-function relationship with favorable evaluations of political behavior and that this relationship would be moderated by distance. Two independent samples were used to test the hypotheses. Results for negative conceptualizations of perceived politics indicated a curvilinear frequency–evaluation relationship such that moderate levels of negative or dysfunctional politics are evaluated more favorably than either high or low levels. The distance of the political behavior was further found to moderate this relationship, with distant politics having little effect on the frequency–evaluation relationship, but politics with nearby impact yielding more negative evaluations as frequency increased. For positive conceptualizations of perceived politics, results revealed that respondents evaluated this form of politics more favorably the more it occurred. Further, positive political behavior was reported to be less desirable when its impact was believed to be at a distance rather than being felt by respondents personally. Implications are discussed.

[1]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress: Appraisal and Coping , 2020, Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine.

[2]  Michael T. Sliter,et al.  Amazon Mechanical Turk in Organizational Psychology: An Evaluation and Practical Recommendations , 2017 .

[3]  S. Albrecht,et al.  The Positives and Negatives of Organizational Politics: A Qualitative Study , 2017 .

[4]  Liam P. Maher,et al.  The roles of political skill and political will in job performance prediction: a moderated nonlinear perspective , 2016 .

[5]  D. Buchanan.  Rats in the shadows: researching organizational politics , 2016 .

[6]  S. Albrecht,et al.  Organizational politics and a maturity model: an integration and extension of existing models and dimensions , 2016 .

[7]  Richard N. Landers,et al.  An Inconvenient Truth: Arbitrary Distinctions Between Organizational, Mechanical Turk, and Other Convenience Samples , 2015, Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

[8]  Christopher C. Rosen,et al.  Looking back and falling further behind: The moderating role of rumination on the relationship between organizational politics and employee attitudes, well-being, and performance , 2014 .

[9]  Wayne A. Hochwarter,et al.  Terms of engagement: Political boundaries of work engagement–work outcomes relationships , 2014 .

[10]  S. Albrecht,et al.  Organizational political climate: Shared perceptions about the building and use of power bases , 2013 .

[11]  Michael A. West,et al.  Workplace duties or opportunities? Challenge stressors, regulatory focus, and creativity , 2013 .

[12]  Herman Aguinis,et al.  The Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing Effect in Management , 2013 .

[13]  Herman Aguinis,et al.  Conducting Field Experiments Using eLancing’s Natural Environment , 2012, Academy of Management Proceedings.

[14]  Herman Aguinis,et al.  Conducting Field Experiments Using eLancing’s Natural Environment , 2012 .

[15]  Wayne A. Hochwarter,et al.  The positive side of organizational politics. , 2012 .

[16]  Darren C. Treadway,et al.  Politics in organizations : theory and research considerations , 2012 .

[17]  Laurenz L. Meier,et al.  The ambivalence of challenge stressors: Time pressure associated with both negative and positive well-being , 2012 .

[18]  S. Albrecht,et al.  Organizational Politics and Occupational Health Psychology: A Demands-Resources Perspective , 2012 .

[19]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Working memory: theories, models, and controversies. , 2012, Annual review of psychology.

[20]  Jennica R. Webster,et al.  Extending the challenge-hindrance model of occupational stress: The role of appraisal , 2011 .

[21]  P. Perrewé,et al.  Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress: An Integrative Theoretical Approach to Work Stress , 2011 .

[22]  Joshua Ian Davis,et al.  Psychological distance and emotional experience: what you see is what you get. , 2011, Emotion.

[23]  Michael D. Buhrmester,et al.  Amazon's Mechanical Turk , 2011, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[24]  A. Drory,et al.  Organizational politics and human resource management: A typology and the Israeli experience , 2010 .

[25]  Enno Siemsen,et al.  Common Method Bias in Regression Models With Linear, Quadratic, and Interaction Effects , 2010 .

[26]  G. Gotsis,et al.  Ethical Considerations in Organizational Politics: Expanding the Perspective , 2010 .

[27]  C. Lance,et al.  What Reviewers Should Expect from Authors Regarding Common Method Bias in Organizational Research , 2010 .

[28]  Darren C. Treadway,et al.  Nonlinear Politics Perceptions—Work Outcomes Relationships: A Three-Study, Five-Sample Investigation , 2010 .

[29]  Y. Trope,et al.  Construal-level theory of psychological distance. , 2010, Psychological review.

[30]  Elizabeth George,et al.  APA Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology , 2010 .

[31]  Paul E. Levy,et al.  The Relationship Between Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Employee Attitudes, Strain, and Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Examination , 2009 .

[32]  Kenneth J. Harris,et al.  The emotional implications of organizational politics: A process model , 2009 .

[33]  J. Bargh,et al.  Keeping One's Distance , 2008, Psychological science.

[34]  D. Buchanan,et al.  You Stab My Back, I'll Stab Yours: Management Experience and Perceptions of Organization Political Behaviour , 2008 .

[35]  Robert W. Kolodinsky,et al.  Perceptions of Organizational Politics: A Meta-analysis of Outcomes , 2008 .

[36]  Steven M. Farmer,et al.  The Contribution of Positive Politics to the Prediction of Employee Reactions , 2007 .

[37]  Kenneth J. Harris,et al.  The Moderating Effects of Justice on the Relationship Between Organizational Politics and Workplace Attitudes , 2007 .

[38]  Nathan P. Podsakoff,et al.  Differential challenge stressor-hindrance stressor relationships with job attitudes, turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior: a meta-analysis. , 2007, The Journal of applied psychology.

[39]  Yaacov Trope,et al.  Construal level theory , 2007 .

[40]  C. Beugré,et al.  Politics as Determinant of Fairness Perceptions in Organizations , 2006 .

[41]  R. Cropanzano,et al.  Organizational Politics and Workplace Stress , 2006 .

[42]  Darren C. Treadway,et al.  The Emotion of Politics and the Politics of Emotions: Affective and Cognitive Reactions to Politics as a Stressor , 2006 .

[43]  Stephen Chen,et al.  A micro-political perspective of strategic management , 2006 .

[44]  G. Johns.  The Essential Impact of Context on Organizational Behavior , 2006 .

[45]  S. Albrecht.  Organizational politics: affective reactions, cognitive assessments and their influence on organizational commitment and cynicism toward change , 2006 .

[46]  Mark A Griffin,et al.  Perceptions of organizational change: a stress and coping perspective. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[47]  Nathan P. Podsakoff,et al.  A Meta-Analytic Test of the Challenge Stressor–Hindrance Stressor Framework: An Explanation for Inconsistent Relationships Among Stressors and Performance , 2005 .

[48]  Thomas E. Becker.  Potential Problems in the Statistical Control of Variables in Organizational Research: A Qualitative Analysis With Recommendations , 2005 .

[49]  Karim Mignonac,et al.  Linking Work Events, Affective States, and Attitudes: An Empirical Study of Managers' Emotions , 2004 .

[50]  Robert W. Kolodinsky,et al.  Nonlinearity in the relationship between political skill and work outcomes: Convergent evidence from three studies , 2004 .

[51]  Zhen Xiong (George) Chen,et al.  Exchange fairness and employee performance: An examination of the relationship between organizational politics and procedural justice , 2004 .

[52]  S. Dickerson,et al.  Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. , 2004, Psychological bulletin.

[53]  Darren C. Treadway,et al.  It's All Relative: The Distinction and Prediction of Political Perceptions Across Levels , 2003 .

[54]  Darren C. Treadway,et al.  Perceptions of organizational politics: Additional thoughts, reactions, and multi-level issues , 2002 .

[55]  D. B. Fedor,et al.  Politics and political behavior: Where else do we go from here? , 2002 .

[56]  Eran Vigoda,et al.  Stress-related aftermaths to workplace politics: The relationships among politics, job distress, and aggressive behavior in organizations. , 2002 .

[57]  Marcie A. Cavanaugh,et al.  An empirical examination of self-reported work stress among U.S. managers. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[58]  Russell Cropanzano,et al.  Effects of justice conditions on discrete emotions. , 1999 .

[59]  Albert Satorra,et al.  A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis , 1999 .

[60]  Rosalie J. Hall,et al.  Item Parceling Strategies in SEM: Investigating the Subtle Effects of Unmodeled Secondary Constructs , 1999 .

[61]  R. Vonk,et al.  Inferences about causes and consequences of behavior of leaders and subordinates , 1999 .

[62]  Gail S. Russ,et al.  The Dimensions of Politics Perceptions and Their Organizational and Individual Predictors1 , 1998 .

[63]  Timothy R. Hinkin,et al.  A Brief Tutorial on the Development of Measures for Use in Survey Questionnaires , 1998 .

[64]  Dawn S. Carlson,et al.  Further Validation of the Perceptions of Politics Scale (Pops): A Multiple Sample Investigation , 1997 .

[65]  Robert L. Dipboye,et al.  Perceptions of Organizational Politics: An Investigation of Antecedents and Consequences , 1995 .

[66]  Gerald R. Ferris,et al.  Perceptions of Organizational Politics , 1992 .

[67]  Organizational Politics and Planned Organization Change , 1990 .

[68]  P. Ackerman,et al.  Motivation and cognitive abilities: an integrative/aptitude-treatment interaction approach to skill acquisition , 1989 .

[69]  M. Evans.  A Monte Carlo study of the effects of correlated method variance in moderated multiple regression analysis , 1985 .

[70]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Power in and Around Organizations , 1983 .

[71]  Jeffrey Gandz,et al.  The Experience of Workplace Politics , 1980 .

[72]  Lyman W. Porter,et al.  Organizational Politics: An Exploration of Managers' Perceptions , 1980 .

[73]  A. Strauss,et al.  The Discovery of Grounded Theory , 1967 .