“Can politics really be beneficial?” Toward a model for positive politics through consensus

PurposeThis article wants to propose deeper insights and clarifications into the effects of organizational politics which have been at the center of many debates in decision-making literature. For a long time, the debate focused on the negative effects of organizational politics and how to avoid them. This article wants to explore the positive effects of organizational politics and see how this impacts the consensus process in teams moderated by organizational change.Design/methodology/approachThe article model and propositions are grounded in the organisational politics literature. The analysis builds on the “positive” politics literature which has been gaining steam in the last two decades and links this with the consensus literature.FindingsThe article proposes an integrated model which clearly shows how the three core concepts influence each other through the four proposed hypotheses. Organizational politics can help to create more consensus in a team decision-making process, and this can have a positive effect on team performance.Originality/valueThe article aims to expand insights of organizational politics on decision-making by putting the light on possible positive effects of organizational politics. The article addresses the theoretical gap of how organizational politics can impact the consensus process.

Overcoming organizational politics with tenacity and passion for work: benefits for helping behaviors

PurposeThis study unpacks the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational politics and their helping behavior, by explicating a mediating role of employees' affective commitment and moderating roles of their tenacity and passion for work.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative survey data were collected from 476 employees, through Amazon Mechanical Turk.FindingsBeliefs that the organizational climate is predicated on self-serving behaviors diminish helping behaviors, and this effect arises because employees become less emotionally attached to their organization. This mediating role of affective commitment is less salient to the extent that employees persevere in the face of challenges and feel passionate about working hard.Practical implicationsFor human resource managers, this study pinpoints a lack of positive organization-oriented energy as a key mechanism by which perceptions about a negative political climate steer employees away from assisting organizational colleagues on a voluntary basis. They can contain this mechanism by ensuring that employees are equipped with energy-boosting personal resources.Originality/valueThis study addresses employees' highly salient emotional reactions to organizational politics and pinpoints the critical function of affective commitment for explaining the escalation of perceived organizational politics into diminished helping behavior. It also identifies buffering effects linked to two pertinent personal resources.

Organizational Politics and Work Outcomes: Moderating Role of Top Management Political Skills

This quantitative research was conducted to investigate the direct effects of Organizational Politics and moderating role of Top Management Political Skills on job outcomes such as Job Satisfaction and Employee Job Performance. The data was collected from 151 employees working in a private multinational tobacco manufacturing organization Phillip Morris Swabi Pakistan. Organizational Politics with others job outcomes were also studied in Pakistani context but the moderating effect of Political Skills needs to study for minimizing the negative consequences on employees and organizational goals. Self-administered questionnaire on 5-pointLikert scale was used for data collection. SPSS 21 was used for analysis and Descriptive Statistics, Pearson Correlation and Regression analysis were run for hypotheses testing. A letter was forwarded to IR manager for questionnaire filling assuring the confidentiality of the responses made by individuals and the reason choosing their organization for the study. The results revealed negative significant positive between Organizational Politics and Employee job performance and job satisfaction. The results also revealed that there is positive significant effect between the relationship of Organizational Politics and job outcomes i.e. Job Satisfaction and Employee Job Performance for the moderating role of Top Management Political Skills. Managerial implication and future research directions are suggested for further research.

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

Purpose This study aims to investigate an underexplored behavioral factor, knowledge hiding, that connects employees’ perceptions of organizational politics (POP) with their diminished promotability, while also considering the moderating role of employees’ harmony motives in this process. Design/methodology/approach The research hypotheses are tested with multisource, three-round data collected among employees and their supervisors. Findings Employees’ beliefs about self-serving organizational decision-making increase their propensity to hide knowledge, which, in turn, diminishes their promotability. This intermediate role of knowledge hiding is more prominent when their disintegration avoidance motive is strong but less prominent when their harmony enhancement motive is strong. Practical implications A refusal to share knowledge with organizational colleagues, as a covert response to POP, can create a negative cycle for employees. They are frustrated with decision-making practices that are predicated on favoritism, but by choosing seemingly subtle ways to respond, they compromise their own promotion prospects. To avoid this escalation, employees should adopt an active instead of passive approach toward maintaining harmony in their work relationships. Originality/value This research contributes to extant research by detailing a hitherto overlooked reason that employees’ frustrations with dysfunctional politics may escalate into an enhanced probability to miss out on promotion opportunities. They respond to this situation by engaging in knowledge hiding. As an additional contribution, this study details how the likelihood of this response depends on employees’ harmony motives.

Organization Social Practice and Performance in the Kenya National Police Service: A Case of Central Police Division, Nairobi

The National Police Service of Kenya has gone through numerous transformations which are aimed at making it more effective and socially aligned to the needs of the Kenyan population. The transformation has seen the renaming of the policing unit from Kenyan Police Force to its current name. The Strategy such as renaming the institution to National Police Service implies that the institution is improving its commitment to improve service delivery to the citizens in a favorable social framework. However, minimal studies have been done to determine the existence of any relationship between organizational social practices and performance of the police institution. Therefore, the current study was formulated to establish the influence of organizational social practices on the performances of the National Police Service. The independent variables of the study included leadership style, organization structure, professionalism, and organization politics. Practice and system theories were reviewed alongside relevant sources of empirical literatures were reviewed to give the current studies sound theoretical and empirical foundations. Descriptive research design was used to guide collection, analysis, and interpretation of the research data. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data was collected from 150 police officers who were purposively sampled from Central Police Division in Nairobi County. A combination of descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to establish the current trends of the study variables and relationships thereof. The study found out that the respondents were in agreement with almost statements on the four organizational social practices including leadership style, organization structure, and professionalism and organization politics. Leadership style and professionalism were established to have the highest impact (0.300; p= 0.000) and the least impact (0.093; p=0.000) respectively. Organization politics, on the other hand had a significant negative impact (-0.254; p=0.001) on the NPS performance. The study concludes that the main belief or attitude influencing leadership style is the perceived manager versus subordinates’ role. Effective decision making is improved by decentralization, narrow control span and efficiency relate positively, task routine positively and negatively affect productivity. A respectful culture is fostered by professionalism, which ensure proper handling of conflicts. Boundaries are clearly understood and minor issues solve efficiently and respectfully by professional employees. Workers are motivated with the hope that there won’t be hampering of their interest due to existence of organizational politics. Employee’s indiscipline may be resisted by the organizational politics’ help. The study recommends that transactional and transformative leadership be embraced by national police service to assist in tapping the workers’ potential, they should be involved in making decisions and new idea be welcomed into the system for positive contribution to the entities’ exponential performance. National police service should adopt an efficient, simple and universally accepted organizational structure. Employees at national police service should exercise workplace expectations and rules by following all workplace rules, completing all projects and tasks and understanding what is expected of them. Delegation of duties depending on employees’ academic achievements, specialization and interests. Transparency must be maintained at all levels to reduce politics.