Browsing by Author "Wiltshire, Jocelyn"

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    Exploring potential moderators of the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and its outcomes
    (2011) Wiltshire, Jocelyn; Lee, Kibeom
    While there is extensive research demonstrating that employee perceptions of politics are related to a number of negative workplace outcomes, there is little attention given to the possibility that these relationships may be moderated by a number of factors related to the perception an individual has towards his/her situation at work and of his/her abilities or skills to function successfully within it. The present study sought to investigate how certain dispositional and behavioural tendencies may influence employee attitudes and behaviours when perceiving their organization to be political. Data was collected online and cross-nationally from 268 full-time employees with varying vocational backgrounds. Results indicated that the adverse effect of POP on its outcomes is exacerbated for those employees who are willing to engage in political behavior (low Honesty-Humility), as well as those who actually do (high impression managers). Implications of these findings are discussed.
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    Towards the Dark Side of Political Skill: Development and Validation of the Dark Political Skill Scale
    (2016) Wiltshire, Jocelyn; Lee, Kibeom; Boon, Susan; Chapman, Derek; Weinhardt, Justin; Donia, Magda
    In the present research, I develop and validate the Dark Political Skill Scale. Intended to supplement the existing Political Skill Inventory (PSI; Ferris et al., 2005), the Dark Political Skill Scale captures the more covert and deceptive side of political effectiveness in the workplace. Across three studies, I collected data from independent samples of full-time employees (N = 430, N = 157, and N = 142), representing a variety of occupational backgrounds. The 10-item uni-dimensional Dark Political Skill Scale demonstrated consistent evidence of convergent validity. As expected, it was positively related to (though not redundant with) an array of social competencies (political skill, social skill, self-monitoring, and perceived ability to deceive) and political will. I also found evidence of criterion-related validity as the Dark Political Skill Scale was associated with behavioural outcomes, including greater engagement in counterproductive work behaviour and workplace impression management. Dark political skill also acted as an influential moderator in predicting impression management. Importantly, in comparison to the PSI, the Dark Political Skill Scale demonstrated differential relationships with the variables in the present research. Of note, the personality profiles of employees scoring high on dark political skill showed a different pattern of results than the PSI, such that the former were lower in Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, and Agreeableness. Finally, self- and peer-reports indicated low to moderate convergence for the Dark Political Skill Scale, which was interpreted to be suggestive of the deceptive nature of dark political skill. Taken together, the Dark Political Skill Scale offers a novel theoretical and methodological contribution to the organizational politics literature. Supplementing the PSI, this new scale provides the opportunity for a more comprehensive assessment of workplace political effectiveness, and a greater understanding of the competencies required for successful engagement in a full range of political behaviours.