Enid 0

Academy of Management Journal
2009, Vol. 52, No. 4, 779–801.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEPTIONS OF
ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES,
STRAIN, AND BEHAVIOR: A
META-ANALYTIC EXAMINATION
CHU-HSIANG CHANG
University of South Florida

CHRISTOPHER C. ROSEN
University of Arkansas

PAUL E. LEVY
University of Akron

The current study tested a model that links perceptions of organizational politics to job
performance and “turnover intentions” (intentions to quit). Meta-analytic evidence
supported significant, bivariate relationships between perceived politics and strain
(.48), turnover intentions (.43), job satisfaction ( .57), affective commitment ( .54),
task performance ( .20), and organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals
( .16) and organizations ( .20). Additionally, results demonstrated that work atti-
tudes mediated the effects of perceived politics on employee turnover intentions and
that both attitudes and strain mediated the effects of perceived politics on perfor-
mance. Finally, exploratory analyses provided evidence that perceived politics repre-
sent a unique “hindrance stressor.”

Organizational politics are ubiquitous and have or coworkers (Ferris, Russ, & Fandt, 1989). There-
widespread effects on critical processes (e.g., per- fore, organizational politics are often viewed as a
formance evaluation, resource allocation, and man- dysfunctional, divisive aspect of work environ-
agerial decision making) that influence organi- ments (Mintzberg, 1983). The current article fo-
zational effectiveness and efficiency (Kacmar & cuses on understanding how employees’ percep-
Baron, 1999). Employees may engage in some tions of illegitimate, self-serving political activities
legitimate, organizationally sanctioned political ac- (viz., perceptions of organizational politics) influ-
tivities that are beneficial to work groups and or- ence individual-level work attitudes and behaviors.
ganizations (see Fedor, Maslyn, Farmer, & Betten- Accumulating empirical research has provided
hausen, 2008). For example, managers who are considerable evidence for linkages between percep-
“good politicians” may develop large bases of so- tions of organizational politics and a variety of
cial capital and strong networks that allow them to employee outcomes, including job satisfaction, af-
increase the resources that are available to their fective organizational commitment, and job anxiety
subordinates (Treadway et al., 2004). On the other (see Ferris, Adams, Kolodinsky, Hochwarter, &
hand, employees also demonstrate a number of il- Ammeter, 2002). However, despite the intuitive ap-
legitimate political activities (e.g., coalition build- peal of the idea that perceived politics will have an
ing, favoritism-based pay and promotion decisions, impact on key individual-level outcomes associ-
and backstabbing) that are strategically designed to ated with organizational effectiveness, research has
benefit, protect, or enhance self-interests, often failed to consistently demonstrate such an impact.
without regard for the welfare of their organization For example, Ferris et al. (2002) observed that four
of nine studies (e.g., Cropanzano, Howes, Grandey,
& Toth, 1997; Hochwarter, Witt, & Kacmar, 2000;
We thank Brad Kirkman and the three anonymous
Parker, Dipboye, & Jackson, 1995; Randall, Cropan-
reviewers for their helpful insights. We would like to
note that the first two authors contributed equally to this
zano, Bormann, & Birjulin, 1999) relating percep-
project. We would like to thank Rosalie Hall for her tions of organizational politics to task performance
helpful comments on an earlier version of the article. We and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) did
are also grateful for the assistance of Michelle Matias and not support the expected negative linkages. Simi-
Jessica Junak in preparing our manuscript. larly, four of nine studies (e.g., Cropanzano et al.,
779
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780 Academy of Management Journal August

1997; Harrell-Cook, Ferris, & Dulebohn, 1999; mine if one, both, or neither of these explanations
Hochwarter, Perrewe, Ferris, & Guercio, 1999; Ran- accounts for the effects of perceptions of organiza-
dall et al., 1999) examining linkages between polit- tional politics.
ical perceptions and turnover intentions failed to A recent meta-analysis of the outcomes of per-
reach statistical significance (Ferris et al., 2002). ceptions of organizational politics (see Miller,
Thus, evidence linking perceptions of organization- Rutherford, & Kolodinsky, 2008) underscores some
al politics to these outcomes is equivocal. of these empirical and theoretical weaknesses in
Moreover, it is not clear whether these inconsis- the politics literature. Empirically, Miller et al.’s
tent findings exist because of statistical artifacts (2008) results failed to clearly support a linkage
(e.g., low power) or because the politics-outcome between perceptions of organizational politics and
relationships are not negative. Regarding the latter performance. Moreover, their study (1) did not
point, Ferris et al. (1989) noted that employees may present an overarching theoretical framework that
respond to perceptions of organizational politics by explains why perceived organizational politics is
increasing involvement in their jobs. Ferris et al. linked to employee attitudes and behaviors and (2)
(1989) suggested that perceived politics may lead to focused only on bivariate linkages between the con-
positive outcomes when they are experienced as struct and its outcomes, without considering how
opportunity stress (Schuler, 1980), which occurs outcomes of perceptions of organizational politics
when a stressor presents an opportunity for em- relate to one another. The current research ad-
ployees to gain something from the situation at dresses these shortcomings of the literature on per-
hand. Employees respond to opportunity stress by ceptions of organizational politics in three ways.
putting more time and effort into their jobs in an First, this study provides a comprehensive, quanti-
attempt to capitalize on the situation (LePine, Pod- tative review of the relationships between per-
sakoff, & LePine, 2005; Schuler, 1980). Supporting ceived organizational politics and its outcomes.
this perspective, there is evidence that perceptions
Meta-analysis allowed estimation of the true pop-
of organizational politics are associated with desir-
ulation effect size (Hunter & Schmidt, 2004) and
able outcomes, including lower strain (Ferris et al.,
examination of whether study characteristics ex-
1993), and increased job involvement (Ferris & Kac-
plain variability in effect sizes. Thus, a meta-ana-
mar, 1992) and performance (Maslyn & Fedor,
lytic examination of the perceptions of organiza-
1998; Rosen, Levy, & Hall, 2006). Thus, it is not
tional politics– outcome relationships is important
clear whether inconsistent findings in the literature
because it helps determine whether the past incon-
are a function of study artifacts or exist because
sistent findings were the result of statistical arti-
perceptions of organizational politics are either not
relevant to or positively associated with certain facts or, rather, were associated with a broader is-
outcomes. sue, such as the misspecification of relationships
In addition, the theoretical underpinnings of the between perceptions of organizational politics and
linkages between perceptions of organizational pol- its outcomes.
itics and job performance and turnover intentions Second, and perhaps more importantly, the cur-
are not well understood, as existing frameworks do rent study focuses on developing and testing a the-
not explain how these perceptions are associated oretically derived model that identifies the key psy-
with critical employee outcomes. Rather, concep- chological mechanisms that link perceived
tual models (e.g., Aryee, Chen, & Budhwar, 2004; organizational politics to its distal outcomes. Fig-
Ferris et al., 2002) specify that perceptions of or- ure 1 outlines the proposed model, which inte-
ganizational politics are related directly to em- grates the organizational politics literature with
ployee attitudes and behaviors. Hence, knowledge theoretical frameworks that specify the causal or-
of the psychological mechanisms that relate politi- dering of stress-related outcomes (Podsakoff,
cal perceptions to employee outcomes is limited, LePine, & LePine, 2007; Schaubroeck, Cotton, &
and there is little guidance for systematically ex- Jennings, 1989). This approach is consistent with
amining these mechanisms. In addition, research previous studies (LePine et al., 2005; Podsakoff et
has failed to examine mediators that link percep- al., 2007) that have cast organizational politics as a
tions of organizational politics to outcomes. For hindrance stressor that prevents employees from
example, theorists have noted that job stress and meeting personal and professional goals. We tested
social exchange theories may explain reactions to the validity of the proposed model using meta-
these perceptions (Cropanzano et al., 1997; Ferris et analytically derived correlations. Thus, the contri-
al., 2002). However, the dearth of empirical re- bution of our meta-analysis is enhanced by its abil-
search examining the linkages implied by these ity to not only provide information on the strength
theories has limited researchers’ ability to deter- of the bivariate relationships between constructs,

2009 Chang, Rosen, and Levy 781

FIGURE 1
Proposed and Alternative Models of Effects of Perceptions of Organizational Politics on
Employee Outcomes

but also explain how the focal constructs are related BACKGROUND AND THEORY
(Viswesvaran & Ones, 1995).
Theorists have provided two explanations that
Finally, we explore whether perceptions of or-
link perceptions of organizational politics to nega-
ganizational politics can be distinguished from
other hindrance stressors. Although some research- tive work outcomes. First, Ferris et al. (1989) sug-
ers have argued that it is best to treat various stres- gested that politics are a source of stress that elicits
sors as distinct yet related constructs (Schaubroeck strain responses from employees. Other theorists
et al., 1989), the hindrance stressor literature im- have suggested that perceptions of organizational
plies that perceptions of organizational politics, politics are detrimental to the maintenance of
role ambiguity, and role conflict are all indicators healthy employee-organization exchange relation-
of a higher-order hindrance stressor factor (LePine ships (Aryee et al., 2004; Hall, Hochwarter, Ferris,
et al., 2005; Podsakoff et al., 2007). Thus, we con- & Bowen, 2004). Below, we review these explana-
ducted exploratory analyses to compare relation- tions of the effects of perceived organizational pol-
ships among perceptions of organizational politics, itics and apply Schaubroeck et al.’s (1989) frame-
role stressors, and outcomes and to evaluate mod- work of work stress to tie these perspectives
els based on different conceptualizations of the together. Finally, we develop a model based on the
hindrance stressor construct. hindrance stressor literature to link perceptions of


organizational politics to proximal (strain and atti- gate latent constructs. The morale construct repre-
tudes) and distal (performance and turnover inten- sented general employee attitudes and was com-
tions) outcomes. prised of job satisfaction and affective commitment
(see Harrison, Newman, & Roth, 2006), and the
performance construct consisted of task perfor-
Stress-Based Effects of Perceptions of
mance and OCB (see Rotundo & Sackett, 2002),
Organizational Politics
which captured behaviors related to both the tech-
Drawing on research conceptualizing job stress nical cores of organizations and behaviors that con-
as a subjective experience associated with uncer- tribute to the psychosocial contexts of workplaces
tainty and ambiguity (e.g., Schuler, 1980), Ferris et (Organ, 1997). Rosen et al. (2006) suggested that
al. (1989) proposed that perceptions of organiza- lower morale reflects judgments that reward allo-
tional politics represent a stressor that is directly cation processes are arbitrary and unfair. Employ-
related to attitudinal and behavioral reactions. Fer- ees holding less favorable attitudes also feel less
ris et al. speculated that perceptions of organiza- obligated to reciprocate with behaviors that en-
tional politics trigger a primary appraisal (Lazarus hance the well-being of their organization. Thus,
& Folkman, 1984) that a work context is threatening Rosen et al. provided evidence, albeit indirectly,
and put pressure on employees to engage in poli- that morale is part of the social exchange mecha-
ticking to meet their goals. Highly political organi- nism that links perceptions of organizational poli-
zations tend to reward employees who (1) engage in tics to performance.
strong influence tactics, (2) take credit for the work
of others, (3) are members of powerful coalitions,
Current Study: Model and Hypotheses
and (4) have connections to high-ranking allies. As
organizations reward these activities, demands are The stress and social exchange perspectives are
placed on workers to engage in political behaviors useful to understanding reactions to perceptions of
to compete for resources. According to the job de- organizational politics. Nonetheless, research falls
mands–resource model of work stress (Demerouti, short in describing the mechanisms that link such
Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001), employees perceptions to outcomes. For example, Ferris et
who perceive that job demands exceed their coping al.’s (2002) model specifies that job anxiety, job
resources feel overwhelmed. This emotional strain satisfaction, affective commitment, performance,
requires additional coping efforts, which are taken and turnover intentions are direct outcomes of per-
away from resources that could otherwise be de- ceptions of organizational politics, with each reac-
voted to job performance. Excessive strain also im- tion occurring at the same time. However, there are
pacts employee health (Dragano, Verde, & Siegrist, reasons to believe that some reactions to political
2005) and eventually drives employees to search perceptions precede others. In particular, work
for less stressful work environments. stress research (Schaubroeck et al., 1989) suggests
that job anxiety, job satisfaction, and affective com-
mitment are antecedents to turnover intentions and
A Social Exchange Perspective on the Effects of
performance. Therefore, we suggest that percep-
Perceptions of Organizational Politics
tions of organizational politics have indirect effects
In highly political organizations, rewards are tied on turnover intentions and performance through
to relationships, power, and other less objective more immediate outcomes (viz., strain and morale).
factors. As a result, “the immediate environment As such, previous studies examining only the di-
becomes unpredictable because the unwritten rules rect effects of perceptions of organizational politics
for success change as the power of those playing on performance and turnover intentions may have
the political game varies” (Hall et al., 2004: 244). misspecified these linkages, thus biasing the study
Therefore, it is difficult for employees to predict if results (Duncan, 1975).
their behaviors will lead to rewards in political The stress and social exchange perspectives em-
work contexts, and they are likely to perceive ploy a similar logic useful for understanding em-
weaker relationships between performance and the ployees’ reactions to perceptions of organizational
attainment of desired outcomes (Aryee et al., 2004; politics. Particularly, both perspectives suggest that
Cropanzano et al., 1997). Supporting this perspec- these perceptions are associated with ambiguity
tive, Rosen et al. (2006) demonstrated that percep- and uncertainty in a work environment that results
tions of organizational politics are associated with in psychological strain and lower morale. However,
performance through employee morale. In their neither perspective describes how these outcomes
study, as in the present study, employee morale of perceptions of organizational politics relate to
and job performance were conceptualized as aggre- each other and whether these outcomes have a


meaningful impact on more distal reactions. Fortu- We propose that perceptions of organizational
nately, the work stress literature provides insight politics have both direct and indirect effects on
regarding the causal ordering of these reactions to morale. In turn, psychological strain and morale
stressors. Following Mobley, Horner, and Holling- link perceptions of organizational politics to more
sworth’s (1978) model of turnover, Schaubroeck et distal outcomes. In other words, employees’ perfor-
al. (1989) specified that role stressors lead to in- mance suffers because they must focus time and
creased job strain, which is associated with lower effort on coping with the strain associated with
job satisfaction and affective commitment and, sub- perceptions of organizational politics. In addition,
sequently, increased turnover intentions. Podsakoff employees are likely to reduce the time and effort
et al. (2007) and LePine et al. (2005) employed that they put into their jobs in response to per-
similar mediational chains to explain the effects of ceived disequilibrium in the exchange relation-
hindrance stressors on turnover and task perfor- ship, which is reflected by lower morale. Finally,
mance. Moreover, Cropanzano, Rupp, and Byrne employees will attempt to remove themselves from
(2003) demonstrated that the effects of strain work situations appraised as unfavorable or threatening.
through morale and impact OCBs, in addition to In summary, we hypothesize the following:
task performance. Together, these studies provide
Hypothesis 1. Perceptions of organizational
complementary approaches to understanding the
politics has a positive relationship with psy-
effects of stressors.
chological strain.
We incorporate these perspectives into a model
that conceptualizes perceptions of organizational Hypothesis 2. Perceptions of organizational
politics as a hindrance stressor reflecting job de- politics has a (a) direct negative relationship
mands that interfere with employees’ ability to with morale (b) partially mediated by psycho-
achieve career goals. Hindrance stressors are logical strain.
broadly defined as constraints that impede individ-
Hypothesis 3. Perceptions of organizational
uals’ work achievements and are not usually asso-
politics has a positive relationship with turn-
ciated with potential net gains for them (LePine et
over intentions.
al., 2005). In addition to perceptions of organiza-
tional politics, researchers include role stressors, Hypothesis 4. Perceptions of organizational
bureaucracy, and daily hassles under the umbrella politics has a negative relationship with job
of hindrance stressors. Collectively, research has performance.
shown that these stressors elicit strain, reduce mo-
Hypothesis 5. The relationship between per-
rale, motivation, and performance, and increase
ceptions of organizational politics and turn-
employee withdrawal (Boswell, Olson-Buchanan,
over intentions is mediated by (a) psychologi-
& LePine, 2004; Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, &
cal strain and (b) morale.
Boudreau, 2000; Podsakoff et al., 2007). In keeping
with previous research examining the effects of Hypothesis 6. The relationship between per-
perceptions of organizational politics and hin- ceptions of organizational politics and job per-
drance stressors, we argue that politics hamper em- formance is mediated by (a) psychological
ployees’ ability to attain personal and professional strain and (b) morale.
goals, which results in a primary appraisal of the
work context that evokes strain and reduces mo-
Exploratory Analyses: Comparing Politics to
rale. In accordance with the causal ordering sup-
Other Hindrance Stressors
ported by previous studies, we also propose that
strain is a more proximal outcome than morale. In Schaubroeck et al.’s (1989) model, role ambi-
This proposition derives from both the stress and guity and role conflict represent distinct, yet re-
social exchange perspectives. Work stress research- lated, stressors. More recently, researchers (e.g.,
ers (Schaubroeck et al., 1989) have suggested that LePine et al., 2005; Podsakoff et al., 2007) have
psychological strain influences employees’ overall suggested that a unified hindrance stressor con-
attitudes toward their jobs, as employees consider struct encompasses perceptions of organizational
their jobs to be the root of the problem. Strain is politics and role stressors. Perceived politics and
also purported to reflect a negative evaluation of role stressors certainly share the similarity of inter-
the employee-organization exchange relationship fering with employees’ ability to achieve personal
(Cropanzano et al., 1997). Thus, as strain increases, and professional goals. However, conceptualizing
employees’ morale and sense of obligation toward these three constructs as indicators of a unified
their organization decline (Cropanzano et al., hindrance stressor construct entails an assumption
2003). that perceptions of organizational politics and role


stressors are analogous and demonstrate similar re- rated performance: “performance,” “productivity,”
lationships with each other and with outcomes. “task/job performance,” “organizational citizen-
Unfortunately, this assumption has not been empir- ship behavior,” “OCB,” “OCBI” [OCB toward indi-
ically tested. Therefore, we provide supplemental viduals], “OCBO” [OCB toward organizations], and
analyses that, first, compare relationships among “contextual performance”). Second, we manually
perceptions of organizational politics, role stres- searched the 1989 –2007 issues of eight high-qual-
sors, and outcomes, and second, explore whether ity journals that have published articles related to
political perceptions and role stressors are best organizational politics: the Academy of Manage-
conceptualized as a unified construct or as a set of ment Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Jour-
diversified yet related stressors. Figure 2 graphi- nal of Management, Journal of Organizational
cally depicts these two contrasting patterns. Third, Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Organi-
our additional analyses also explore whether per- zational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,
ceptions of organizational politics and role stres- Organization Science, and Personnel Psychology.
sors demonstrate similar patterns of relationships Third, we compared the reference list derived from
with distal outcomes. Similar relationships with the sources described so far with the lists of two
each other and with outcomes and a better-fitting qualitative reviews of research on perceptions of
model based on a unified hindrance stressor con- organizational politics (Ferris et al., 2002; Kacmar
struct would provide further evidence for the uni- & Baron, 1999). Finally, we contacted researchers
fied approach (Podsakoff et al., 2007). On the other in the field for “file-drawer studies” and posted a
hand, differing relationship patterns and a better fit call for unpublished papers on discussion lists for
for the diversified model would imply that percep- the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychol-
tions of organizational politics may have meaning- ogy and the Academy of Management. In total, we
ful differences with other role-based hindrance identified 57 relevant papers dealing with 70 sep-
stressors. arate samples that we could include in the
meta-analyses.
Research Question. Are perceptions of organi-
Three inclusion criteria were used. First, we in-
zational politics and role stressors (role ambi-
cluded studies in the meta-analysis if they investi-
guity and role conflict) distinct forms of hin-
gated relationships between perceptions of organi-
drance stressors?
zational politics and at least one of the dependent
variables. Second, we included studies that mea-
METHODS sured politics perceptions and excluded studies
that measured other operationalizations of organi-
Literature Search and Inclusion Criteria
zational politics. The majority of studies used vari-
To identify studies that could be used in this ations of the perceptions of organizational politics
meta-analysis, we first conducted a computerized measure (Kacmar & Ferris, 1991); three exceptions
search of three databases (PSYCINFO, ABI-INFORM, were Anderson (1994), Christiansen, Villanova,
and Business Source Premier) for the years between and Mikulay (1997), and Drory (1993). Kacmar and
1989 (the year that Ferris and colleagues proposed Baron’s (1999) qualitative review suggested that the
the perceptions of organizational politics con- three scales in those studies assess perceptions of
struct) and 2007. We combined keywords associ- organizational political climate. In addition, our
ated with politics (i.e., “organizational politics,” own content analysis revealed that items from
“politics perceptions,” and “perceived politics”) these scales have counterparts in the perceptions of
with keywords related to outcomes (general out- organizational politics measure. Thus, we included
comes: “outcome,” “consequence,” and “result”; these in the current meta-analysis.2 Finally, we in-
strain1: “strain,” “stress,” “stressor,” “anger,” “anx- cluded studies reporting relationships between
iety,” “depress[ion],” “frustration,” “tension,” and perceptions of organizational politics and depen-
“burnout”; morale: “job/work satisfaction,” “organ-
izational/work commitment,” “affective commit- 2
ment”; turnover intentions: “turnover,” “intent to We also conducted meta-analyses without these
studies for the applicable analyses and found the results
turnover,” “withdrawal cognitions”; supervisor-
showed minor, nonsignificant fluctuations. After remov-
ing these studies, we observed these changes in relation-
ships: (a) perceptions of organizational politics and
1
Two-thirds of the samples we found (14 out of 21) strain, from .48 to .47; (b) politics and job satisfaction,
used the Work Tension Scale by House and Rizzo (1972) from .57 to .58; (c) politics and affective commitment,
to assess psychological strain associated with tension from .54 to .55; and (d) politics and withdrawal in-
experienced at work. tentions, from .43 to .44.


FIGURE 2
Conceptualizations of Hindrance Stressor

dent variables that were calculated from an original were cross-referenced, and only one effect size was
sample. When the same sample was used in multi- included. Correlations were considered as separate
ple studies, sample characteristics and effect sizes entries when they represented relationships be-


tween perceptions of organizational politics and (1) tween all the variables using the current and pre-
distinctive outcome variables and (2) one depen- vious meta-analytic results. Selected meta-analyses
dent variable, but from different samples (Arthur, published since 1995 provided estimates for rela-
Bennett, & Huffcutt, 2001). We aggregated correla- tionships among nonpolitics variables. Table 1 pre-
tions representing relationships between percep- sents this correlation matrix. We performed struc-
tions of organizational politics and different mea- tural equation modeling (SEM) based on this
sures of the same outcome variable. These criteria correlation matrix to evaluate the fit of the pro-
resulted in 21 effect sizes for strain, 45 for job posed model. We adopted Shadish (1996) and Vi-
satisfaction, 33 for affective commitment, 27 for swesvaran and Ones’s (1995) procedures for model
turnover intentions, 14 for task performance, 9 for testing. Unless otherwise noted, the structural
OCBI, and 9 for OCBO. model used manifest indicators without correction
for measurement error, as these corrections were
done through meta-analysis. Finally, because no
Meta-analytic and Model-Testing Procedures
published meta-analysis estimates the relation-
We first used meta-analysis to summarize rela- ships between turnover intentions and OCBI and
tionships between perceptions of organizational OCBO, we used primary studies found for the cur-
politics and each of the outcome variables. When rent meta-analysis to estimate these relationships
available, we also examined whether the publica- (see Harrison et al., 2006). Specifically, seven of the
tion status of a study, the employment status of the nine samples that we found in our meta-analysis
sampled population (full-time employees vs. em- for the relationships between perceptions of organ-
ployed students), and the country from which the izational politics and OCBI and OCBO included
data were collected, accounted for differences in turnover intentions as an outcome variable. Rela-
effect sizes among studies. Following Arthur et al.’s tionships between turnover intentions and OCBs
(2001) strategy, we calculated a sample-weighted were extracted from these seven studies and meta-
mean correlation. We then computed the percent- analyzed to provide estimates for the meta-analytic
age of variance accounted for by sampling error correlation matrix.
(Hunter & Schmidt, 2004) and performed the chi- For the exploratory analyses, we performed an
square test for the homogeneity of observed corre- additional literature search for meta-analytic corre-
lation coefficients across studies (Rosenthal, 1991). lations involving role stressors (i.e., role ambiguity
The 95% confidence interval around the sample- and role conflict) and the outcome variables in-
weighted mean correlation was then computed us- ¨
cluded in the current study (e.g., Ortqvist & Win-
ing different formulas depending on chi-square test cent, 2006; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Bommer,
results (Whitener, 1990). We then corrected for un- 1996). We then incorporated these correlations into
reliability of measures to derive the population cor- the meta-analytic correlation matrix (Table 1) and
relation coefficient. We used interrater reliability tested the proposed model using the two different
estimates from Viswesvaran, Ones, and Schmidt conceptualizations of the hindrance stressor con-
(1996) to correct for measurement error in the rela- struct (i.e., as a unified vs. diversified construct).
tionships between perceptions of organizational Because no published meta-analysis estimated the
politics and supervisor-rated performance. The relationships between perceptions of organization-
variance and standard deviation of the population al politics and the two role stressors, we used avail-
estimate were then calculated to determine the able primary studies to estimate these relationships
95% credibility interval. We also calculated the (six effect sizes for the perceptions of organization-
Q-statistic to examine variance in the corrected al politics–role ambiguity relationship [ .52];
population estimate. When the credibility interval four effect sizes for the perceptions of organiza-
included zero or Q was significant, we performed tional politics–role conflict relationship [ .58]).
subgroup analyses to examine the moderating ef-
fects of study characteristics (Cortina, 2003). The
moderator analyses included an examination of RESULTS
both publication status and sample employment
Bivariate Relationships
status, as well as a cross-cultural comparison be-
tween U.S. and Israeli samples, none of which were Table 2 shows the results of the meta-analysis for
examined in Miller et al.’s (2008) meta-analysis of the relationships between politics and strain, job
the outcomes of perceptions of organizational satisfaction, affective commitment, turnover inten-
politics. tions, task performance, OCBI, and OCBO. All of
Next, we built a correlation matrix containing the the 95% confidence intervals excluded zero, indi-
corrected population correlation coefficients be- cating that each correlation was statistically signif-


TABLE 1
Meta-analytic Correlations between Perceptions of Organizational Politics, Strain, Morale, and Performancea, b

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Perceptions of organizational politics
2. Strain .48b
k 21
N 7,140
3. Job satisfaction .57c .45i
k 45 72
N 16,640 22,106
4. Affective commitment .54d .31j .68o
k 33 32 36
N 11,633 10,808 12,269
5. Task performance .20e .21k .30p .18t
k 14 30 242 87
N 3,397 6,769 44,518 20,973
6. OCB, individual .16f .23l .26q .25u .66x
k 9 15 22 42 14
N 1,913 5,194 5,549 10,747 4,831
7. OCB, organization .20g .25m .24r .25v .72y .72aa
k 9 16 20 42 13 44
N 1,913 3,893 5,189 10,747 4,958 10,647
8. Turnover intentions .43h .31n .58s .58w .16z .21ab .22ac
k 27 63 70 97 38 7 7
N 8,439 21,056 23,603 41,002 7,643 1,344 1,344

a
All correlations were corrected for attenuation due to unreliability. If more than one study reported on the same relationship, we used
the estimate reflecting the greatest amount of data (in most cases, it was the most recent data). “k” is the number of effect sizes; N is total
observations.
b
The letter superscripts in the body of the table indicate the source of the meta-analytic correlations as follows: “i,” “j,” “n,” “o,” “s,”
Podsakoff, LePine, and LePine (2007); “k,” LePine, Podsakoff, and LePine (2005); “l,” “m,” Matias, Chang, and Johnson (2007); “p” Judge,
Thoresen, Bono, and Patton (2001); “q,” “r,” Organ and Ryan (1995); “t,” “u,” “v,” Harrison, Newman, and Roth (2006); “w,” Cooper-Hakin
and Viswasvaran (2005); “x,” “y,” “aa,” Hoffman, Blair, Meriac, and Woehr (2007); “z,” Zimmerman and Darnold (2009).
Original analyses in the current paper include “b,” “c,” “d,” “e,” “f,” “g,” “h,” “ab,” and “ac.” Detailed information for relationships “b”
through “h” can be found in Table 2. For more detailed results for relationships “ab” and “ac,” please contact the first author.

icant (p .05). In addition, all of the 95% credibil- ror and measurement unreliability, which ac-
ity intervals excluded zero, suggesting that all counted for 21 percent of the variance in
bivariate relationships were in the anticipated di- correlations, the population correlation estimate
rections. Although the significant Q-statistics indi- was .57. Unpublished studies yielded larger ef-
cated that there were between-study moderators for fect sizes ( .61) than published studies (
relationships between politics and nonperfor- .57; Z 2.87, p .01), and U.S. samples re-
mance outcomes, these moderators were likely to sponded more negatively to perceptions of organi-
affect only the magnitude, rather than the direction, zational politics ( .58) than Israeli samples
of the relationships, as the credibility interval ex- ( .46; Z 5.93, p .001). Similarly, affective
cluded zero. commitment had a sample-weighted mean correla-
Proximal outcomes. The sample-weighted mean tion coefficient of .43 with perceptions of organ-
correlation between perceptions of organizational
izational politics. Sampling error and measurement
politics and strain was .39. Sampling and measure-
unreliability accounted for 14 percent of the vari-
ment error accounted for 16 percent of the variance
ance in the correlations between perceptions of
in correlations. After correcting for sampling and
organizational politics and commitment, and the
measurement error, the population correlation was
.48. The Q was significant. However, the three be- corrected population correlation was .54. The un-
tween-study moderators that were tested did not published studies also had larger effect sizes (
account for differences between effect sizes, as the .62) than the published studies ( .52; Z
subgroup analysis yielded nonsignificant results. 6.35, p .001), and perceptions of organizational
The sample-weighted mean correlation between politics were more strongly related to commitment
perceptions of organizational politics and job satis- in U.S. samples ( .56) than in Israeli samples
faction was .47. After correction for sampling er- ( .34; Z 9.81, p .001).


TABLE 2
Meta-analytic Results for Bivariate Relationships between Perceptions of Organizational Politics and
Outcome Variablesa

95% CI 95% CV

Variables and Moderators k N r s.d. %s.e. Lower Upper Lower Upper Q Z

Strain
Overall 21 7,140 .39 .48 .15 11.99 .34 .45 .19 .76 130.99***
Publication status 0.34
Unpublished studies 3 742 .40 .49 .10 27.50 .30 .52 .29 .69 10.41**
Published studies 18 6,398 .39 .48 .15 10.99 .33 .46 .18 .77 117.48***
Sample 0.43
Employed student samples 5 1,135 .37 .46 .09 35.59 .29 .46 .28 .63 11.82*
Employee samples 16 6,005 .40 .48 .15 9.94 .33 .47 .18 .78 117.91***
Country 0.77
Israel 3 541 .39 .50 .01 91.45 .32 .46 .48 .51 3.01
United States 15 5,676 .40 .49 .16 9.44 .33 .48 .18 .79 115.59***

Job satisfaction
Overall 45 16,640 .47 .57 .13 11.23 .51 .44 .83 .32 218.98***
Publication status 2.87**
Unpublished studies 7 2,597 .50 .61 .08 19.05 .57 .44 .77 .46 14.21*
Sample 0.52
Employed student samples 8 1,861 .46 .54 .00 84.68 .50 .42 .54 .54 7.83
Country 5.93***
Israel 7 1,414 .35 .46 .06 54.03 .41 .28 .60 .33 11.30
United States 35 14,671 .48 .58 .13 10.43 .52 .44 .82 .33 203.04***

Affective commitment
Overall 33 11,633 .43 .54 .16 13.58 .47 .38 .86 .22 243.00***
Publication status 6.35***
Unpublished studies 5 2,271 .50 .62 .11 13.67 .59 .42 .83 .41 30.47***
Sample 1.01
Country 9.81***
Israel 7 1,414 .26 .34 .11 38.13 .34 .18 .55 .13 17.37*
US 26 10,219 .45 .56 .15 10.14 .50 .40 .85 .27 176.64***
Turnover intentions
Overall 27 8,439 .36 .43 .11 20.28 .32 .40 .21 .66 110.45***
Publication status 1.78
Unpublished studies 3 895 .40 .48 .03 75.05 .35 .46 .42 .54 3.69
Sample 1.54

Task performance
Overall 14 3,397 .13 .20 .07 63.63 .16 .09 .34 .05 21.81
OCB, individual
Overall 9 1,913 .14 .16 .03 95.11 .18 .09 .20 .13 9.37
OCB, organization
Overall 9 1,913 .16 .20 .00 100.00 .20 .12 .20 .20 7.57

a
k is the number of effect sizes; N is the total number of subjects; r is the mean sample-weighted correlation; is the estimate of the fully
corrected population correlation; s.d. is the standard deviation of the estimate of the fully corrected population correlation; %s.e. is the
percentage of observed variance accounted for by sampling and measurement error; 95% CI is the 95% confidence interval around
the mean sample-weighted correlation; 95% CV is the 95% credibility interval around the corrected mean population correlation; Q
is the chi-square test for the homogeneity of true correlations across studies; and Z is the test for the significance of the difference
between the sample-weighted correlations.
* p .05
** p .01
*** p .001


Distal outcomes. The sample-weighted mean than .08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The overall measure-
correlation between perceptions of organizational ment model had reasonably good fit to the data
politics and turnover intentions was .36. After cor- (CFI .98, TLI .94, RMSEA .12, SRMR .02).
recting for sampling and measurement artifacts, We then tested the proposed model in which
which explained 24 percent of the variance in cor- effects of perceptions of organizational politics on
relations, the estimated population correlation was turnover intentions and job performance were fully
.43. Because of the significant Q, we tested for mediated by strain and morale. As reported in Ta-
between-study moderators and found that neither ble 3, the model fit the data (CFI .97, TLI .94,
publication status nor sample type moderated the RMSEA .09, SRMR .02), and all paths were
magnitude of this relationship. This result sup- significant, except for the path linking strain to
ported Hypothesis 3. The sample-weighted mean turnover intentions ( .02). We then tested for
correlation between perceptions of organizational partial mediation effects by including direct paths
politics and task performance was .13. Sampling from perceptions of organizational politics to the
error and measurement unreliability accounted for two distal outcome variables in the next three al-
64 percent of the variance in observed correlations ternative models (see Figure 1). As reported in Ta-
across studies. The corrected population correla- ble 3, the three alternative models had essentially
tion was .20. For the relationship between per- the same fit indexes as the theoretical model. Fur-
ceptions of organizational politics and OCB toward ther analyses revealed that adding a path between
individuals (OCBI), the sample-weighted mean cor- perceptions of organizational politics and turnover
relation was .14, and the corrected population intentions (alternative model 1: 2
0.59, n.s.),
1
correlation was .16. Sampling error and measure- or between politics and performance (alternative
ment unreliability accounted for 86 percent of the model 2: 2
1.24, n.s.) did not improve model
1
variance observed in correlations. The sample- fit over that of the theoretical model. When both
weighted mean correlation between perceptions of paths were freely estimated (alternative model 3:
organizational politics and OCB toward one’s or- 2
2 2.35, n.s.), none of the direct paths were
ganization (OCBO) was .16, the corrected popu-
significant, nor did model fit improve significantly.
lation correlation was .20, and sampling error and
Thus, the theoretical model received support, and
measurement unreliability accounted for 100 per-
the results provided evidence that strain and mo-
cent of the variance observed in these correlations.
rale fully mediated the effects of perceptions of
Thus, perceptions of organizational politics had
organizational politics on performance and turn-
negative relationships with all three supervisor-
over intentions.
rated performance measures, which supported Hy-
As shown in Figure 3, perceptions of organiza-
pothesis 4. Additionally, none of the 95% credibil-
tional politics were associated with increased psy-
ity intervals included zero, and all three
chological strain ( .48, p .05), supporting
Q-statistics were nonsignificant, indicating that the
magnitudes of these relationships were not affected Hypothesis 1. Supporting Hypothesis 2, percep-
by between-study moderators. tions of organizational politics were related to mo-
rale both directly ( .57, p .05) and indirectly
through strain ( .20, p .05). In terms of
mediation effects, we found support for Hypothesis
Model Testing 5b: effects of morale fully mediated perceptions of
To test the proposed model, we first created la- organizational politics on turnover intentions (
tent constructs to represent morale and job perfor- .70, p .05). Hypothesis 5a was supported by a
mance. Job satisfaction and affective commitment more extended mediational chain; higher percep-
served as indicators of morale. The job performance tions of organizational politics were associated
construct included task performance, OCBI, and with increased strain and then reduced morale,
OCBO as indicators. To evaluate these latent con- which in turn related to increased turnover inten-
structs, we conducted a confirmatory factor analy- tions. Supporting Hypothesis 6, the relationship
sis (CFA) using maximum likelihood estimation in between perceptions of organizational politics and
Mplus 4.2 (Muthen & Muthen, 2005). The following
´ ´ performance was fully mediated by both strain (
criteria were used to assess model fit: comparative .14, p .05) and morale ( .28, p .05).
fit (CFI) and Tucker-Lewis (TLI) index values Overall, our results demonstrated that strain and
greater than .90, a root-mean-square error of ap- morale fully mediated the effects of perceptions of
proximation (RMSEA) of less than .06, and a stan- organizational politics on turnover intentions and
dardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR) of less performance.


TABLE 3
Fit Statistics for Alternative Models
2 2
Model df CFI TLI RMSEA SRMR

Perceptions of organizational politics as the
only predictor a
Theoretical 587.00 15 .97 .94 .09 .02
Alternative model 1b 586.41 14 .97 .94 .09 .02 0.59e
Alternative model 2c 585.76 14 .97 .95 .08 .02 1.24e
Alternative model 3d 584.45 13 .97 .95 .08 .02 2.35e

Two conceptualizations of hindrance stressor f
Unified hindrance stressor 1,526.87 29 .94 .90 .10 .03
Diversified hindrance stressors: Perceptions 1,333.76 25 .93 .89 .10 .03 193.11k***
of organizational politics, role
ambiguity, and role conflict
Alternative model 4g 1,332.60 23 .93 .88 .11 .03 1.16l
Alternative model 5h 1,266.28 23 .94 .89 .11 .02 67.48l***
Alternative model 6i 1,270.00 24 .94 .89 .10 .03 3.72m
Alternative model 7j 1,128.11 22 .94 .89 .10 .03 141.89n***

a
CFI comparative fit index; TLI Tucker-Lewis index; RMSEA root-mean-square error of approximation; SRMR standardized
root-mean-square residual. N 5,160.
b
Estimate of the direct effect from perceptions of organizational politics to turnover intentions with other paths held constant.
c
Estimate of the direct effect from perceptions of organizational politics to performance with other paths held constant.
d
Estimate of the direct effects from perceptions of organizational politics to distal outcomes with other paths held constant.
e
Model fit compared with the theoretical model.
f
N 4,865.
g
Estimate of the direct effects from perceptions of organizational politics to distal outcomes with other paths held constant.
h
Estimate of the direct effects from role ambiguity to distal outcomes with other paths held constant.
i
Estimate of the direct effects from role ambiguity to turnover intentions with other paths held constant.
j
Estimate of the direct effects from role ambiguity to turnover intentions and role conflict to distal outcomes with other paths held
constant.
k
Model fit compared with the unified hindrance stressor model.
l
Model fit compared with the diversified hindrance stressors model.
m
Model fit compared with alternative model 5.
n
Model fit compared with alternative model 6.
* p .05
** p .01
*** p .001

Perceptions of Organizational Politics, Role for almost all the variables except for strain, OCB1,
Ambiguity, and Role Conflict and turnover intentions. These results indicate that
perceptions of organizational politics had different
To explore the distinctiveness of perceptions of
organizational politics from other hindrance stres- relationships with role stressors, and that percep-
sors, we first compared the bivariate meta-analytic tions of organizational politics– outcome relation-
estimates of relationships between politics, role ships were typically stronger, if not comparable, to
conflict, and role ambiguity, and between these the role stressor– outcome relationships.
stressors and outcome variables (see Table 4). Per- Next, we explored two different conceptualiza-
ceptions of organizational politics had a stronger tions of the hindrance stressor construct within the
relationship with role conflict than with role ambi- context of the proposed model (Figure 2). Table 3
guity ( .58 vs. .52, Z 3.04, p .001). For summarizes the results of these nested model tests.
stressor-outcome relationships, perceptions of or- The diversified model had better fit ( 24 196.32,
ganizational politics had significantly stronger as- p .001) than the unified model (CFI .94, TLI
sociations with strain, job satisfaction, affective .90, RMSEA .10, SRMR .03), suggesting that
commitment, and OCB0, than role ambiguity. Ad- perceptions of organizational politics and role
ditionally, the perceptions of organizational poli- stressors are best viewed as distinct yet related
tics– outcome relationships were significantly stressors. We also evaluated possible partial medi-
stronger than role conflict– outcome relationships ation effects (see Table 3). Although the effects of


FIGURE 3
Final Model of Effects of Perceptions of Organizational Politics on Employee Outcomesa

a
All path coefficients and loadings are significant at p .05 except for the italicized coefficient, for which p .05; numbers in
parentheses represent the lower and upper bounds for the 95% confidence interval for path coefficients.

perceptions of organizational politics on the two strain. The 95% confidence intervals for the effects
distal outcomes appeared to be fully mediated (al- of politics and role ambiguity overlapped, but role
2
ternative model 4: 2 1.16, n.s.), the effects of conflict had the strongest association with strain.
role ambiguity were partially mediated (alternative Paths from perceptions of organizational politics
2
model 5: 2 67.48, p .001). However, only ( .43), role ambiguity ( .22), and role
the direct path from role ambiguity to turnover conflict ( .09) to morale were all significant.
intentions was significant. Thus, we dropped the None of their confidence intervals overlapped, in-
other direct path from the model, which did not dicating that the politics-morale link was stronger
2
impact the model fit (alternative model 6: 1 than the other two links. In addition, though strain
3.72, n.s.). Finally, we added paths from role con- and morale fully mediated the effects of percep-
flict to both outcomes, and both paths were signif- tions of organizational politics on distal outcomes,
icant. This final model (Figure 4) showed improve- role ambiguity had a direct link with turnover in-
ment in fit over alternative model 6 ( 22 141.89, tentions ( .10), and role conflict had direct
p .001) and included three direct paths from role associations with turnover intentions ( .16) and
ambiguity and role conflict to distal outcomes. performance ( .06). Overall, these significant
Perceptions of organizational politics ( .18), differences in path coefficients and distinct pat-
role ambiguity ( .20), and role conflict ( .33) terns of mediation effects help distinguish percep-
each had significant, positive relationships with tions of organizational politics from role stressors.


TABLE 4 distinguishable from other role-based hindrance
Comparison of Meta-analytic Relationships among stressors. In keeping with Miller et al.’s (2008)
Hindrance Stressors and between Hindrance Stressors meta-analysis of the outcomes of perceptions of
and Employee Attitudes and Behaviorsa
organizational politics, the results of the current
Outcome and Hindrance study demonstrated that such perceptions have
Stressors k N Z strong, positive relationships with strain and turn-
over intentions and strong, negative relationships
Perceptions of organizational
politics
with job satisfaction and affective commitment.
Role ambiguityb .52 6 3,504 However, the current study extends previous re-
Role conflictb .58 4 1,941 3.04*** search by providing unequivocal support for a re-
Strain lationship between perceptions of organizational
Perceptions of organizational .48 21 7,140
politics and aspects of job performance that were
politics
Role ambiguityc .43 8 1,435 2.05* not clearly supported (viz., task performance) or
Role conflictc .52 7 1,220 1.84 tested (viz., OCB) in Miller et al.’s (2008) meta-
Job satisfaction analysis.
Beyond the basic bivariate estimates, our results
politics
Role ambiguityc .48 42 10,062 10.34*** also provided compelling evidence supporting a
Role conflictc .49 39 9,780 9.23*** theoretically derived model that integrates the
Affective commitment stress- and social exchange– based explanations of
the effects of perceptions of organizational politics.
politics
Role ambiguityc .39 12 3,774 10.07*** In particular, perceptions of organizational politics
Role conflictc .30 9 3,225 12.94*** were associated with increased psychological
Task performance strain, which was associated directly with reduced
performance, as well as indirectly with increased
politics
Role ambiguityc .22 18 4,301 1.05 turnover intentions through reduced morale. Polit-
Role conflictc .14 16 4,057 2.66** ical perceptions also had a direct, negative link
OCB, individual with employee morale, which was related to in-
creased turnover intentions and reduced perfor-
politics
Role ambiguityd .16 10 2,651 0.00 mance. These findings revealed that strain and mo-
Role conflictd .15 7 2,351 0.33 rale fully mediate the effects of perceptions of
OCB, organization organizational politics on important employee re-
actions. In addition, they indicated that the stress
politics
Role ambiguityd .12 7 2,456 2.69*** and social exchange perspectives complement each
Role conflictd .14 6 2,156 1.97* other. Thus, simultaneously considering the medi-
Turnover intentions ating effects of morale and strain provides a more
Perceptions of organizational .43 27 8,439 complete picture of the intrapersonal processes
politics
Role ambiguityc .44 8 1,188 0.29 that relate perceptions of organizational politics to
Role conflictc .45 8 1,188 0.53 distal employee outcomes.
Interestingly, results of the exploratory analyses
a
The letter superscripts in the body of the table indicate the suggested that political perceptions are distinct
source of the meta-analytic correlations as follows: “b,” current
¨
study; “c,” Ortqvist and Wincent (2006); “d,” Podsakoff, Mac- from at least two other hindrance stressors––role
Kenzie, and Bommer (1996). ambiguity and role conflict. Perceptions of organi-
* p .05 zational politics had different relationships with
** p .01 those role stressors. Also, bivariate relationships
*** p .001
between political perceptions and outcomes were
almost always stronger than or comparable with the
DISCUSSION role stressor– outcome relationships. Finally, when
The current research had three goals: (1) to ad- considered together, perceived politics had a
dress inconsistencies in the research findings on unique pattern of associations with employee out-
perceptions of organizational politics, (2) to exam- comes: the effects of perceptions of organizational
ine a model that incorporated stress and social politics on distal outcomes were fully mediated by
exchange explanations of reactions to perceptions strain and morale, whereas the effects of role stres-
of organizational politics, and (3) to explore sors on distal outcomes were only partially
whether perceptions of organizational politics were mediated.


FIGURE 4
Final Model of Effects of Perceptions of Organizational Politics, Role Ambiguity, and Role Conflict on
Employee Outcomesa

a
All path coefficients and loadings are significant at p .05, except for the italicized coefficient, for which p .05; numbers in
parentheses represent the lower and upper bounds for the 95% confidence interval for path coefficients.

Theoretical Implications themselves in their work or by increasing the extent
to which they are involved in their jobs. Similarly,
This research offers a number of important theo-
our findings suggest that previous studies showing
retical contributions. First, the significant relation-
ships between perceptions of organizational poli- positive associations between perceptions of organ-
tics and the focal outcomes (i.e., psychological izational politics and desirable outcomes (e.g., Fer-
strain, morale, turnover intentions, and perfor- ris et al., 1993; Ferris & Kacmar, 1992) represent
mance) provide additional support for the notion exceptions in the literature and may be due to
that, in response to perceptions of organizational statistical artifacts. In general, employee percep-
politics, employees are likely to withdraw from an tions of self-serving, illegitimate political activities
organization in order to avoid political “games.” at work have consistently negative relationships
Moreover, our findings clearly linked perceptions with employee attitudes and behaviors.
of organizational politics with task performance Regarding the moderator analyses, we found lit-
and OCB, indicating that, overall, perceived poli- tle evidence for publication bias (Rosenthal, 1979),
tics represent an aversive aspect of the work envi- as unpublished studies had either stronger effect
ronment. These findings also counter theoretical sizes than published ones, or comparable effect
arguments (see Ferris et al., 1989; Ferris & Kacmar, sizes. In addition, effect sizes from studies with
1992) suggesting that employees may respond to employed students were similar to those from stud-
perceptions of organizational politics by immersing ies with full-time employees. This pattern sug-


gested that the employment relationships that de- ways of arranging the outcomes of perceptions of
velop between employed students and their organizational politics that go beyond treating them
employers may be as meaningful and important as all as direct outcomes, as has been implied by pre-
relationships that develop between full-time em- vious research (e.g., Ferris et al., 2002; Miller et al.,
ployees and their organizations and that percep- 2008). Interestingly, the effects of perceptions of
tions of organizational politics have similar impli- organizational politics on turnover intentions and
cations for both groups. performance worked through slightly different
However, we did observe cross-cultural differ- pathways. In particular, the psychological strain
ences between U.S. and Israeli samples, in that elicited by perceptions of organizational politics
perceptions of organizational politics had stronger was associated with decreased morale, which was
relationships with morale for U.S. employees. This related to higher turnover intent. This pattern im-
pattern is consistent with Vigoda’s (2001) proposi- plies that the effects of perceptions of organization-
tion that, because of their experiences with geopo- al politics on turnover intentions may take longer
litical conflict, Israeli employees are better condi- to unfold and may involve a more rational process.
tioned for coping with the interpersonal conflict Turnover researchers have conceptualized the typ-
associated with organizational politics. Similarly, ical voluntary turnover process as initiated by low
Romm and Drory (1988) suggested that Israelis morale and involving multiple decision points
have greater familiarity with political processes in- (Griffeth, Hom, & Gartner, 2000). An alternative
side work and outside of work, which may be as- viewpoint, the unfolding model of turnover (Lee &
sociated with (1) greater tolerance for political ac- Mitchell, 1994), suggests that a new situation or
tivities as a means of getting ahead and (2) a belief event, in addition to morale, triggers employee
that organizational politics are normative and mor- turnover. However, according to this model, em-
ally legitimate. These ideas are consistent with the ployees may still follow extensive decision-making
notion that national culture influences the mental
paths leading to turnover, and three out of the four
programs that guide employees’ interpretations and
proposed paths involve job satisfaction. Thus, our
reactions to different aspects of their jobs (Hof-
results are consistent with previous work concern-
stede, 1980). As such, these cross-cultural differ-
ing the formulation of turnover intentions. They are
ences may contribute to understanding of the gen-
also consistent with other studies (e.g., Podsakoff et
eralizability of theories linking perceptions of
al., 2007) in demonstrating that the effects of hin-
organizational politics to employee outcomes. For
drance stressors on turnover intentions work first
example, our findings imply that U.S. and Israeli
through strain and then through morale.
employees may have different expectations that
guide the evaluations of their organizational ex- On the other hand, the effect of perceptions of
change relationships. Thus, to the extent that low organizational politics on performance worked
levels of politics are central to employees’ work through both strain and morale simultaneously.
expectations, perceptions of organizational politics The pathway through strain coincides with theo-
will be salient and represent a more serious viola- ries suggesting that strain and other negative affec-
tion of their social exchange relationships. How- tive experiences have an impact on motivation and
ever, additional research is necessary to determine performance (Lord & Kanfer, 2002). For example,
whether differences in exchange expectations ac- the resource allocation perspective (Kanfer & Ack-
count for cross-cultural disparities in relationships erman, 1989) implies that strain drains mental re-
between perceptions of organizational politics and sources that could otherwise be devoted to self-
morale. regulatory activities associated with job
Another contribution of this study is that it sub- performance. According to Kanfer and Ackerman,
stantiated our arguments that multiple pathways self-regulatory activities, such as goal striving and
link perceptions of organizational politics to em- feedback monitoring, require effortful processing
ployee outcomes. Model-testing results demon- and mental resources. As employees experience
strate that mediators proposed by work stress (i.e., strain associated with perceptions of organizational
job anxiety) and social exchange (i.e., morale) the- politics, they may devote energy to coping with
ories explain relationships between politics and their negative affect, thereby reducing the resources
both performance and withdrawal intentions. they can spare for regulating performance. In addi-
These findings were supportive of theory and pro- tion, perceptions of organizational politics were
vided evidence that both perspectives contribute to associated with lower morale, which led to reduced
understanding of how social context affects atti- job performance. Our results imply that, as a result
tudes and behaviors. Additionally, our results of perceiving politics, employees may begin to
highlight the importance of considering alternative view their organizations as risky investments and


may demonstrate lower levels of morale, and also their unique effects. Moreover, unlike the effects of
decrease their contributions to their jobs. perceptions of politics, the effects of role stressors
Finally, the results of exploratory analyses on turnover intentions and performance were not
showed that perceptions of organizational politics completely accounted for by the stress- and social
are distinct from both role ambiguity and role con- exchange– based paths, which suggests that addi-
flict. In addition to the stronger bivariate correla- tional mediating mechanisms explain the effects of
tions with outcomes demonstrated by political per- role stressors, but not those of perceptions of organ-
ceptions, the mechanisms underlying the effects of izational politics.
perceptions of organizational politics on turnover
intentions and performance were dissimilar to
those underlying the effects of role stressors. These
Managerial Implications
findings point to the possibility that perceptions of
organizational politics may be qualitatively differ- Our results have several practical implications.
ent from role-based hindrance stressors. In partic- First, leaders should recognize that, though some
ular, perceptions of organizational politics repre- political activities may be essential to the function-
sent evaluations of social aspects of organizational ing of work groups (Fedor et al., 2008), their own
settings (i.e., witnessing members politicking and political activities may have unanticipated con-
receiving rewards), rather than the assessments of sequences at the individual level. For instance,
personal situations (i.e., comparing individuals’ job leaders often make “idiosyncratic deals” with
demands to their coping resources) that character- employees as a means of optimizing individual
ize role stressors (Boswell et al., 2004). In addition, performance and reducing turnover (Rousseau, Ho,
employees experience role ambiguity and conflict & Greenberg, 2006). The current research demon-
because they are concerned with fulfilling their strates that if these activities are perceived as po-
roles as stipulated by their organization, whereas litical (i.e., based on favoritism and self-interest),
perceptions of organizational politics are associ- then they may have extensive negative effects on
ated with observing behaviors that are self-serving organization members. Therefore, it is important
and threatening to the well-being of other employ- for top management to make decisions that balance
ees (Kacmar & Baron, 1999). Thus, although per- the costs and benefits of engaging in behaviors that
ceived politics had seemingly similar effects on may be perceived as political.
outcomes as the broadly defined hindrance stressor Next, we demonstrated that employees respond
construct examined in previous studies (e.g., negatively to work conditions that indicate politics.
LePine et al., 2005; Podsakoff et al., 2007), the Thus, it behooves managers to focus on social con-
similar effects may be attributable to perceptions of text when attempting to understand employee atti-
organizational politics serving as the dominant in- tudes and motivation. For example, managers may
dicator of the unified hindrance stressor construct, reduce perceptions of organizational politics and
thereby driving the effects of the construct. Thus, subsequent deficits in morale and motivation by
future studies should explore whether (and when) providing clear feedback regarding which behav-
it is appropriate to consider perceptions of organi- iors their organization desires (Rosen et al., 2006),
zational politics separately from other hindrance by reducing incentives for employees to engage in
stressors. For example, if the goal of research is to political activities, or by aligning individual and
predict general work attitudes and behaviors, then organizational goals (see Witt, 1998). In extreme
it may be prudent to conceptualize perceptions of situations, it may benefit an organization to target
organizational politics and role stressors as part of key political players whose activities are especially
the unified, general hindrance stressor construct. salient and damaging. If these individuals are not
This approach is akin to considering different willing to reduce their political activities, then they
forms of justice (viz., distributive, procedural, in- should be removed from the organization. Al-
terpersonal, and informational) as indicators of an though extreme, such tactics may benefit employee
overall justice evaluation (see Ambrose & health and performance in the long run.
Schminke, 2006). However, if the goal of a study is Asking managers to monitor and reduce their
to understand more specifically how the interplay own political activities may not always be a realis-
between these stressors (e.g., the effects of percep- tic solution, and firing employees for being too
tions of organizational politics may work through political may carry some risk in today’s litigious
role ambiguity, or role ambiguity may exacerbate society. Therefore, we recommend that human re-
effects of such perceptions) relates to employee source departments actively create competency
outcomes, then researchers may want to consider models (see Shippmann et al., 2000) that incorpo-
these hindrance stressors separately to capture rate the goals of discouraging political activities


and providing incentives to managers for creating Limitations and Future Research
work environments that are not political. To be
Some researchers have questioned the appropri-
effective, such programs must (1) show a relation-
ateness of using correlation matrixes derived from
ship between organizational politics and individ- meta-analysis for SEM. For instance, it has been
ual and organizational effectiveness, (2) identify argued that these analyses bias model fit indexes
competencies linked to organizational politics (e.g., and path estimates (Cheung & Chan, 2005). In ad-
teamwork, decision making, conflict management), dition, the quality of the primary studies, as well as
(3) define behavioral anchors of these competen- the procedures and corrections adopted in different
cies that are focused on reducing politics in the meta-analyses, may influence model fit and path
work environment (an example of such an anchor estimates (e.g., Arthur et al., 2001). However,
for teamwork: “Is inclusive of all group members model testing in the current study was grounded in
when doing team projects”; for decision-making: theory and represented an initial effort to examine
“Follows corporate policies when making employ- a complex, integrated model of psychological pro-
ment decisions”), and (4) make employees account- cesses that relate perceptions of organizational pol-
able for these activities. Incorporating politics- itics to outcomes. Nonetheless, we recommend that
based competencies into performance management others view our findings as a first step toward
programs will provide a mechanism for document- building a model that explains how perceptions of
ing behaviors, providing feedback, setting develop- organizational politics are related to employee
mental goals, and substantiating employment deci- outcomes.
sions. As such, a competency-based approach to One possible way to extend the current findings
managing organizational politics benefits an organ- is to examine explanations of the effects of percep-
ization by creating a positive social climate that tions of organizational politics based on stress and
minimizes incentives for politicking and providing social exchange using more diverse and, when ap-
a mechanism for documenting employment deci- propriate, more direct measures of these constructs.
sions, which will protect the organization if it must For example, other strain responses (e.g., physical
take action against overly political employees. symptoms) could be used to evaluate the strain-
Finally, our results suggest that leaders may be based pathway through which organizational poli-
able to counter the effects of politics and role stres- tics perceptions relate to employee outcomes. Also,
sors by targeting intervening processes. For exam- the current study used morale as a proxy measure
ple, organizations may benefit from stress manage- of employee perceptions of the exchange relation-
ment interventions, such as training employees in ship. Measures of psychological contract breach
effective conflict resolution and time management represent more direct assessment of exchange qual-
skills and adopting flexible work arrangements to ity. Thus, future studies should employ these alter-
native measures to replicate and extend the model
alleviate psychological strain. Doing so will free up
tested in the current study.
coping resources, improving the ability of employ-
In addition, future research should identify mod-
ees to deal with demands placed on them by polit-
erators of the effects of perceptions of organization-
ical aspects of their jobs or allowing them to clarify
al politics and role stressors. Some moderators may
their role requirements. Alternatively, by commu-
be universal and attenuate the effects of both polit-
nicating that employees are valued, supervisors
ical perceptions and role stressors. For example,
may be able to improve employee exchange percep- situational factors such as support (Bliese & Castro,
tions and subsequent attitudes. This strategy may 2000) and control (Ferris et al., 1989) and individ-
be helpful in battling against the effects of percep- ual differences such as psychological hardiness
tions of organizational politics, yet it may be less (Kobasa, 1979) may help alleviate the negative im-
effective in dealing with role stressors, which have pact of perceptions of organizational politics and
weaker associations with exchange-related atti- role stressors on strain. Other variables may show
tudes. Instead, organizations may benefit from pro- more selective moderation effects. For example,
viding employees with regular, high-quality feed- self-monitoring (Rosen, Chang, & Levy, 2006) may
back to facilitate role definition processes buffer the effects of perceptions of organizational
(Schaubroeck, Ganster, Sime, & Ditman, 1993), politics, although the moderating influences of role
thereby reducing the effects of role stressors. Thus, salience (Noor, 2004) may be more specific to role
depending on the stressor that is most prevalent, stressor– outcome relationships. Identifying and
leaders should adopt different strategies for mini- testing these specific moderators will help further
mizing the effects of perceptions of organizational distinguish between perceptions of organizational
politics and role stressors. politics and role stressors.

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