1. PERSONALITY, POLITICAL
SKILL AND JOB
PERFORMANCE
Blickle, G., Meurs, J., Zettler, I., Solga, J.,
Noethan, D., Kramer, J., Ferris, G. (2008). Journal
of Vocational Behavior, 72, 377-387.

2. BLICKLE ET AL. PURPOSE
 To investigate the interaction of political skill
with both agreeableness and conscientiousness in
the prediction of job performance
 Wanted to analyze “getting along” and “getting
ahead” intentions as it relates to job
performance.

3. SOCIOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE
 People are motivated to “get along” and “get
ahead” but the desire, ability and ultimate
success of individuals to engage differ from
person to person.
 “Social skill is a moderator of the relationships
between motivations and performance
evaluations”
 Hogan & Shelton (1998)

4. HAVE YOU EVER…
 …met someone in a job or group setting that
might have been a great worker but lacked
appropriate social skills needed to complete a
task?
 …had someone in a job or group setting that was
sincere, inspired trust and support but lacked
specific personality characteristics?

5. POLITICAL SKILL
 How was political skill defined in this article?
 “An interpersonal construct that combines social
understanding with the ability to adjust behavior to
the demands of the situation in ways that appear
sincere, inspire trust and support and effectively
influence others (Ferris et al., 2005, 2007)”
 Contextual type of performance
 Has been associated with higher job performance.
 Jawahar et al. (in press) –pg 37

6. AGREEABLENESS
 Sympathetic, kind, alturistic, generous, fair,
eager to help others
 Agreeableness is a personality trait that reflects
the desire to “get along” with others
 Hypothesis 1: significant interaction of agreeableness
and political skill on job performance.

7. CONSCIENTIOUISNESS
 Organized, hardworking, determined, self-
disciplined, achievement oriented
 “getting ahead” measure because of it’s strong
association with accomplishment and task
performance.
 Hypothesis 2: significant interaction of
conscientiousness and political skill on job
performance.

8. METHOD
 Participants & Procedure
 Western Germany
 610 surveys mailed to people working 12hrs/week or
more.
 326 surveys were complete
 46.6% female, 53.4% male
 Age range 20-65 years, mean 41.40.

9. METHOD (CONT’D)
 Measures
 BFI-K-German adaptation of the Big Five Inventory
(BFI)
 Measured agreeableness and conscientiousness with 4
items each on a 5 point likert scale.
 Political Skill Inventory(PSI)
 18 items, each with a 7 point likert scale.
 Job Performance Ratings
 6 items, recorded across all supervisor-, peer-, and
subordinate ratings for the target participants.
 Items 1 & 2 task performance, Item 3 adaptive, Items 5
& 6 contextual performance

10. METHOD (CONT’D)
 Data analyses
 Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses
used to examine the interaction effects of political
skill, agreeableness and conscientiousness on job
performance ratings.

11. RESULTS
• The coefficient α of the Conscientiousness scale was α=0.54 which is low.
• Meaning the items were low on internal consistency.
• This scale also had ceiling effects.
• Meaning that the mean of this scale on the present sample was higher
than the mean of the validation samples.
• The variance of the Conscientiousness scale was also small.
• The coefficient α of the Job Performance scale was α=0.80 which is high.
• The general factor model of Job Performance had a good overall fit.
• Overall inter-rater correlation of the Job Performance assessors was
r=0.39

12. RESULTS
• This table shows if interactions between the 2 personality variables of
Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and Political Skill were significant.
• The Agreeableness x Political skill interaction was significant (β = 0.125; p <
0.05).
• The Conscientiousness x Political skill interaction was not significant (β =
-0.080; p<0.05).

13. RESULTS

14. RESULTS

15. DISCUSSION
Agreeableness and Job Performance
 High Agreeableness + High Political Skill = Highest
JP Levels.
 High Agreeableness + Low Political Skill = Lowest JP
Levels.
 Performance (Low Political Skill + Low Agreeableness)
> Performance (Low Political Skill + High
Agreeableness)

16. DISCUSSION
 There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between
Conscientiousness and Job-Performance.
 This non-linear relationship is caused by differences in
Political Skill exhibited by the person.
 Why Political Skill?
 Because Social Skill (e.g. Political Skill) is a combination
of Social presentation and Social Influence.
 Individuals exhibit Social Influence for personal and
organizational advancement. In other words, to get
ahead.
 Therefore, persons high on Conscientiousness and
Political Skill are perceived to be more involved in
getting ahead than getting along therefore they receive
lower Job Performance ratings.

17. STRENGTHS OF THE STUDY
 Found support for socioanalytic perspective of
performance prediction.
 Study exhibited generalizability due to sample
characteristics such as wide occupation and ranking
range of employees from various organizations.
 Followed a somewhat 360⁰ feedback approach
(supervisors, peers, subordinates).
 This study addresses social effectiveness constructs
(e.g. Political Skill) to Job Performance.

18. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
 Used overall measure of performance.
 Performance has task and contextual components
(Borman & Motowildo, 1993).
 Political Skill is more related to the contextual
components of performance (Jawahar et al., in
press).
 Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are broad
personality factors. Better relationships will
emerge when facets of these factors are used.

19. DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE
RESEARCH?
 Suggestions for research ideas that can help
expand or build up on this study?

20. DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE
RESEARCH
 Examine relationship between social effectiveness and
motivations/desires to get along in social interactions.
 Sometimes individuals do not find it necessary to get along
with others (i.e. disagreeable). Such people may actually
benefit from the lack of social skill.
 Is it high social skill or effectiveness that is beneficial or
detrimental to desires of getting ahead?
 Explore the composition of social skill or effectiveness.
Dimensions include: sensitivity to others, flexibility, ability
to persuade others, ability to instill trust in others,
consistency in interactions, accountability to others, ability
to maintain communication with a wide range of persons.
 There seems to be an overlap between these dimensions
and political skill. This needs to be explored further.

21. CONCLUSION
 Personality and Social Skill reflect interactive
and important relationships with job
performance.
 Many other social skills other than Political
should be explored.