Title
Perception of Politics: A Curat’s Egg: Developing a Dual Path Model to Examine Positive and Negative Outcomes.
Abstract
The study aims to contribute in the extant literature on perception of politics through investigating its relationship with various outcomes by using a dual path model. Two separate paths simultaneously linked the perception of politics with positive and negative outcomes. Moreover, in path one social networking was analyzed as mediator for positive outcomes while in path two social undermining was tested as an explanatory mechanism for negative outcomes. In addition, moderating role of psychological hardiness was also studied for perception of politics and outcome relationship.
The sample comprises of academic staff working in various public and private universities across Pakistan and a total of 307 useable responses were used. Data were collected in three time-lags. The employee-reported data for independent variable perception of politics and moderating variable psychological hardiness were obtained in first time lag. The data about mediating variables social networking and social undermining were also collected form employees after a gap of six weeks to avoid common method bias. A dyadic response was desirable for valid opinion, so for all dependent variables e.g., positive outcomes (career success, employee creativity and contextual performance) and negative outcomes (employee incivility, moral disengagement and workplace aggression) supervisory-rated responses were obtained after another gap of six weeks. The CFA and path analysis were conducted in GSEM (Generalized Structural Equation Model).
The results indicate that higher is the level of perception of politics, higher is the level of employee career success, but found no significant direct relationship between perception of politics and employee creativity and contextual performance. The findings indicated that explanatory mechanisms of social networking strengthened the possibility of positive outcomes in form of increased career success, employee creativity and contextual performance. The results also reveal that perception of politics is simultaneously associated with negative outcomes e.g., employee incivility, moral disengagement and workplace aggression. The findings also support social undermining as an explanatory mechanism for relation of perception of politics and negative outcomes e.g., employee incivility, moral disengagement and workplace aggression. In addition, psychological hardiness acts as a moderator for the relationship between perception of politics and social undermining.
The study concludes with discussion, limitations and future research directions including implications both for theory and practitioners.