Perceptions of Organizational Politics

Abstract

The political nature of work environments has been discussed for quite some time; however surprisingly little is known about the personal and situational factors that influence employees' perceptions of organizational politics. In this study, portions of a model of organizational politics perceptions proposed by Ferris, Russ, and Fandt (1989) were tested in two studies using samples reflecting considerable variability on jobs, age, sex, and education, as well as hierarchical level, across four different organizations. In Study 1, regression analyses, used to empirically examine a proposed model of organizational politics perceptions, demonstrated that feedback, job autonomy, skill variety, and opportunity for promotion contributed significantly to the explanation of variance in perceptions of organizational politics, after controlling for variance due to organization. In Study 2, a new expanded measure of organizational politics perceptions was used to provide a more refined analysis of the antecedents and consequences of politics perceptions. Directions for theoretical and empirical research on organizational politics are discussed in light of the present results.