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This edited volume in the SIOP Frontiers series is one of the first to look at the psychological factors behind politics and power in organizations. Noted contributors from schools of management, psychology, sociology and political science look at the theory, research, methodology and ethical issues related to organizational politics and climates. The book is divided into three parts: Part 1 looks at the historical evolution of the field; Part 2 integrates organizational politics with important organizational behavior constructs and/or areas of inquiry, for example in the chapter by Lisa Lesli

This edited volume in the SIOP Frontiers series is one of the first to look at the psychological factors behind politics and power in organizations. Noted contributors from schools of management, psychology, sociology and political science look at the theory, research, methodology and ethical issues related to organizational politics and climates. The book is divided into three parts: Part 1 looks at the historical evolution of the field; Part 2 integrates organizational politics with important organizational behavior constructs and/or areas of inquiry, for example in the chapter by Lisa Le.

Maintaining workplace diversity is an important legal and ethical issue in modern organizations. However, demographic heterogeneity might discourage the development of shared leadership in work teams as individuals are inherently not inclined to share leadership roles with dissimilar others. The present study is designed to investigate how political skill assists team members to overcome interpersonal dissimilarities and become engaged in mutual influence with their peers. By studying 63 student project teams using multiwave, multisource surveys, we find that team demographic faultlines on gender and race are negatively associated with shared leadership magnitude and therefore discourage team task performance. However, such destructive direct (on shared leadership magnitude) and indirect (on team performance) effects of team demographic faultlines can be mitigated when the team is staffed with many politically skilled members. Our findings bring important implications for organizations in building and encouraging shared leadership, especially in newly formed professional work teams.

The present study tested por tions of an expanded Ferris and Judge (1991) framework regarding influence processes in human resources decisions and actions. In particular, the roles of political skill and a particularly efficacious influence tactic, rationality, were examined with respect to their interactive effects on supervisor perceptions and evaluations. Online questionnaires were used to collect data from full-time, non-faculty employees of a large south-eastern US public university. To avoid problems associated with common method variance resulting from same source data, supervisors rated subordinates on outcome measures and subordinates supplied data on predictors. The final sample was comprised of a matched dyadic data set of 291 subordinates and their supervisors. Results indicated support for the hypotheses. Specifically, political skill was found to directly relate to the use of rationality and moderate the positive relationship between rationality and two supervisory perceptions known to affect supervisor ratings of job performance, notably supervisor liking of subordinates and perceived similarity to subordinates. Further, perceptions of liking and similarity were positively related to supervisor ratings of both task performance and two important contextual job performance components. Implications of the results, strengths and limitations of the research, and directions for future research are discussed.

PurposeThe current paper seeks to bring the political perspective to gender differences in promotion decisions, a phenomenon with great longevity in research and practice. Specifically, the degree to which gender role‐congruent and counterstereotypical influence behavior is related to liking as moderated by political skill.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample ofn=136, these hypotheses were tested in retail organizations in the Northeast and Southwest.FindingsPolitical skill significantly moderates the relationship between ingratiation and liking, such that use of ingratiation was positively related to liking when women were high in political skill. However, the relationship between assertiveness and liking was unchanged by political skill level and was unrelated to liking. Liking was consistently found to be positively related to promotability ratings.Research limitations/implicationsQuestionnaire data collection is used exclusively; however, the subordinate and supervisor data were collected at two different times.Practical implicationsThe results are relevant for employees in that they imply a need for them to be cognizant of their behavior as it relates to social role expectations and for supervisors to understand the factors that could contribute to lower ratings.Social implicationsThe current results suggest that gender role‐congruent influence behavior is positively related to socially relevant evaluations (i.e. liking); thus, women whose behavior is consistent with social expectations may be more positively evaluated.Originality/valueThis study provides a political explanation for differences in women's promotability and also investigates mechanisms that may be related to reducing promotability disparity.

Research has generally revealed only a weak link, if any at all, between victimization-related experiences and job performance. Drawing on the commonly used conservation of resources perspective, we argue that such inconsistent evidence in the organizational literature stems from an over-focus on personal resources at the expense of considering the role of social resources. Victimization is an interpersonal phenomenon with social ramifications. Its effects may be better captured when measured from the standpoint of the social environment, and analyzed relative to an employee's capacity to effectively regulate those social resources. With the latter capacity being encapsulated by the construct of political skill, we conducted two studies to explore the moderating influence of employee political skill on the relationship between employee perceptions of a victimizing work environment and employee task performance. In Study 1, employees with low political skill exhibited reduced task performance when perceiving a victimizing environment, and this link was found to be mediated by tension in Study 2. Those with high political skill exhibit no change in performance across victimization perceptions in Study 2, yet an increase in performance in Study 1. We discuss our findings relative to the victimization and political skill literatures.

PurposeRecent studies suggest that 84 percent of employees are affected in some manner by workplace bullies. The current study aims to integrate theory from social information processing and political skill to explain how bullies can successfully navigate the social and political organizational environment and achieve higher ratings of performance.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire, archival performance data, and social networks methodology were employed in a health services organization in order to capture the individual differences and social perception of bullies in the workplace.FindingsWhile victims are usually targeted due to their social incompetence, on some occasions bullies can possess high levels of social ability. Due to their social competence, they are able to strategically abuse coworkers and yet be evaluated positively by their supervisor.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is the first attempt to measure the high performance of bullies who thrive in the workplace. Future research could investigate the ways in which bullies select their targets and the role of an abusive organizational climate in their subsequent effectiveness.Practical implicationsCompanies and researchers should consider how organizational interventions could serve to balance bullying behavior in a manner that limits deviant behavior while rewarding high performers.Originality/valueThe current paper applies a social effectiveness framework (social information processing (SIP)) as a lens through which to explain bullies who maintain high levels of performance ratings. The application of this theory to bullying leads to a functional perspective of workplace deviance.

This research expands the study of political skill, a construct developed in North America, to other cultures. We examine the psychometric properties of the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) and test the measurement equivalence of the scale in a non-American context. Respondents were 1511 employees from China, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. The cross-cultural generalizability of the construct is established through consistent evidence of multi-group invariance in an increasingly stringent series of analyses of mean and covariance structures. Overall, the study provides systematic evidence that political skill can be treated as a stable construct among diverse cultural groups. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that translated PSI measures operationalize the construct similarly. With some exceptions, the item loadings and intercepts are invariant for the US and non-US responses, suggesting partial measurement equivalence. After verifying the accuracy of item translation, we conclude that any differences can be explained by variation in the cultural value of uncertainly avoidance and cultural differences on a low-to-high context continuum. Detected dissimilarities are addressed, and some suggestions regarding the correct use across borders of the instrument by managers and researchers are provided.

The novel coronavirus disease that emerged at the end of 2019 began threatening the health and lives of millions of people after a few weeks. Highly contagious with the possibility of causing severe respiratory disease, it has quickly impacted governments and public health systems. These have responded by declaring a public health emergency of national and international concern, as well as by adopting extraordinary measures to prevent the contagion and limit the outbreak. Millions of lives have been significantly altered, and a global, multi-level, and demanding stress-coping-adjustment process is ongoing. The COVID-19 disease has now achieved pandemic status. The World Health Organization has issued guidelines for managing the problem from both biomedical and psychological points of view. While preventive and medical action is the most important at this stage, emergency psychological crisis interventions for people affected by COVID-19 are also critical. This includes direct interventions for patients, and indirect for relatives, caregivers, and health care professionals. After the first experiences in China, clinical institutions and universities internationally have opened online platforms to provide psychological counseling services for affected people. Nevertheless, some research has underlined that the mental health of COVID-19 patients (including confirmed patients, patients with suspected infection, quarantined family members, and health care workers) has been poorly considered and handled. Moreover, in order to develop psychological interventions for all or specific (e.g., more vulnerable) groups, important issues to address include the adverse psychological impacts and psychopathological symptoms in the general population during the pandemic. The goal of this Research Topic is to stimulate novel investigations and theoretical perspectives on how people are psychologically affected by and coping with the COVID-19 emergency. We intend for this article collection to be a discussion platform on how to help people cope with and adjust to the critical situation. Specific aims include reducing the risk of developing distress, improving well-being, as well as promoting preventive behaviors. Further, this Research Topic aims to offer governments and policymakers evidence-based strategies to improve public and clinical intervention systems. Finally, we aim to elucidate strategies to effectively manage mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic. Original Research, Data Reports, Study Protocols, Community Case Studies, Case Reports, theoretical perspectives, and viewpoints are welcome. Important subject areas of this Research Topic include: • Individual, family, and interpersonal coping with the COVID-19 emergency; • Risk factors of psychological distress at the individual, family, interpersonal and cultural level (e.g., activity restriction and reduction of pleasant events; personality traits; hypochondria and cyberchondria; mental disorders; family characteristics; social support, etc.); • Impact of mass media and social media on psychological attitudes and behaviors towards the COVID-19 emergency; • Coping as a health professional during the epidemic (e.g., emotions, psychological burdens, anxiety, traumatic experiences, PTSD); • Clinical and health-based psychological interventions for sufferers, high-risk individuals, and those living in the worst-hit communities; • Clinical emergency protocols to manage mental health problems: evidence-based suggestions and indications to governments and policymakers; • Behavior-change interventions to improve adherence and compliance with preventive regulations and guidance; • Internet interventions, remote psychological support, mHealth-eHealth based treatments, psychology-oriented digital tools and apps in the COVID-19 emergency; • Monitoring changes in psychological, behavioral and interpersonal responses to the COVID-19 emergency over time; • Cross-cultural comparisons in responding to and coping with the COVID-19 emergency at the individual, family, and interpersonal levels.