Public Defence of PhD Management Dissertation

 

 

The proceedings will also be accessible through Zoom. Click here to access the Zoom meeting.

 

The extant scholarship on political skill characterizes it as a social savvy, personal style construct, which is associated with positive personal and organizational outcomes. However, this study takes a counterintuitive view to the generally accepted positive notion of political skill and highlights its potential dark side. Taking insights from its earliest conceptualization, rooted in power and politics domains, this study demonstrates that despite being a positive interpersonal resource, political skill can also produce dysfunctional outcomes in the form of self-serving counterproductive work behaviors. Borrowing insights from approach and inhibition theory of power as an overarching framework and building on Pfeffer’s assumption of political skill being an effective tool to achieve power in organizations, this study adds to the body of knowledge in organizational politics. It also bears significant implications for the research in power and counterproductive work behaviors. Results from a sample of 250 employees from the private sector of Pakistan revealed that political skill is indirectly related to counterproductive work behavior through power and this relationship was found to be moderated by perceptions of organizational politics and ethical culture as important boundary conditions. The study informs managers about the possible pitfalls of having more political skill and necessitates the keen appreciation of the context, which plays an extremely important role in bringing out its dark side. Contributions and implications of this research, strengths, and limitations, and directions for future study are discussed.