Figure 1.
Job Satisfaction Regressed On Perceptions of
Organizational Politics: Low, Average, and High PDM Scores

Moderating Effect of PDM

Job Satisfaction

14

3
13.15
12.1 F
1LaF

Level of PDM
“Low —t Avg 7K High

10.1 |

25

Organizational Politics

Note: Y = (-.204 + .006)X + (-.179f + 21.51), where f = one standard deviation below the mean
of PDM (or the mean of PDM or one standard deviation above the mean of PDM), Y = the job satisfac-
tion score, and X = the politics score.

*U.S.GP0:1992-661-063/40078

12


quences of organizational politics on job satisfac-
tion more so than employees who make the
decisions or whose supervisors make decisions
for them. Indeed, such a joint decision provides
both joint ownership and understanding, which
may generate feelings of security and protection
in a political environment.

This notion is consistent with findings in both
the PDM and organizational politics literatures.
Baumgartel (1957) reported that employee perfor-
mance, job satisfaction, and positive attitudes
toward the supervisor were higher among emp-
loyees whose supervisors engaged in participa-
tion, were lowest among employees whose
supervisors directed activities with no discussion,
and were intermediate among employees whose
supervisors who took a laissez faire (subordinate
decides) approach. An argument in the organiza-
tional politics literature (Cobb, 1986a, 1986b;
March & Simon, 1958; Tushman, 1977) suggests
that uncertainty is central in the development of
political behaviors. Empirically identified uncer-
tainty-related antecedents of organizational poli-
tics include: (a) a disparity between formal
authority and actual influence (Dalton, 1959), (b)
incomplete. knowledge about cause and effect
{Tushman, 1977), (c) the absence of objective
performance standards (Pfeffer, 1978), (d) re-
wards based on non-performance criteria
(Robbins, 1979), (e) decisions about important
issues made in secrecy (Pfeffer, 1978), (f) over-
all uncertainty (Madison, et al., 1980), (g)
concerns for career success (Luthans, Hodgetts,
& Rosenkrantz, 1988), (h) career stage, con-
fidence, and maturity (DuBrin, 1978, 1988;
Schein, 1978), and (i) a discussed disagreement
over outcomes (Tushman, 1977). High levels of
PDM are likely to reduce uncertainty between the
subordinate and supervisor, as the subordinate
will have a consensually-developed decision and
some anticipation of the supervisor’s responses to
outcomes.

Affect and the Problem of Method Variance

The notion of method variance (Podsakoff &
Organ, 1986) suggests that collecting data with a
single type of. measurement leads to an artificially
inflated relationship between the constructs
measured, because the ratings for each individual

may share a single information processing and
dispositional basis. Implicit in this argument is
the notion that individual disposition influences
the relationships of interest. A problem in assess-
ing method variance has involved identifying the
disposition that underlies job attitudes and then
measuring the operationalized disposition. Recent
advances in the affect iiterature provide a means
of approaching a resolution to this problem.

Factor analytic studies of self-reported mood
have indicated that negative affect (NA) and
positive affect (PA) are the two dominant and
relatively independent dimensions (Diener &
Emmons, 1985). Watson and Clark (1984)
argued that the tendency to experience negative
or positive affect reflects a stable, ongoing
disposition. They stated (p. 483) that "high-NA
individuals are more likely to report distress,
discomfort, and dissatisfaction over time and
regardless of the situation, even in the absence of
any overt or objective source of stress." These
individuals focus on their disappointments,
mistakes, and shortcomings, generally taking a
negative perspective of life experiences. Low-
NA persons, on the other hand, tend to be more
self-secure, calm, and satisfied, adopting a more
resilient approach to setbacks and focusing less
on daily frustrations. Watson and Clark (1984)
stressed that negative affect represents subjective
differences in temperament, mood, and cognitive
orientation rather than an index of psychological
health. Individuals high in PA are characterized
by high energy, full concentration, and pleasura-
ble engagement, whereas low-PA individuals
typically experience sadness and lethargy. Pre-
vious research (e.g., Levin & Stokes, 1989;
Witt, 1991) has demonstrated the utility of affect
as a predictor of job attitudes, suggesting that
dispositional affect may confound relationships
between self-reported job attitudes and other
variables of interest.

The Present Study

Following the literature cited above, the
primary purpose of the present study was to test
the hypotheses that perceptions of organizational
politics would be negatively related to job satis-
faction and that participation in decision-making
woukd moderate that relationship. Given the often


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M. (1981). The ethics of organizational
politics. Academy of Management Review, 6,
363-374.

Cobb, A. T. (1984). An episodic model of
power: Toward an integration of theory and
research. Academy of Management Review,
9, 482-493.

Cobb, A. T. (1986a). Informal influence in the
formal organization. Group and Organiza-
tional Studies, 11, 229-253.

Cobb, A. T. (1986b). Political diagnosis: Ap-
plications in organizational development. Aca-
demy of Management Review, 11, 482-496.

Cobb, A. T., & Margulies, N. (1981). Organiza-
tion development: A political perspective.
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Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied Multiple
Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Be-
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Cotton, J. L., Vollrath, D. A., Froggatt, K. L.,
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Dachler, H. P. (1978). The problem nature of
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Dalton, M. (1959). Men Who Manage. New
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Journal of Personality and Social Psycho-
logy, 47, 1105-1117.

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organization and its perception within the
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179.

Drory, A., & Romm, T. (1990). The definition
of organizational politics: A review. Human
Relations, 43, 1133-1154,

DuBrin, A. J. (1978). Winning at Office Politics.
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143-170). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.

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at the Conference on Cross Cultural Studies
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235-256). New York: Springer-Verlag.


managers than to say what you think is right,”
and from “pay and promotion policies are not
politically applied" to "pay and promotion deci-
Sions are consistent with policies." This scale
was selected, because it includes items assessing
both proactive promotion of self-interests (e.g.,
"Generally, people around here build themselves
up by tearing others down") as well as defensive
behaviors (¢.g., “It is safer to agree with mana-
gers than to say what you think is right") as
discussed by Ashforth and Lee (1990). More-
over, it was validated on employee samples
rather than scales developed by other researchers
using university students holding jobs (Drory &
Romm, 1988). Although Kacmar and Ferris
(1991) presented a three-dimension model of
organizational politics, work by Nye and Witt
(1992) suggested a unidimensional model of the
POPS, and this one-factor approach was adopted
here. Item means and standard deviations are
presented in Table 2. High scores reflect percep-
tions of greater levels of organizational politics in
the organization.

TABLE 1. PDM Items, Means, and
Standard Deviations

1, To what extent do you and/or your immediate super-
visor make decisions about your performance apprai-
sal review? (M = 1,63, SD = 81)

2. To what extent do you and/or your immediate super-
visor make decisions about most things? (M = 1.94,
SD = .90)

3. To what extent do you and/or your immediate super-
visor make decisions about communicating informa-
tion outside your work unit? (M = 1.84, SD = .87)

4. To what extent do you and/or your immediate super-
visor make decisions about overall work activities of
your work unit? (M = 1.85, SD = .87)

5. To what extent do you and/or your immediate super-
visor make decisions about what your job duties will
be? (M = 1.80, SD = .86)

6. To what extent do you and/or your immediate super
visor make decisions about how or when you will get
your work done? (M = 1.70, SD = .85)

Positive and negative affect were assessed by
the Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988) PANAS
measure based upon their earlier research indicat-
ing that the experience of positive or negative
affect represents a stable, ongoing dispositional

trait (cf. Watson, & Clark, 1984; Watson et al.,
1988). The PANAS consists of a 10-item Positive
Affect Scale (a = .89, M = 36.04, SD = 7.12)
and a 10-item Negative Affect Scale (w = .86,
M = 16.22, SD = 5.7), respectively. It mea-
sures to what extent the respondent generally
perceives him/herself to experience certain
feelings. Results reported by Watson et al.
(1988) suggest that these measures assess disposi-
tional affect that may be independent of situation-
al influences in which the measure is taken.
Response options were presented on a 5-point,
Likert-type scale (1 = very slightly or not at all;
2 = a little; 3 = moderately; 4 = quite a bit;
and 5 = extremely). High scores indicate high
PA or NA, respectively.

TABLE 2. Organizational Politics Items,
Means, and Standard Deviations

1. It is safer to agree with managers than to say what
you think is right. (M = 3.27, SD = 1.29)

2. There is one group of people (i.e., in an office or
work unit) that usually gets their way here. (M
= 3.63, SD = 1.24)

3. There is one very influential group of workers here
that people know not to cross or get in their way.
(M = 3.39, SD = 1.30)

4. Overall, policy changes are designed to help only
few people here. (M = 3.95, SD = 1.23)

5. Generally, people around here build themselves up
by tearing others down. (M = 3.87, SD = 1.27)

6. Favoritism (not merit) gets people ahead here.
(M = 3.35, SD = 1.37)

7. Around here, it is not smart to speak up, because
there is retaliation against people who do. (M =
3.97, SD = 1.32)

8. Promotions go to top performers. (M = 3.19, SD
= 1.25) [Reverse-scored)

9. Rewards come to hard workers. (M = 3.05, SD =
1.27) [Reverse-scored]

10. Pay and promotion decisions are based solely on
merit. (M = 3.49, SD = 1.19) [Reverse-scored]

11. Pay and promotion decisions are consistent with
policies. (M = 3.04, SD = 1.20) (Reverse-scored}

12, People here are encouraged to speak out. (M =
3.00, SD = 1.22) [Reverse-scored]


assumed, and sometimes demonstrated, impor-
tance of biodata in the prediction of job satisfac-
tion (cf. Brush, Moch, & Pooyan, 1987), biogra-
phical variables were entered into the equation.
In line with concerns for dispositional affect as a
contributor to method variance, PA and NA
scores were included in the analyses. By entering
dispositional affect into the equation before
organizational politics and PDM, the incremental
variance contributed by affect beyond that al-
teady contributed by biodata could be assessed.
Similarly, organizational politics, PDM, and their
cross-product term (to assess the interaction)
were added after the biodata and affect variables
in order to determine the amount of incremental
variance over-and-above the variance contributed
by both biodata and dispositional affect.

METHOD
Subjects and Procedure

Questionnaires were mailed to the 2,103
employees of the Mike Monroney Aeronautical
Center. One thousand eighty-three (53.8%)
employees (61.5% males and 38.5% females)
returned completed questionnaires by mail,
Included were biodata items assessing racial
group, age, tenure, supervisory status, education,
and pay grade. About 20% ‘of the employees
classified themselves as members of a minority
racial group. Responses to the age item were as
follows: ages 17 to 29 (7.9%), 30 to 39
(23.0%), 40 to 49 (39.0%), 50 to 59 (26.6%)
and 60+ years (3.5%). Responses to the item
assessing years in the organization at the current
Site were: less than one year (12.1%), 1 to 3
years (25.9%), 4 to 10 years (26.0%), 11 to 15
years (14.6%), and 16 or more years of service
(21.4%). Supervisory status reported by the
respondents was as follows: non-supervisor
(86.6%), supervisor (9.5%), and manager
(3.9%). The sample was relatively well educated:
12 years or less of formal education (12.9%), 13
to 15 years (51.7%), 16 years (24.5%), and 17
or more years (10.9%). Salary within the Federal
Government is based upon grade level. Re-
sponses to the grade levels item were: grade
fevels 1 to 4 (12.0%), grade levels 5 to 7
(19.2%), grade levels 8 to 10 (9.4%), grade

levels 11 to 13 (43.3%), and grade levels 14+
(16.1%).

Measures

Participation in decision-making (a = .90, M
= 10.77, SD = 4.21) was examined by 6 items
asking respondents to indicate “what best de-
scribes the way you and/or your immediate
supervisor make decisions about:" (a) "your
performance appraisal review," (b) "most
things," (c) "communicating information outside
your work unit," (d) “overall work activities of
your work unit," (e) "what your job duties will
be," and (f) “how or when you will get your
work done." These items were presented on a 5-
point Likert-type scale (1 = “we discuss things
a great deal and come to a decision based on
consensus regarding the issue at hand;" 2 = "we
discuss things a great deal, and his/her decision
is usually adopted;" 3 = "we discuss things a
great deal, and my deci-sion is usually adopted;"
4 = “we don’t discuss things very much, and
his/her decision is usually adopted;" and 5 =
“we don’t discuss things very much, and I make
most of the decisions"). Items 4 and 5 were
recoded as a 1, responses 2 and 3 were recoded
as a 2, and response 1 was recoded as a 3. Item
means and standard deviations are presented in
Table t. A sum of the responses was computed
to provide a total PDM score. High scores reflect
perceptions of greater PDM.

Job satisfaction was measured by the vali-
dated (McNichols, Stahl, & Manley, 1978) 4-
item Hoppock (1935) job satisfaction scale (a =
19, M = 14,22, SD = 2.71). High scores
reflect feelings of high job satisfaction.

Organizational politics was measured by a
revised version of the 12-item Kacmar and Ferris
(1991) Perceptions of Organizational Politics
Scale (POPS; a = .93, M = 38.25, SD =
11.51), Response options were presented on a 5-
point, Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree;
2 = inclined to disagree; 3 = neither disagree
nor agree; 4 = inclined to agree; and 5 =
strongly agree). For this study, the wording was
changed slightly for two of the items -- from “no
place for yes men" to “it is safer to agree with


tions, the results support the hypotheses that
perceptions of organizational politics are nega-
tively related to job satisfaction and that PDM
moderates that relationship.

While some individuals may prefer highly
political work environments because they are
predisposed to thrive in political climates, most
individuals may be less satisfied with their jobs
in such situations. Indeed, it may be difficult to
be job-satisfied when promotions, awards, and/or
pay raises are based on political, rather than
merit considerations, or when there are cliques
closely tied to organization leaders that typically
get their way even at the cost of productivity.

The importance of organizational politics as
a target problem for organizational assessment
and intervention has been increasingly identified
(Bateman, 1980; Cobb, 1986a, 1986b; Cobb &
Margulies, 1981; Margulies & Raia, 1984).
Direct attempts by individual supervisors and
managers to reduce political activity may be
limited in potential for success, because norms of
organizational politics may be beyond the in-
fluences of a single individual. However, a
supervisor or manager may be able to reduce the
negative effects of organizational politics on job
satisfaction by providing more PDM oppor-
tunities for subordinates.

As noted by Witt and Myers (1991), the
importance of PDM as an antecedent of organiza-
tional outcomes has been empirically identified,
yet some managers avoid PDM and sharing
information. Some of these managers may do so
because they do not know how to collaborate
with their workers, while others may explicitly
decide to maintain or exercise power and autho-
rity to keep their people unaware of goings-on,
and others may simply have not thought about
alternative management styles. Some managers
may also believe that they have more information
than subordinates and thus do not engage in what
they may perceive as needless PDM. Whatever
the reason, the present data and the growing
PDM literature provide sufficient evidence to
indicate that efforts to increase PDM may lead to
favorable outcomes, although affective predispos-
ition may affect the extent to which it does.
Nogradi and Koch (1981) argued that providing

additional opportunities for decision-making for
personnel who are involved in fewer than desired
decisions is extremely important from an or-
ganizational perspective. They stressed (p. 157)
that allowing “individuals to move toward a
decisional equilibrium state must be a high
priority for the manager." Indeed, high levels of
PDM are neither always appropriate nor always
wanted.

Additional research is needed to examine: (a)
individual differences in preferences for PDM
levels, (6) voice versus choice aspects of PDM
and their comparative effects on perceived PDM
and related outcomes, and (c) the extent to which
different stages of development or career status
may affect the extent to which PDM reduces the
negative effects of organizational politics on job
satisfaction.

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RESULTS

The intercorrelation matrix is presented in
Table 3. As shown there, the biodata variables
(sex, minority vs. non-minority status, super-
visory status, education, pay grade levels, age,
and time in organization at current site) were
weakly related to perceptions of PDM, percep-
tions of organizational politics, and job satisfac-
tion. However, both PDM (r = .37, p < .01)
and organizational politics scores (r = -.62, p <
.01) were significantly related to job satisfaction
scores. PDM and organizational politics scores
were significantly related (r = -.49, p < .01).
As shown in Table 3, PA and NA scores were
correlated with PDM, organizational politics, and
job satisfaction scores.

Results of the regression analyses are pre-
sented in Table 4. Biodata variables were entered
as a block into a regression equation predicting
job satisfaction scores. As shown in Tabie 4,
they accounted for a modest amount of variance
(R = .04, f = 5.1, p < .01). Positive and
negative affect scores were then entered as one
block into the equation. They added significant
variance over-and-above that contributed by
biodata (A R? = .27, f = 179.6, p < .01). The
biodata and dispositional variables accounted for
a modest amount of the variance in job satisfac-
tion scores (totat adjusted R’ = .30). PDM and
organizational politics scores were then put into
the equation, and they added significant in-
cremental variance (A RF’ = .17, f = 313.2, p
< 01).

Hierarchical moderated multiple regression
analyses (Cohen & Cohen, 1983) were used to
determine whether or not PDM scores moder-
ated the relationship between perceptions of
organizational politics and job satisfaction. As
shown in Table 4, the cross-product term added
a significant albeit small amount of variance to
the equation (4 R° = .01, f = 18.0, p < .01).
Overall, the predictor variables accounted for a
moderate amount of the variance in perceived
job satisfaction scores (total adjusted R° = .48,
f= 745, p < 01).

In order to identify the form of the interac-
tion and thus test the hypothesis that organiza-

tional politics would be less salient to the deve-
lopment of job satisfaction among individuals
perceiving higher levels of PDM, regression
analyses were run without the biodata and affect
scores. By removing them from the equation, it
was possible to cleanly plot the interaction.
Following the approach advocated by Stone and
Hollenbeck (1989), a graph was derived by
plotting three slopes, one for a low PDM score
(one standard deviation below the mean: f =
6.59), one for an average PDM score (at the
mean: f = 10.81), and one for a high PDM
score (one standard deviation above the mean: f
= 15.03).

As shown in Figure 1, among employees
perceiving higher levels of organizational poli-
tics, job satisfaction was highest among those
engaged in higher levels of PDM. In contrast,
among employees perceiving tittle organizational
politics, the moderating effect of PDM was
minimal, as most of these employees expressed
high levels of job satisfaction.

DISCUSSION

Several caveats should be emphasized before
discussing the results. First, the subjects most
likely responded to the survey in one sitting;
thus, these data may be subject .to common
method variance. The inclusion of PA and NA
scores in the equations permitted some assess-
ment of the contributions of PDM and organiza-
tional politics above the variance contributed by
dispositional affect, but other components of
method variance (e.g., cognitive orientation)
were not assessed. Second, the civilian govern-
ment employees sampled in the present study
may not be representative, and replication in the
private sector and military organizations is
needed. Third, these data were cross-sectional,
and a longitudinal design might permit an assess-
ment of causal linkages between job satisfaction,
PDM, organizational politics, and dispositional
affect. Fourth, as noted by Madison, et al.
(1980), reliance on perceptions of organizational
politics may be subject to attributes of self-
serving biases and self-defensive interpretations
of events. Fifth, the immoral vs. moral aspect of
organizational politics (cf. Drory & Romm,
1988) was not examined. Despite these limita-


(Batten & Schwab, 1965; Drory & Romm, 1990;
DuBrin, 1988) and empirical findings (Luthans,
Hodgetts, & Rosenkrantz, 1988) suggesting that
political behavior may be dysfunctional for
organizations. Indeed, it may be difficult to be
happy about job situations in which some in-
dividuals are behaving in an "underhanded" or
“back-door” fashion to meet their objectives at
others’ expense. This rather straightforward
relationship may be intuitively obvious but
simultaneously impervious to intervention. In
other words, there may be limitations on the
extent to which any individual employee and
hisfher supervisor can directly influence and
reduce organizational politics that may be or-
ganization-wide or traditionally inherent in the
culture of an organization or organizational
subsystem,

The present study also examined participation
in decision-making as a possible moderator of the
organizational politics-job satisfaction relationship
-- a moderator in the practical sense through
which individual employees and supervisors may
be able to reduce the negative effects of or-
ganizational politics on job satisfaction.

Participation in Decision-Making

The outcomes of increased worker participa-
tion in decision-making (PDM) have been of
theoretical and practical interest for several
years. Argyris (1964) argued that workers will
manifest responsible adult behaviors only when
their managers realize that they want to be
involved in making decisions. Indeed, “psycholo-
gical folklore” (Greenberg & Folger, 1983, p.
235) suggests that PDM will generally have
positive outcomes. Although empirical investiga-
tions of the effects of PDM have yielded mixed
results (cf. Cotton, Vollrath, Froggatt, Lengnick-
Hall, & Jennings, 1988), a number of positive
outcomes have been identified, including more
favorable job attitudes (Argyris, 1964), improved
employee health (Jackson, 1983), increased
organization information-processing capabilities
(Castrogiovanni & Macy, 1990), and a better
understanding of work tasks (Niehoff, Enz, &
Grover, 1990).

Dachler (1978) suggested that inadequate and

differing definitions of PDM have caused pro-
blems for PDM researchers. Thibaut and Walker
(1975) conceptualized two forms of participation:
(a) choice or decision control, where the par-
ticipant has some control over the outcome, and
(b) voice or process control, where the par-
ticipant articulates his/her interest to the decision-
maker. Voice may include influence over defin-
ing the problem, gathering information bearing
on the decision, and identifying alternatives, but
not making the decision. Cohen (1985) argued
that to the extent subordinates can express opin-
ions to the supervisor, they have a “voice.“

It is suggested here that both voice and choice
reflect PDM. When subordinates make decisions
without discussions with the supervisor, they are
acting autonomously and essentially have choice,
but they are making decisions without the super-
visor’s voice. This reflects a low level of PDM.
A low level of PDM is also reflected in situa-
tions where decisions are made by the supervisor
without discussion, as the subordinate has neither
choice nor voice. Two moderate levels of PDM
occur when: (a) the supervisor usually makes the
decisions following discussion, as both have
voice but the subordinate usually has little
choice; and (b) the subordinate generally makes
the decision after discussion, as both have choice
and voice (the supervisor has choice, because
he/she permitted the subordinate to make the
decision). However, it may be likely that the
supervisor did not engage the issue if the subor-
dinate usually makes the decision, even if the
supervisor has globally assigned permission to
the subordinate to make decisions. When super-
visors and subordinates discuss issues and reach
a decision based on consensus (i.e., a collabora-
tion to find resolution), both have optimal voice
and choice, which results in a high level of
PDM.

Based on this conceptual definition of low,
moderate, and high levels of PDM, it was hypo-
thesized that PDM would moderate the relation-
ship between organizational politics and job
satisfaction. In other words, employees who
actively engage in discussions about important
issues with their supervisors and who, as a
result, develop a consensus to resolve the issues
might be able to reduce the negative conse-


ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS, PARTICIPATION IN
DECISION-MAKING, AND JOB SATISFACTION

Experiential reality suggests that political
behavior is a pervasive force in organizational
life. As noted by several researchers (Farrell &
Peterson, 1982; Mintzberg, 1985; Narayanan &
Fahey, 1982; Porter, Allen, & Angle, 1983;
Vredenburgh & Maurer, 1984), most organiza-
tions possess political norms as part of their
informal structure. Discussed under the concep-
tual rubric of “organizational politics," political
behavior in organizations has received increasing
attention (e.g., Cavanaugh, Moberg, &
Velasquez, 1981; Macher, 1986) since Gandz
and Murray (1980) reported finding very little
empirical research in a literature review of
workplace politics. As noted by Kacmar and
Ferris (1991), organizational political behavior
has been described as both omnipresent and
elusive. They suggested that its elusiveness is
reflective of an inadequate conceptual understand-
ing of organizational politics. Indeed, while we
may “know it when we see it," organizational
politics has not been well defined.

Gandz and Murray (1980) presented two
categories of conceptual work on organizational
politics. In one, writers have defined organiza-
tional politics as an inherent process associated
with the use of power revolving around most
policy decisions (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1974) or
specific policy decisions, such as resource alloca-
tion (Wildavsky, 1964), or executive compensa-
tion (Ungson & Steers, 1984). In the second
category, writers have discussed organizational
politics in terms of self-serving behaviors often
associated with organizational ineffectiveness
(Ashforth & Lee, 1990; Cobb, 1984; Gray &
Ariss, 1985; Martin & Sims, 1974; Mayes &
Allen, 1977; Pettigrew, 1973; Robbins, 1976,
1983; Schein, 1977). With respect to the latter
category, Batten and Schwab (1965, p. 13) wrote
that individuals “engage in company politics
because they ‘believe that they can best achieve
what they want in a devious, indirect, and under-
handed way." Jones (1987) entered a third
category arguing that definitions of organizational
politics should include mutual caring, trust,
tolerance, and sensitivity to others. However,
most definitions focus on the negative conse-

quences of organizational politics. For example,
Frost and Hayes (1977, p. 8) wrote that political
behaviors are:

“... the activities of organization mem-
bers...when they use resources to enhance or
protect their share of an exchange...in ways
which would be resisted, or ways in which
the impact would be resisted, if recognized
by the other party(ies) to the exchange."

Similarly, Vredenburgh and Maurer (1984, p.
50) suggested that organizational politics:

(a) is undertaken by individuals or interest
groups to influence directly or indirectly
target individuals, roles, or groups toward the
actor’s personal goals, generally in opposition
to others’ goals, (b) consists of goals or
Means either not positively sanctioned by an
organization’s formal design or positively
sanctioned by unofficial norms, and (c) is
objective and subjective in nature, involving
real organization events as well as perceptual
attributions.

Drory and Romm (1990) suggested that the
domain of organizational politics should include
any organizationally-controlled event desirable
for the individual. Such an approach would make
difficult operationalization of organizational
politics. In contrast, Kacmar and Ferris (1991)
argued that organizational politics may best be
conceived as having three elements, namely
general political behavior, going along to get
ahead, and pay and promotion.

Following Ferris, Russ, and Fandt’s (1989)
call for work to assess both the antecedents and
consequences of political behavior in organiza-
tions, the present study examined the relationship
between perceptions of organizational politics and
job satisfaction. Specifically, it was hypothesized
that individuals working amidst high levels of
organizational politics would feel less satisfied
with their jobs (i.e., that organizational politics
and job satisfaction would be negatively related).
This hypothesis is consistent with argumeats


Technical Report Documentation Page

J. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No.

DOT/FAA/AM-92/17

4. Title ond Subtitle 5. Report Date

April 1992
ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS, PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-
MAKING, AND JOB SATISFACTION §. Performing Orgamzation Code
7 howaaT 8. Performing Organization Report No.
L. A. Witt, Ph.D.
9. Pertorming Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS)
FAA Civil Aeromedical Institute We
P. O. Box 25082 ~ Contract or Grant No.

Oklahoma City, OK 73125

13. Type of Report and Period Covered

12. Sponsoring Agency Name ond Address,

Office of Aviation Medicine
Federal Aviation Administration

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20591

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. Supplementary Notes

This work was performed under task AM-C-92-HRR-122.

16. Abstroet

The study tested two hypotheses: (a) that organizational politics as measured by the Kacmar and Ferris (1991)
Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale would be negatively related to feelings of job satisfaction; and (b)
that participation in decision-making (PDM) would moderate that relationship. In line with concerns for
dispositional affect as a contributor to-method variance and the possibility that biodata may explain some of the
effects of organizational politics and PDM on job satisfaction, dispositional affect and biodata variables were
included in the analyses. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses conducted on data collected from
1,083 Federal employees confirmed the hypotheses.

17, Key Words 18. Distribution Statement
Organizational Politics Document is available to the
Participation in Decision-making public through the National
Job Satisfaction Technical Information Service,
Springfield, Virginia 22161
19, Security Clossif. (of this report) 20. Security Clossif. (of this poge) 21. No. of Pages | 22, Price
Unclassified Unclassified 15

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72)

Reproduction of completed page authorized


TABLE 3.
Intercorrelation Matrix

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 #10 it
1, Sex
2. Minority/Non-Minority .05
3. Supervisor Status -.16  .04
4. Education 23.02.20
5. Grade levels -.35 -.03 26 .37
6. Age -19 -.01) 13 00 .25
7. Time in current org. -05 .05 17 02 30 .48
8. PDM 07 04 .14 -.02 -.03 -.03 -.01
9. Organizational Politics OL .04 -.21 -05 -09 01 .07 -.49
10. Job Satisfaction 10.00) 11 -.07 -05 .04 -.06 .37 -.62
11. Positive Affect 04 03 15 -.01 -.02 .02 -.10 .28 -.33 44
12. Negative Affect -.03 -.02 -.03 -.02 -.02 -03 .06 -.23 42 -.41 -.33

Note: Correlations > r = .06 are p < .05. Correlations > r = .09 are p < .01 (2-tailed tests
of significance).

TABLE 4,
Results of Hierarchical Regression Analyses
Predicting Job Satisfaction

Predictor Variable(s) AR? F p<
Biodata 04 5.1 OL
Addition of PANAS scores 27 179.6 OL
Addition of PDM and politics scores 17 313.2 Ot
Addition of interaction term OL 18.0 01

11