The Moderating Effect of Teamwork Perceptions on the Organizational Politics-Job Satisfaction Relationship Authors: Matthew Valle L.A. Witt Presented By: Heather Rowe Matt Montez

Organizational Politics Article defines Organizational politics as actions that: –are inconsistent with accepted organizational norms, –are designed to promote self-interest, –and are taken without regard for, and even at the expense of, organizational goals. Example: –Sabotaging others and withholding bad but important news from decision makers so that one may be viewed as a "team player" are examples of political behaviors.

Empirical Research *Research done by Ferris, Russ, and Fandt (1989) Research has indicated relationships between perceptions of organizational politics and negative individual outcomes, including: – higher levels of absence –turnover intentions –anxiety –stress –lower levels of job satisfaction – organizational commitment –job performance –organizational citizenship

Politics and Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction has been the most frequently examined outcome of politics. Organizational politics affects both the economic and social aspects of the employer-employee relationship. Kacmar and Baron consistently indicated that individuals reporting high levels of politics expressed lower levels of job satisfaction than did those perceiving low levels of organizational politics.

Hypothesis Hypothesis 1: Perceptions of organizational politics are negatively related to expressions of job satisfaction. Hypothesis 2: Perceptions of politics are more strongly related to job satisfaction among individuals who perceive low levels of teamwork importance than among those who perceive high levels of teamwork importance.

Participants and Procedure Participants were 355 white-collar employees of a private sector, customer-service organization in the eastern United States. They voluntarily completed a survey during working hours. Responses to the background section of the survey indicated that 20% of the respondents classified themselves as members of an "ethnic minority group" 64% were women, and 20% identified themselves as having supervisory status. Their responses to the question about tenure in the organization were as follows: (a) 9% at less than 12 months, (b) 36% at 1 to 3 years, (c) 38% at 4 to 10 years, (d) 10% at 10 to 15 years, and (e) 7% at more than 16 years.

Measures Perceptions of politics were measured using a Likert- type scale with higher scores reflecting higher levels of organizational politics. –“Promotions go to top performers” –"Favoritism, not merit, gets people ahead" –“There is a spirit of teamwork and cooperation across all departments at [organization name],"

Analysis and Results The analysis confirmed hypothesis 1 and 2 It revealed that the relationship between politics perceptions and job satisfaction was stronger among employees reporting low levels of teamwork importance than among individuals reporting high levels of teamwork importance. Teamwork importance was relevant to job satisfaction only when employees perceived average-to-high levels of organizational politics.

Reducing the Impact of Organizational Politics Researchers have reported that high levels of understanding decreases the impact of politics on: – job anxiety – attendance – job satisfaction –self-promotional political behavior – job performance –and organizational commitment Efforts to increase the importance of teamwork may be an appropriate managerial approach to reducing politics by increasing employees' understanding and control, mainly in organizations whose strategic objectives call for employees to work in teams.

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