Political Skill as a Predictor of Performance and Work Relationship Quality

This study investigates the relationship between political skill and multi-faceted job performance as well as work relationship quality. Political skill is “the ability to effectively understand others at work and to use such knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance one’s personal and/or organizational objectives” (Ferris, 2005, p. 127). Ferris (2005) specifically provided four underlying dimensions of political skill: networking ability, apparent sincerity, social astuteness, and interpersonal influence. Prior meta-analytic evidence supports a significant positive correlation between political skill and task performance (r = .26; Munyon et al., 2015). While the relationship with job performance has received a good deal of research attention, less is known about how political skill may impact interpersonal relationships at work. Some evidence suggests that political skill can relate to interpersonal citizenship behavior (Andrews, Kacmar, & Harris, 2009), but specific relationship quality has not been sufficiently examined. The present study tested the relationship between political skill and performance in a diverse employee sample (N = 752) that was recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. In addition, we examined political skill as a predictor of relationship quality with both coworkers and supervisors. We examined these relationships using a longitudinal design, with political skill measured at Time 1 and performance and relationship quality measured two months later at Time 2. Using a series of regression analyses, we found support that political skill was positively related to performance, assessed as task performance, co-worker support, and teamwork, and positively related to both supervisor and co-worker relationship quality. When examined at the subscale level, there were some nuances in which aspects of political skill related to performance domain and relationship quality. We expect that our results could have implications for Industrial-Organizational psychology, in clarifying the literature on the outcomes of political skill. In addition, our results could have practical implications for the development of interpersonal skills training and leadership development