A Multi-Source, Multi-Study Investigation of Job Performance Prediction by Political Skill

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL REVIEW, 2011, 60 (3), 449474
doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2011.00443.x
A Multi-Source, Multi-Study Investigation of Job

Performance Prediction by Political Skill
Gerhard Blickle*
University of Bonn, Germany
Gerald R. Ferris
Florida State University, USA
Timothy P. Munyon
West Virginia University, USA
Tassilo Momm, Ingo Zettler and Paula B. Schneider

University of Bonn, Germany
M. Ronald Buckley
University of Oklahoma, USA
Political skill is a social effectiveness construct with a demonstrated capacity to

predict job performance. However, because performance prediction research in
this area to date has made exclusive use of self-reports of political skill, and due
to frequent distrust of self-ratings of constructs in important personnel decisions, there is a need to investigate how multiple alternative sources of political
skill and job performance measures relate, thus raising both theoretical and
methodological issues. In three studies, employing a triadic data collection
methodology, and utilising both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, this
research tested the hypotheses that employee political skill, measured from the
perspective of employees assessor A, will positively predict job performance
rated by assessor B (i.e. Hypothesis 1a), and vice versa, that employee political
skill measured by assessor B will predict job performance ratings measured by
assessor A (i.e. Hypothesis 1b).
* Address for correspondence: Gerhard Blickle, Arbeits-, Organisations- und Wirtschaftspsychologie, Institut fuer Psychologie, Universitaet Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111 Bonn,
Germany. Email: gerhard.blickle@uni-bonn.de
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Daniela Noethen and Jutta Solga for their
support in the data collection process, and to the German Research Foundation (DFG) which
supported this research (Az: Bl 385, 6-2).
2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2011 International
Association of Applied Psychology. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington
Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
450
BLICKLE ET AL.
INTRODUCTION
Historically, job performance was evaluated as a function of the quantity
and quality of employee output in a manufacturing or agrarian context.
The widespread use of bureaucratic supervisory models also clarified
chains of command, simplifying the performance evaluation process.
However, the modern workplace offers significant challenges for employee
performance evaluation (e.g. Ferris, Munyon, Basik, & Buckley, 2008b).
This departure from traditional forms of bureaucracy has placed new
requirements on employees to perform in sometimes ambiguous roles, with
potentially divergent interests, and multiple audiences and assessors
(Cascio, 1995). Furthermore, Semadar, Robins, and Ferris (2006) noted
that todays competitive environment has magnified the importance of
skills that facilitate effective interpersonal exchanges and performance for
many jobs.
One such pattern of competencies is reflected in the political skill
construct, defined as: The ability to effectively understand others at work,
and to use such knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance
ones personal and/or organizational objectives (Ferris, Treadway, Kolodinsky, Hochwarter, Kacmar, Douglas, & Frink, 2005, p. 127). Theoretically, Ferris and his colleagues (Ferris, Treadway, Perrew, Brouer,
Douglas, & Lux, 2007; Ferris et al., 2005) have argued that politically
skilled individuals possess social awareness, which is combined with an
ability to adjust and calibrate behavior to different situations in a genuine
and sincere manner. This competency inspires both the support and trust of
others, and theoretically influences their attitudinal and behavioral
responses.
Theoretically, political skill enables individuals to adapt their behavior
and influence to various situational and interpersonal demands (Ferris
et al., 2007). In modern organisations, this implies that politically skilled
individuals should be able to manage potentially divergent interests in a
manner that inspires consistent, and positive, ratings of both task and contextual performance from multiple assessors. However, prior dyadic and
self-report designs have not enabled a direct test of this vital theoretical
assumption.
Yet, there has been some inconsistency in the results linking political skill
and job performance (Blickle, Meurs, Zettler, Solga, Noethen, Kramer, &
Ferris, 2008; Ferris et al., 2005; Jawahar, Meurs, Ferris, & Hochwarter,
2008). Accordingly, there is a need to test the consistency of political skill and
performance assessments across assessors and time. In order to adequately
address these issues, we conducted a three-study investigation designed to
test the political skilljob performance relationship and critical underlying
assumptions.
Association of Applied Psychology.
POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
451
Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

Theoretical Issues. A key tenet of political perspectives on organisations
is that reality often is enacted and socially constructed between individuals,
and that individual perceptions of performance necessarily are more influential than the objective conditions of ones behaviors and aggregate contribution (e.g. Ferris et al., 2008b). This theoretical perspective has identified
individual competencies that influence ones ability to succeed in the social
environment of work, especially projecting images that influence assessments
of performance. The most useful performance predictors are those that
maximise the variance explained in performance and demonstrate crosssituational consistency, and political skill meets these requirements.
Politically skilled individuals understand themselves and others in social
interactions, so they are able to adjust their behavior to best fit the situation,
and to do so in a sincere and genuine manner that inspires trust, and effectively influences the responses of others (Ferris et al., 2007). This ability
transmits a calm sense of self-confidence that influences others perceptions
of the individuals competence and credibility (Ferris et al., 2007), which
should result in favorable evaluations by others of these politically skilled
individuals task performance (i.e. ability to execute the activities of the job)
as well as their extra-role, personal initiative, or contextual performance (e.g.
Jawahar et al., 2008).
Individuals high in political skill are effective at enhancing their performance reputations because they demonstrate behaviors that transmit signals
resulting in the development of favorable images to others through their
proactive network-building activities and use of situationally appropriate
influence tactics (Ferris et al., 2007). Accordingly, we would expect a significant level of inter-rater reliability in assessments of employee political skill as
evidence of this adaptation that such individuals demonstrate. Second, singular assessments of performance may be inadequate to describe the full
extent of an employees job performance, particularly since employees often
engage interdependently with one another. Thus, political skill would need to
predict employee job performance across multiple assessors to demonstrate
this consistent effect.
This research suggests a positive link between political skill and job
performance (see Ferris et al., 2007, for a review). However, empirical
research on this relationship remains equivocal for a number of reasons.
First, performance assessment necessarily is complex, reflecting multiple relational and social components between assessors and assessees (Ferris et al.,
2008b). Accordingly, assessments of performance may not necessarily reflect
the objective performance of the employee, but also may include the
context surrounding the performance, thus adding noise to performance
assessments.
452
BLICKLE ET AL.
Next, structural distance (i.e. opportunities for interaction) theoretically

influences the quality and quantity of information regarding performance
between assessors and assessees (Napier & Ferris, 1993), which occurs for at
least two reasons. First, low levels of distance enable assessors to gather
greater amounts of information on assessee behavior, contributing toward
accuracy in performance assessments. Second, low levels of distance enable
assessees to better understand and manage impressions of assessors, and
adapt their behavior to the unique needs of the work context. Therefore,
greater accuracy would be anticipated for political skill and performance
assessments when assessors and assessees engage with one another in close
(i.e. low distance) proximity, holding other factors constant. Thus, it is
important to include these variables to understand their specific influence on
the direct political skilljob performance relationship.
Methodological Issues. Methodological considerations also drive the
motivation behind this study. First, self-assessments of constructs like political skill have been questioned from a construct validity perspective because
demand characteristics may operate, and individuals may respond in a
socially desirable fashion (Ferris et al., 2005). Furthermore, although the
correlations between self- and other-assessments of political skill have been
found to be statistically significant, they are only modest in magnitude (e.g.
rs average around .32; Semadar, 2004; Liu, 2006). Therefore, we suggest that
there is a need to investigate the potency of political skill as a predictor of job
performance when both the political skill and job performance constructs are
measured using information gathered from different assessment sources (i.e.
other-assessments).
This is not to suggest that self-assessments of constructs have no value, nor
do we believe that they necessarily result in questionable construct validity.
Instead, we propose that because most of the research to date has measured
political skill solely using self-assessments in the prediction of job performance, and that job performance typically is measured from a single
supervisor/assessor perspective, we need to verify that similar results would
be obtained if we used alternative source measurement of the constructs.
Although this appears, on the surface, to be a purely methodological issue, it
has quite serious theoretical implications as well regarding the very nature of
the constructs, as theory and method are inextricably intertwined in organisational research. Furthermore, because assessment source can pose a potential boundary condition on the political skilljob performance relationship,
examination of this responds to an appeal by Ferris, Hochwarter, Douglas,
Blass, Kolodinsky, and Treadway (2002) for such effects on that relationship.
In particular, the true measure of the robustness of the construct of political skill, and its construct and criterion-related validity, would be to go
beyond self-assessments in new and different ways. That is, assessing an
453
employees political skill by a supervisor/assessor, who is in a position to

accurately evaluate such competencies, and relating such assessments to
measures of that employees job performance provided by another
supervisor/assessor, who is in a position to accurately evaluate the employees performance, potentially could effectively address both the theoretical
and methodological considerations created by previous research.
Organisational scientists have argued strongly for evidence of construct
validity, which involves the correspondence between the conceptual and
operational definitions of a construct (Edwards, 2003; Schwab, 1980). Unfortunately, self-assessments can vary in accuracy of measurement, for a number
of reasons, including susceptibility to faking (e.g. Birkeland, Manson,
Kisamore, Brannick, & Smith, 2006), which is an intentional problem, and
the various unintentional false reports referred to as flawed self assessments (Dunning, Heath, & Suls, 2004), where individuals honestly
report things that are wrong. Therefore, we should consider the use of
multiple other sources of assessments (and the convergence among them)
in order to maximise our confidence that construct validity has been
demonstrated.
Scholars (Barrick, Mount, & Judge, 2001; Connolly, Kavanagh, & Viswesvaran, 2007) have appealed for more research using construct assessments
generated from an observer of the situation (i.e. rather than exclusive reliance
on self-reported assessments), because little is known about the extent to
which assessments made by others influence criterion-related validity (Burch
& Anderson, 2008). A more informed understanding of the political skilljob
performance assessment relationship could benefit from systematic consideration of contextual factors that can influence performance assessments, and
from gathering assessments of both constructs from multiple sources. The
present investigation formulates the following hypotheses, which are tested in
a three-study design that includes triads involving a target employee being
evaluated by two different assessors:
Hypothesis 1a: Employee political skill, measured from the perspective of assessor
A, will positively predict job performance ratings, and thus explain a significant
portion of variability in job performance, rated by the employees other assessor
(i.e. assessor B).
Hypothesis 1b: Employee political skill, measured from the perspective of assessor
B, will positively predict job performance, and thus explain a significant portion of
variability in job performance, rated by the employees other assessor (i.e. assessor
A).
A final issue here concerns whether to focus on the overall composite

measure of political skill in this research, or to use the four underlying
dimensions of the construct (i.e. social astuteness, interpersonal influence,
454
BLICKLE ET AL.
networking ability, and apparent sincerity). Although the four-factor dimensionality of political skill has been established empirically in several studies
(Ferris et al., 2007), most scholars have reported their research only in terms
of the overall construct, largely because theory development in this relatively
new area has not developed specific differential predictions for dimensions of
political skill.
This lack of theoretical development concerning the specific dimensions,
in addition to the results of a recent investigation by Ferris, Blickle,
Schneider, Kramer, Zettler, Solga, Noethen, and Meurs (2008a) (i.e. providing strong support for both the four-dimension factorial validity of
political skill, as well as, in a second-order analysis, demonstrating that the
four factors also can be adequately represented by a single higher-order
dimension; thus, confirming the legitimacy of examining political skill at
either the overall composite construct level, or at the specific dimension
level) led us to employ just the overall composite measure of political skill
in the present investigation.
Plan of the Research

This three-study, multi-source investigation was conducted in order to establish tests of the hypotheses regarding the multi-source assessment and prediction of job performance from political skill (i.e. in Study 1), and to attempt
to constructively replicate (Study 2) and extend those results (i.e. in Study 3).
In Study 1, assessors rated overall performance; subordinates, peers, and
supervisors served as assessors, and targets selected the assessors, in a concurrent, cross-sectional design. In Study 2, we conducted a longitudinal,
predictive study attempting to validate the political skilljob performance
relationship, using a different performance measure (i.e. personal initiative),
and multi-source assessment of predictors and criteria, designed to constructively replicate (e.g. Lykken, 1968) the results from Study 1. In Study 3,
assessors rated task performance, job dedication, and interpersonal facilitation of target employees (i.e. extending this replication to other aspects of
performance); only supervisors served as assessors, and they selected the
targets.
STUDY 1: METHOD
Sample
Target individuals from different jobs and different organisations were contacted by the researchers at a large German university, and surveys were
mailed to 610 persons currently holding permanent jobs. Target participants
were asked to provide self-assessments of political skill and information
455
concerning gender, age, weekly working hours, and occupational status.

Also, targets were asked to select two assessors (i.e. supervisors, peers, or
subordinates) who knew the target well enough to assess their work behavior
and job performance. Targets and assessors received return envelopes.
In 190 cases (31.2%), two assessors returned ratings of targets political
skill and job performance. Of these targets, 38.2 per cent were female and
61.8 per cent were male. Target mean age was 42.3 years (SD = 11.56), and
they reported an average of 43.6 (SD = 12.7) working hours per week. Of
the targets, 2 per cent (n = 4) were unskilled and manual labor employees,
8.9 per cent (n = 17) were clerical workers or owners of small businesses,
27.4 per cent (n = 52) belonged to the administrative personnel, were minor
professionals, or owners of medium-sized businesses, 52.1 per cent (n = 99)
were business managers or professionals, 4.7 per cent (n = 9) were higherlevel executives, and nine targets provided no occupational information at
all. Assessors were made up of 65 supervisors, 139 peers, and 176 subordinates. All targets and assessors were debriefed and received feedback about
the results of the study.
Procedure
Targets were asked to select two assessors (i.e. supervisors, peers, or subordinates) who knew the target well enough to assess work behavior and
job performance. The resulting triads consisted of a target and a dyad of
equal or unequal ranking assessors (i.e. two peers, or a supervisor and a
peer, two supervisors, or a supervisor and a subordinate, two subordinates,
or a subordinate and a peer). Assessors in the triads received assessment
sheets in an envelope from the targets. The assessment sheets of the identical target had the same code number. Targets and assessors were asked to
fill out the assessment sheet and send it immediately back in return envelopes. So, in each triad, the target and each of the two assessors independently rated the political skill and the job performance of the single target
person.
Thus, the study used the following design. For each triad (i.e. one target
and two assessors), target job and target personal features were identical (i.e.
held constant). Each assessor was asked to report the time of collaboration
with the target, the contact frequency with the target, the interrelatedness of
his or her work with the target, and his or her personal relationship with the
target so that these variables could serve as controls in subsequent analyses.
The design allows for the prediction of assessor As ratings of targets job
performance from assessor Bs rating of targets political skill after controlling for the self-ratings of political skill, and vice versa (i.e. assessor Bs
ratings of targets job performance from assessor As rating of targets political skill).
456
BLICKLE ET AL.
Measures
Political Skill. The 18-item Political Skill Inventory (PSI) was used in
this study to assess target political skill (Ferris et al., 2005). The PSI uses a
7-point Likert-type scale, and sample items include: I always seem to
instinctively know the right things to say and do to influence others, and I
am particularly good at sensing the motivations and hidden agendas of
others. All items were converted into the third person perspective referring
to the target (e.g. This person always seems to instinctively know the right
things to say and do to influence others).
Job Performance Ratings. Job performance was assessed with the following items based on Schmitt, Cortina, Ingerick, and Wiechmann (2003):
1. How fast does this person usually complete his/her tasks? 2. How is the
quality of this persons performance altogether? 3. How successful is this
person in dealing with unforeseen and/or unexpected events (disturbances,
interruptions, losses/deficiencies, crises, stagnations) in her job activity generally? 4. How well does this person adjust him/herself to changes and innovations? 5. How sociable does this person act in co-operation with others? 6.
How reliably does this person meet work-related commitments and agreements? These items were measured on a 15 Likert-type scale, and anchors
ranged from a great deal better than other persons in a comparable position to much worse than other persons in a comparable position, with
better than, as good as, and worse than as intermediate anchors. For
each item, raters also had the opportunity to choose the option, cant say.
Control Variables
Demographic Variables. Previous research has demonstrated that
gender (Bowen, Swim, & Jacobs, 2000) and age (Waldman & Avolio, 1986)
influence job performance ratings. Therefore, gender and age served as
control variables in the data analyses.
Relationship Variables. Job performance ratings are made within a
social context that may influence assessor evaluations of work performance
behaviors (e.g. Ferris et al., 2008b). It is these contextual factors that led us
to control for aspects of the interpersonal relationship between the assessors
and the target employees. It has been suggested that the quality of judgmental validation criteria varies depending on the opportunity for the assessor to
observe targets job performance (e.g. Harris & Schaubroeck, 1988). We
operationalised the opportunity for the assessors to observe targets job
performance with three variables, including the time (i.e. in months) the
assessor and the target person had collaborated, the contact frequency
457
between assessor and target (i.e. ranging from several times a day to at
least once in a month), and the interrelatedness between the work of the
assessor and the target person (i.e. ranging from very strong interrelatedness to no interrelatedness).
The greater the time that the rater and the target have collaborated, the
more frequently they are in contact with one another, and the more interrelated their work, the better the opportunity for the rater to observe and
evaluate target job performance. Affect or liking by the supervisor/assessor
(i.e. toward the subordinate) influences the performance ratings provided by
the supervisor toward the subordinate (e.g. Ferris et al., 2008b). Therefore,
the personal relations (i.e. from very close relationship to more distant or
formal relationship) between the assessor and the target also served as a
control variable in data analyses.
Finally, target employee self-report of political skill was entered as a
control variable in this study. Because there has been sufficient concern over
the source of construct measurement, and how it affects criterion prediction,
it was important to control for variance generated by self-assessments of the
political skill construct.
Data Analyses
Assessors were randomly divided into two groups (i.e. assessor group A
versus assessor group B). Two sets of hierarchical multiple regression analyses (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003) were conducted to examine how
well political skill predicted job performance ratings from different assessment sources. The first set of regression analyses included the job performance assessments of assessor group A as the criterion variable. The control
variables entered were target gender, age, frequency of collaboration with the
assessor from group A, contact frequency with the assessor from group A,
interrelatedness of work with the assessor from group A, and the personal
relationship with the assessor from group A; self-assessments of political skill
by the targets and assessments of target political skill by assessors from
assessor group B served as the predictor variables.
The second set of regression analyses included the job performance assessments of assessor group B as the criterion variable. The control variables
entered were target gender, age, frequency of collaboration with the assessor
from group B, contact frequency with the assessor from group B, interrelatedness of work with the assessor from group B, and the personal relationship
with the assessor from group B; self-ratings of political skill by the targets
and assessments of target political skill by assessors from supervisor group A
served as the predictor variables. We followed the suggestions made by
Greene and McClintock (1985) and used a triangulation approach, including
multiple data sources in our analyses. The combination of methods essen 2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2011 International
458
BLICKLE ET AL.
tially mitigates the deficiencies with any one data source, and capitalises on
the strengths of the individual measures.
STUDY 1: RESULTS
Zero-Order Correlations
Means, standard deviations, intercorrelations, and coefficient alpha (a) reliability estimates for all variables are reported in Table 1. The reliability
estimates of the job performance assessment variables were acceptable (i.e.
.78 a .81). The correlations between the two assessor evaluations of
job performance in the triads were in the normal range (r = .41, p < .01;
Viswesvaran, 2001). The reliability estimates of the political skill variables
were acceptable (i.e. a = .89).
The correlation between the two assessor ratings of political skill in the
triads was r = .35 (p < .01), which is similar in nature to the correlations
reported between self-assessments and supervisor/assessor reports of political
skill (i.e. r = .36, p < .01; Semadar, 2004), and between self-assessments and
co-worker/assessor reports of political skill (i.e. r = .29, p < .01; Liu, 2006).
Furthermore, when examining the correlations of employee self-assessments
of political skill with assessor A (r = .25, p < .01) and assessor B (i.e. r = .29,
p < .01) assessments of the political skill construct, they are quite similar to
other assessments with self-assessments in prior research.
Hypothesis Test
The intraclass correlation coefficient (i.e. ICC(1)) represents the proportion
of variance in individuals assessments accounted for by differences in
targets, and it indicates interchangeability among assessors (James, 1982). In
organisational research, ICC(1) values reflect a median value of .12 (James,
1982). In the present research, the intraclass correlation of assessors ratings
of political skill was ICC(1) = .52 (p < .01). This indicates that more than 50
per cent of variance in individuals assessments of political skill in this study
is accounted for by differences in targets, thus rendering more meaningful the
prediction of job performance by other assessments of political skill.
As expected (see Table 1), assessment of political skill in group A correlated significantly with job performance assessments of assessors in group B
(r = .16, p < .05), and vice versa (i.e. assessment of political skill in group B
correlated significantly with job performance assessments of assessors in
group A, r = .28, p < .01). The research hypothesis (i.e. Hypotheses 1a and 1b)
stated that target employee political skill, assessed by the employees assessors, will explain a significant proportion of variance in job performance
assessments, when gender, age, features of the social context, and targets
Gender
Age
Level of Education
Time of Collaboration
with Assessor A
Time of Collaboration
with Assessor B
Contact Frequency with
Assessor A
Contact Frequency with
Assessor B
Interrelatedness of Work
with Assessor A
with Assessor B
Personal Relations with
Assessor A
Personal Relations with
Assessor B
Job Performance
Assessor A
Job Performance
Assessor B
Political Skill Assessor A
Political Skill Assessor B
Political Skill Self-Rating
5.15
5.17
5.04
0.26
0.27
3.50
3.50
0.72
0.77
0.65
0.27
0.26
0.62
0.67
1.07
1.02
3.75
1.11
3.59
1.14
6.23
0.49
11.56
1.97
6.05
SD
5.13
5.26
6.26
1.62
42.56
6.01
5.79
-.02
-.06
-.15*
-.04
.22**
.15*
.07
-.06
-.09
.01
-.07
-.07
.11
.05
.01
.04
.10
.11
-.06
.14
.01
-.08
-.06
.08
.06
.15*
.04
.08
.10
-.03
.00
.19**
-.01
.14
-.02
.14
-.03
.04
-.02
.52**
()
-.14
.02
()
-.06
.01
.06
.55**
()
.16*
.55**
-.02
.03
.08
()
.16*
.16*
.08
.01
.10
-.07
.04
-.04
-.22**
.13
-.11
-.10
-.08
-.04
-.14
.14
.01
.21**
-.01
()
-.08
.01
-.05
.04
.03
.01
.27**
.34**
()
-.02
-.08
.16*
.11
.05
-.06
()
.10
.13
.11
.07
.05
.04
-.05
.21**
()
-.03
.18*
.10
.12
.02
.04
.03
()
.14
.04
.01
.07
.18*
.12
()
10
.05
.27**
.06
.26**
.05
()
11
.47**
.28**
.16*
.41**
(.81)
12
.16*
.54**
.05
(.78)
13
(.89)
.35**
.25**
14
(.89)
.29**
15
(.87)
16
Note: N = 190 and 380 assessors; * p < .05 (two-tailed), ** p < .01 (two-tailed); Cronbachs alpha in parentheses in the main diagonal; Gender (1 = female, 2 = male); Time of Collaboration
(in years); Contact Frequency (0 = less one contact per month to 6 = daily contacts), Interrelatedness (0 = no interrelatedness to 5 = high interrelatedness); Personal Relations (1 = highly
formal relationship to 4 = highly personal relationship); Job Performance (-1 = low to 1 = top); PSI (1 = minimum to 7 = maximum).
14.
15.
16.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Variables
TABLE 1
Descriptive Statistics, Reliability Estimates, and Intercorrelations of All Variables (Study 1)
459

460
BLICKLE ET AL.
TABLE 2
Hierarchical Regression Results of Job Performance on Political Skill (Study 1)
Assessment of Job Performance
Performance Assessment
of Assessor A
Predictor variables
Std. Betas
First step: Target controls

Target Gender
Target Age
Level of Education
DR2
of Assessor B
Std. Betas
-.08
-.05
-.05
.03
.10
.06
.017
Second step: Assessor controls

Years of Collaboration
Contact Frequency
Personal Relationship
.06
-.09
.08
.21**
.014
.08
-.07
.16*
.25***
.053*
Third step: Self-Rating
Political Skill
.15*
.097***
.01
.022*
Fourth step:
Assessor B rating of targets
political skill
Assessor A rating of targets
political skill
DR2
.000
.21**
.15
.043*
.020
Note: N = 190 targets and 380 assessors; p < .05 (one-tailed); * p < .05 (two-tailed); ** p < .01 (two-tailed);
*** p < .005 (two-tailed).
self-assessments of political skill are controlled. The regression results testing

the hypothesis are reported in Table 2. Both Hypotheses 1a and 1b were
supported.
STUDY 2: METHOD
Sample and Procedure

Three hundred and thirty-eight current employees from administrative and
managerial jobs were contacted who were former students of different
German Business schools (i.e. Bachelor and Master of Business Administration degree students), and who had graduated at least three years earlier.
These target employees were asked to self-assess their political skill, and to
461
pass on a questionnaire assessing their political skill to a peer at the workplace. The questionnaires were to be completed by a current peer of the
employees, and returned to the researchers by prepaid return envelopes. Sixty
male peers and 44 female peers participated in wave 1 of the study. Their
mean age was M = 37.3 years (SD = 9.53 years).
After one year, those 104 targets who were assessed on their political skill
one year before were contacted again and asked to send a questionnaire to
their currently strongest higher-up career supporter (i.e. usually their
mentors or otherwise a supportive supervisor, but not peers), assessing the
degree of the targets personal initiative at work. Fifty-four male career
supporters and four female career supporters participated in wave 2 of the
study. Their mean age was M = 48.3 years (SD = 7.34 years).
Measures
Political Skill. The same 18-item PSI was used as in Study 1 for selfassessments and peer assessments of the target individuals political skill. The
Cronbachs alpha reliability estimates were a = .91 for the target selfassessments and a = .94 for the peer assessments of target individuals political skill.
Job Performance Ratings. The seven-item scale developed and validated
by Frese, Fay, Hilburger, Leng, and Tag (1997), and using a 5-point Likerttype scale, was used to assess the personal initiative or extra-role behavior
aspects of job performance of the target individuals, as assessed by the career
supporters/mentors in wave 2. Similar to extra-role behavior, personal initiative refers to individuals taking an active and self-starting approach to
work, and going beyond what is formally required by a given job description.
Sample items are: This person actively attacks problems and Whenever
something goes wrong, this person searches for a solution immediately. The
alpha reliability for this scale was a = .88.
Control Variables. Target persons gender and age served as control.
Data Analyses
To assess Hypothesis 1a, hierarchical regression analysis (Cohen et al., 2003)
was used, with personal initiative assessed by the career supporter/mentor in
wave 2 (i.e. after one year) as the criterion variable. In the first step of the
hierarchical regression analysis, the control variables (i.e. employee gender
and age) were entered. In the second step, target self-assessments of political
skill in wave 1 were entered, and in the third step, peer assessments of target
political skill in wave 1 were entered.
462
BLICKLE ET AL.
TABLE 3
Descriptive Statistics, Correlations, and Reliabilities of the Variables (Study 2)
1 Target Gender
2 Target Age
3 Political Skills
self-assessed T1
4 Political Skills
peer-assessed T1
5 Personal Initiative
mentor-assessed in T2
SD
1.24
37.62
5.11
.43
5.00
.70
58
58
58
()
-.23
.08
()
-.29*
5.35
.88
58
.19
.09
.37**
(.94)
4.14
.54
58
.14
-.31*
.38**
.31*
(.91)
(.88)
Note: * p < .05; ** p < .01 (two-tailed). Values in parentheses are reliability estimates; targets gender (1 =
male, 2 = female). T1 = wave one. T2 = wave two.
STUDY 2: RESULTS
Means, standard deviations, correlations, and coefficient alpha (a) reliability
estimates for all variables in Study 2 are reported in Table 3. Consistent with
Hypothesis 1a, the longitudinal, predictive cross-data source correlations
were significant. That is, target political skill assessed by a peer in wave 1
predicted target personal initiative (r = .31, p < .05) assessed by the career
supporter/mentor in wave 2, after a year. Target self-assessments of political
skill in wave 1 and career supporter/mentor-assessed personal initiative in
wave 2 also were correlated (r = .38, p < .01). Finally, self-assessments and
peer-assessments of target political skill (i.e. both in wave 1) correlated r = .37
(p < .01).
Hypothesis Test
The hypothesis stated that target employee political skill, measured from the
perspective of assessor A (i.e. from the peers perspective), will positively
predict job performance assessments (i.e. ratings of personal initiative from
the career supporter/mentors perspective) a year later. As can be seen from
Table 4, the data confirmed Hypothesis 1a in that peer-assessed target political skill predicted (b = .26, p < .05) target personal initiative assessed by the
career supporter/mentor one year later, after controlling for gender, age, and
target persons self-assessments of political skill. The increment in explained
variance was 5 per cent (p < .05).
463

TABLE 4
Hierarchical Regression of Personal Initiative on Political Skill (Study 2)
Assessment of personal
initiative by career
supporter in Wave 2
Predictor variables
Std. Betas
First step:
Target Gender
Target Age
.07
-.29*
DR2
.10
Second step:
Political Skills self-assessed in Wave 1
.31*
.09*
Third step:
Political Skill peer-assessed in Wave 1
.26*
.05*
R2
.24**
Note: N = 58 targets and 116 assessors; * p < .05; ** p < .01 (one-tailed). Waves 1 and 2 were separated by
one year.
STUDY 3: METHOD
Sample
Supervisor/assessor dyads were contacted by the researchers at a large
German university. These supervisor/assessor dyads (i.e. assessor A and B)
were assigned to a target subordinate (i.e. creating a triad), and asked to
assess the political skill and job performance of the target subordinate who
reported to both of them. A total of 150 dyads of assessors were contacted,
and questionnaires were returned by 79 supervisor dyads, reflecting a return
rate of 53 per cent. Assessors received the questionnaire and a return envelope, and they were debriefed and received feedback about the results of the
study.
The gender of the target respondents was 57 per cent (n = 45) female, target
age demographics were as follows: below 20 years 5 per cent (n = 4), between
20 and 29 years 37 per cent (n = 29), between 30 and 39 years 29 per cent (n
= 23), between 40 and 40 years 17 per cent (n =13), between 50 and 59 years
11 per cent (n = 9), and 60 years and above 1 per cent (n =1). Target
occupational groups were as follows: workers 22 per cent (n =17), clerical
personnel 15 per cent (n = 12), administrative personnel 35 per cent (n = 28),
and managers 28 per cent (n = 22).
464
BLICKLE ET AL.
Procedure
Supervisors/assessors were asked to identify one of their subordinates, with
the requirement that this subordinate also reported to another supervisor.
Then, the supervisors were asked to contact a second supervisor, ask that
individual to participate in the study, provide an assessment of the political
skill, and assess the job performance of their common target subordinate.
The resulting triads consisted of a target subordinate reporting to two supervisors, and these two supervisors both assessed the political skill and job
performance of the target subordinate.
Supervisors in the triads received assessment sheets, and they were asked to
assess the target subordinate independently (i.e. not to talk to each other
about their assessments of the target before each of them had returned their
assessments). Supervisors were asked to fill out the assessment sheet and
return it immediately in the return envelopes. So, in each triad, each of the
two supervisors independently assessed the political skill and rated the job
performance of the single target subordinate.
Thus, the study used the following design. For each triad (i.e. one target
subordinate and two supervisors to whom the target subordinate reported),
the target job and target personal features are identical (i.e. held constant).
Each supervisor also was asked to report the time of collaboration with the
subordinate, the contact frequency with the subordinate, the interrelatedness
of his or her work with the subordinate, and his or her personal relationship
with the subordinate, so that those variables could serve as control variables
in subsequent analyses. The design allows for the prediction of supervisor As
assessment of the targets job performance from supervisor Bs assessment of
the targets political skill, and vice versa (i.e. supervisor Bs assessment of the
targets job performance from supervisor As assessment of the targets
political skill).
Measures
Political Skill. The same 18-item PSI was used as in Studies 1 and 2.
Job Performance Ratings. An adaptation of the 15-item job performance rating scale developed by Ferris, Witt, and Hochwarter (2001) was
used to assess a broader view of job performance in this study, with supervisors evaluating the performance of their target subordinates. Five items
assess task performance, five items assess job dedication, and five items assess
interpersonal facilitation. The scales use the following anchors: 1 (weak or
bottom 10%), 2 (fair or next 20%), 3 (good or next 40%), 4 (very good or next
20%), 5 (best or top 10%). Additionally, we used the option cant say which
was never used by the assessors. Because the job performance scale originally
465
was designed for computer programmers, we adapted the items to be slightly

more general, and thus more applicable for a broad range of jobs. For
example, the item Responds to calls within minutes when on duty was
adapted to Responds to queries swiftly.
Control Variables and Data Analyses

The same control variables and hierarchical regression analyses used in Study
1 were also employed in Study 3, except that it was not possible to obtain
employee self-reports of political skill in this study to use as a control.
STUDY 3: RESULTS
Means, standard deviations, intercorrelations, and coefficient alpha (a) reliability estimates of all variables are reported in Table 5. The reliability estimates of the job performance assessments were acceptable (i.e. .74 a
.84). The correlations between the two supervisor assessments of job performance in the triads were in the normal range (cf. Viswesvaran, 2001): Task
performance r = .39 (p < .01); Job dedication r = .50 (p < .01); Interpersonal
facilitation r = .52 (p < .01). The reliability estimates of the political skill
variables were acceptable (i.e. .92 a .93). The correlation between the
two supervisor assessments of political skill in the triads was r = .50 (p < .01),
which is similar in nature to, but higher than, the correlations reported
between self-assessments and supervisor assessments of political skill (i.e. r =
.36, p < .01; Semadar, 2004), and between self-assessments and co-worker
assessments of political skill (i.e. r = .29, p < .01; Liu, 2006).
Hypothesis Test
The intraclass correlation coefficient was ICC(1) = .65 (p < .01). This indicates that 65 per cent of the variance in supervisors assessments of political
skill in this study is accounted for by differences in subordinates, rendering
meaningful the prediction of job performance by supervisor assessments of
political skill. The research hypothesis stated that target employee political
skill, assessed by the employees supervisors, will explain a significant proportion of variance in task performance, job dedication, and interpersonal
facilitation performance assessments, when gender, age, and controls from
the social context are controlled. This hypothesis was tested in six hierarchical regression analyses, and the results are presented in Tables 68.
Political skill explained a significant proportion of variance in all job
performance assessments, ranging between 6.8 per cent and 25.9 per cent,
0.85
0.98
0.72
0.76
0.83
4.36
2.95
2.65
3.20
3.24
3.43
0.72
1.02
0.91
3.59
4.63
4.81
-.21
-.27*
-.18
-.19
-.03
-.22*
-.17
-.01
-.12
-.19
-.18
-.37**
-.20
-.33**
.00
.07
-.06
-.21
.03
.07
-.14
.01
-.03
.09
.05
-.02
-.14
.08
-.03
.04
.08
-.04
.12
-.14
-.06
-.10
.04
-.03
()
-.07
.04
-.03
.08
.13
.04
.56**
()
.03
-.15
-.08
-.05
.08
.04
-.01
.04
.15
-.01
.40**
()
.45**
.08
.01
-.12
()
.34**
.09
.02
.02
.08
-.07
.10
.11
.02
-.05
.21
.28*
.25*
.14
.47**
()
-.07
.06
.02
.09
-.14
.04
-.10
.10
.10
-.03
.33**
.05
()
.12
.13
.22
.08
.07
-.05
.10
.02
.06
.27*
.26*
()
-.05
.13
.14
.00
.09
-.04
.17
.06
.22
.08
()
.27*
.37**
.33**
.40**
.25*
.22
.21
.24*
.41**
()
.25*
.08
.28*
.16
.15
.09
.16
-.05
()
10
.27*
.59**
.30**
.70**
.33**
.71**
.39**
(.84)
11
.53**
.32**
.71**
.35**
.71**
.39**
(.80)
12
.28*
.42**
.29*
.64**
.50**
(.81)
13
.43**
.32**
.64**
.42**
(.74)
14
.38**
.63**
.52**
(.84)
15
.65**
.44**
(.77)
16
.50**
(.93)
17
(.92)
18
Note: N = 79 targets and 158 assessors; * p < .05 (two-tailed), ** p < .01 (two-tailed); Cronbachs alpha in parentheses in the main diagonal; Gender (1 = female, 2 = male); Age in
categories (1 = below 20 to 6 = 60 and above); Time of Collaboration (in years); Contact Frequency (0 = less than one contact per month to 6 = daily contact), Interrelatedness (0 = no
interrelatedness to 4 = high interrelatedness); Personal Relations (1 = highly formal relationship to 4 = highly personal relationship); Task Performance, Job Dedication, and Interpersonal
Facilitation (1 = low to 5 = top); PSI (1 = minimum to 7 = maximum).
0.73
0.81
3.71
3.48
0.75
1.47
4.42
0.82
1.54
4.08
3.42
4.79
1.44
2.96
3.51
1. Gender
2. Age
3. Time of
Collaboration with
Assessor A
4. Time of
Collaboration with
Assessor B
5. Contact Frequency
with Assessor A
6. Contact Frequency
with Assessor B
7. Interrelatedness
of Work with
Assessor A
8. Interrelatedness
of Work with
Assessor B
9. Personal Relations
with Assessor A
10. Personal Relations
with Assessor B
11. Task Performance
Assessor A
12. Task Performance
Assessor B
13. Job Dedication
Assessor A
14. Job Dedication
Assessor B
15. Interpersonal
Facilitation
Assessor A
16. Interpersonal
Facilitation
Assessor B
17. Political Skill
Assessor A
18. Political Skill
Assessor B
3.66
0.50
1.15
3.46
Variables
SD
TABLE 5
Descriptive Statistics, Reliability Estimates, and Intercorrelations of All Variables (Study 3)
466
BLICKLE ET AL.

467

TABLE 6
Hierarchical Regression of Task Performance on Political Skill (Study 3)
Assessment of Task Performance
of Supervisor A
Predictor variables
Target Gender
Target Age
Std. Betas
DR2
of Supervisor B
Std. Betas
-.18
.07
.01
.07
.006

Contact Frequency
-.16
-.13
-.08
.36***
.029
-.05
-.20
.20
.15
.117
Third step:
political skill
political skill
DR2
.075
.28*
.47***
.065*
.192**
Note: N = 79 targets and 158 assessors; * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .005 (all two-tailed).
which supports Hypotheses 1a and 1b. However, the direction of prediction

exhibited an influence on variance explained in the performance assessment variables. From the prediction of job performance assessments in
supervisory group A by political skill assessments in group B, the explained
variances in job performance criterion measures ranged between 6.5 per cent
and 7.9 per cent, whereas from the prediction of job performance assessments
in supervisory group B by political skill assessments in group A, the
explained variances in performance ranged between 13.8 per cent and
25.9 per cent.
Target age did not influence job performance assessments, and target
gender reflected only minimal influence on performance assessments. Of the
control variables concerning the assessortarget relationship, only the personal relationship variables influenced performance assessments in supervisory group A, but not in group B. Overall, there is one general positive
relationship in all six regression analyses; namely, the effective prediction of
the different facets of job performance by political skill, as assessed by
different sources.
468
BLICKLE ET AL.
TABLE 7
Hierarchical Regression of Job Dedication on Political Skill (Study 3)
Assessment of Job Dedication
of Supervisor A
Predictor variables
Std. Betas

Target Gender
Target Age
DR2
of Supervisor B
Std. Betas
-.21
.04
.04
-.05
.003

Contact Frequency
-.19
.06
-.12
.27*
.038
.01
-.19
.10
.14
.097
Third step:
political skill
political skill
DR2
.075
.31*
.
.40***
.079*
.138**
GENERAL DISCUSSION
This three-study investigation evaluated the relationship of non-selfassessments of political skill (i.e. assessed by multiple supervisors or peers)
with job performance assessments (i.e. assessed by other multiple alternative
supervisors or peers) in a systematic effort to address both theoretical and
methodological considerations about the nature of political skill, and its
relationship with job performance. Using a triadic research design, the results
of this investigation suggest a positive relationship between multiple rater
assessments of political skill and multiple rater assessments of job performance, thus providing strong support for the hypotheses. These multi-source
results were established in Study 1, constructively replicated in Study 2, and
further replicated and extended in Study 3.
Contributions of the Study

Several contributions are notable about the present three-study investigation.
This is the first investigation of the political skilljob performance relation 2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2011 International
469
TABLE 8
Hierarchical Regression of Interpersonal Facilitation on Political Skill (Study 3)
Assessment of Interpersonal Facilitation
of Supervisor A
Predictor variables
Target Gender
Target Age
Std. Betas
DR2
-.12
-.18
of Supervisor B
Std. Betas
-.36***
-.05
.062

Contact Frequency
-.20
-.19
-.02
.45***
.143***
-.11
.01
.07
.22
.188***
Third step:
political skill
political skill
DR2
.058
.29**
.54***
.068**
.259***
ship that has employed only other assessments of both political skill and job
performance, which do not employ self-assessments (i.e. except as a control
variable in Studies 1 and 2). The present findings verify that the scale to assess
the political skill construct (i.e. the PSI) predicts job performance across
different other assessments, both cross-sectionally and predictively.
Theoretically, political skill represents a set of social effectiveness competencies that enable individuals to more effectively navigate the complexities
of work environments, and the ambiguity of performance assessments across
contexts (Ferris et al., 2007). Our results provide empirical support for this
assertion by suggesting that employees who possess political skill fare better
in multi-domain supervisory performance assessments, and the results were
substantiated both cross-sectionally and longitudinally.
In their articulation of its theoretical foundations, Ferris et al. (2007)
suggested that political skill enables individuals to situationally calibrate and
adapt their behavior and influence to various contextual demands, indicating
that politically skilled individuals should be able to manage divergent interests in a manner that inspires consistent, and positive, assessments of performance from multiple assessors. Ferris et al. (2005, 2007) suggested that one
470
BLICKLE ET AL.
major benefit of political skill is the ability to effectively navigate between

multiple constituencies. However, this aspect of political skill theory
remained untested until now, because prior dyadic and self-assessment
designs had not allowed for a direct test of this vital assumption.
Although not the primary purpose of this investigation, the results also
provide additional evidence that personal relationship plays a significant role
in assessments of performance, which is congruent with the work of Ferris
et al. (2008b), who conceptualised the workplace as an environment where
ambiguity and potential bias influence performance assessment. As suggested
by our findings, and in confirmation of theoretical arguments regarding the
construct and its nature by Ferris et al. (2007), political skill enables individuals to more effectively manage their work environment, social interactions, and personal relationships at work, which, collectively, exercise
influence over the performance assessments individuals receive.
Strengths and Limitations

This investigation exhibited several design strengths. First, the use of a triadic
data collection methodology enabled us to control for individual differences
across multiple assessments, and test a key assumption of political skill
theory. Second, incorporating multiple assessors and formats in the design
enhanced the reliability of assessments, and reduced error associated with
single-source assessments of employee performance (cf. Viswesvaran, Ones,
& Schmidt, 1996). Third, the results also demonstrated predictive validity
over time because Study 2 was conducted longitudinally.
Furthermore, demographic (e.g. age, gender) and contextual (e.g.
assessortarget relational quality, time, job interrelatedness, and contact
frequency) controls were included, which have been known to influence job
performance assessments. The incorporation of these controls enhances
the generalisability of our findings by mitigating alternative hypotheses and
confounding effects. Furthermore, although we were only able to measure
and control for self-assessments of employee political skill in Study 1, it did
provide an additional check and more information regarding alternative
source assessment and relationships among multiple measures of constructs.
Next, we conducted three separate studies, each employing samples of
considerable size and occupational variety (i.e. Study 1 used a sample of 380
assessors and 190 targets, Study 2 used a sample of 58 targets, 58 peers, and
58 higher-up career supporters/mentors, and Study 3 relied on a sample of
158 employed supervisors from a variety of occupations, who evaluated 79
target employees). This sampling, and the convergence and extension of
results across studies, enhances the generalisability and contextual reality of
the results. In particular, the triadic research design employed in Studies 1
and 3 incorporated independent assessments of both political skill and target
471
job performance to reduce single-source bias. That is, assessor As ratings of

the targets political skill were used to predict assessor Bs assessment of the
targets job performance, and vice versa.
Finally, although concern might be raised over assessors being selected by
the target individual in Studies 1 and 2, this was not the case in Study 3.
Furthermore, the same pattern of results found in the first two studies was
replicated in Study 3; that is, that political skill consistently and validly
predicted job performance assessments. In essence, this convergence of findings across studies through constructive replication permits strong confidence in the validity of these collective results.
Despite the many strengths of this investigation, there are limitations that
need to be addressed. Our intention was to assess employee performance as
an evaluation or perception (i.e. through assessor ratings of target performance). Although multiple assessments of job performance were included,
our results do not suggest necessarily that politically skilled employees are
better actual performers than employees with lower levels of political skill
(i.e. archival performance data from human resources records were not available for examination and analyses, so the possibility exists that our performance criterion is not reflective of the performance evaluations administered
by the organisation).
Rather, the results suggest that political skill exerts an influence on perceptions of job performance across a variety of contexts and assessors, and
that raters viewed politically skilled targets as better perceived performers
than targets lower in political skill. This is an important distinction because
political skill might exert a halo effect that could obscure actual performance
deficiencies. Nonetheless, the evidence to date consistently has supported the
proposition that politically skilled individuals benefit from possession of this
important set of competencies by receiving higher assessments of performance than their colleagues who possess less political skill. Furthermore, this
appears to be the case regardless of the source of assessment employed; which
enhances the construct and criterion-related validity of the political skill
construct. Finally, this study incorporated German samples of working
adults. Although the results may generalise to Western nations (i.e. Europe
and North America), it is possible that cultural effects could also play a role
in this relationship, and might bear further investigation in future research.
Directions for Future Research

Although the results of this paper are encouraging, there is more to be
accomplished in the study of political skill. First, our results identified a
positive link between subordinate political skill and supervisory assessments
of subordinate performance across assessors. A logical extension would be to
evaluate how politically skilled individuals perform in terms of actual pro 2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2011 International
472
BLICKLE ET AL.
ductivity. A natural environment for this inquiry might be in a sales setting,

where job performance can be measured in reasonably objective terms.
Conclusion
Political skill is emerging as an increasingly important social construct in the
organisational sciences, with the potential to predict job performance assessments. Therefore, it has great potential to be used additionally in psychological testing as a part of personnel decision-making in addition to General
Mental Ability and personality traits. The findings of this investigation demonstrated consistently that these ratings of political skill by others successfully predicted job performance assessments (and operate much the same way
as do self-reports of political skill), thus demonstrating their applicability
both in research on job performance assessment and testing as a part of
personnel decision-making in practice.
REFERENCES
Barrick, M.R., Mount, M.K., & Judge, T.A. (2001). Personality and job performance
at the beginning of the new millennium: What do we know and where do we go
next? International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 9, 930.
Birkeland, S.A., Manson, T.M., Kisamore, J.L., Brannick, M.T., & Smith, M.A.
(2006). A meta-analytic investigation of job applicant faking on personality measures. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 14, 317335.
Blickle, G., Meurs, J.A., Zettler, I., Solga, J., Noethen, D., Kramer, J., & Ferris, G.R.
(2008). Personality, political skill, and job performance. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 72, 377387.
Bowen, C., Swim, J.K., & Jacobs, R.R. (2000). Evaluating gender biases on actual job
performance or real people: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 648665.
Burch, G.S., & Anderson, N. (2008). Personality as predictor of work-related
behavior and performance: Recent advances and directions for future research.
In G.P. Hodgkinson & J.K. Ford (Eds.), International review of industrial and
organizational psychology (Vol. 23, pp. 261305). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley &
Sons.
Cascio, W.F. (1995). Whither industrial and organizational psychology in a changing
world of work? American Psychologist, 50, 928939.
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S., & Aiken, L. (2003). Applied multiple regression/
correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Connolly, J.J., Kavanagh, E.J., & Viswesvaran, C (2007). The convergent validity
between self and observer ratings of personality: A meta-analytic review. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 15(1), 110117.
Dunning, D., Heath, C., & Suls, J.M. (2004). Flawed self-assessment: Implications for
health, education, and the workplace. Psychological Science in the Public Interest,
5, 69106.
473
Edwards, J.R. (2003). Construct validation in organizational behavior research. In

J. Greenberg (Ed.), Organizational behavior: The state of the science (2nd edn.,
pp. 327371). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ferris, G.R., Blickle, G., Schneider, P.B., Kramer, J., Zettler, I., Solga, J., Noethen,
D., & Meurs, J.A. (2008a). Political skill construct and criterion-related
validation: A two-study investigation. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23, 744
771.
Ferris, G.R., Hochwarter, W.A., Douglas, C., Blass, R., Kolodinsky, R.W., & Treadway, D.C. (2002). Social influence processes in organizations and human resources
systems. In G.R. Ferris & J.J. Martocchio (Eds.), Research in personnel and
human resources management (Vol. 21, pp. 65127). Oxford: JAI Press/Elsevier
Science.
Ferris, G.R., Munyon, T.P., Basik, K., & Buckley, M.R. (2008b). The performance
evaluation context: Social, emotional, cognitive, political, and relationship components. Human Resource Management Review, 18, 146163.
Ferris, G.R., Treadway, D.C., Kolodinsky, R.W., Hochwarter, W.A., Kacmar, C.J.,
Douglas, C., & Frink, D.D. (2005). Development and validation of the political
skill inventory. Journal of Management, 31, 126152.
Ferris, G.R., Treadway, D.C., Perrew, P.L., Brouer, R.L., Douglas, C., & Lux, S.
(2007). Political skill in organizations. Journal of Management, 33, 290320.
Ferris, G.R., Witt, L.A., & Hochwarter, W.A. (2001). Interaction of social skill and
general mental ability on job performance and salary. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 10751082.
Frese, M., Fay, D., Hilburger, T., Leng, K., & Tag, A. (1997). The concept of
personal initiative: Operationalization, reliability and validity in two German
samples. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 70, 139161.
Greene, J., & McClintock, C. (1985). Triangulation in evaluation: Design and analysis issues. Evaluation Review, 9, 523545.
Harris, M.M., & Schaubroeck, J. (1988). A meta-analysis of selfsupervisor, self
peer, and peersupervisor ratings. Personnel Psychology, 41, 4362.
James, L.R. (1982). Aggregation bias in estimates of perceptual agreement. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 67, 219229.
Jawahar, I.M., Meurs, J.A., Ferris, G.R., & Hochwarter, W.A. (2008). Self-efficacy
and political skill as comparative predictors of task and contextual performance:
A two-study constructive replication. Human Performance, 21, 138157.
Liu, Y. (2006). The antecedents and consequences of emotion regulation at work.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Management, College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Lykken, D.T. (1968). Statistical significance in psychological research. Psychological
Bulletin, 70, 151159.
Napier, B.J., & Ferris, G.R. (1993). Distance in organizations. Human Resource
Management Review, 3, 321357.
Schmitt, N., Cortina, J.M., Ingerick, M.J., & Wiechmann, D. (2003). Personnel
selection and employee performance. In W.C. Borman, D.R. Ilgen, & R.J. Klimoski (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Industrial and organizational psychology
(Vol. 12, pp. 77105). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

474
BLICKLE ET AL.
Schwab, D.P. (1980). Construct validity in organizational behavior. In B.M. Staw &
L.L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 2, pp. 343).
Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Semadar, A. (2004). Interpersonal competencies and managerial performance:
The role of emotional intelligence, leadership self-efficacy, self-monitory, and
political skill. Doctoral Dissertation. Department of Psychology. The University
of Melbourne.
Semadar, A., Robins, G., & Ferris, G.R. (2006). Comparing the effects of multiple
social effectiveness constructs on managerial performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27, 443461.
Viswesvaran, C. (2001). Assessment of individual job performance: A review of the
past century and a look ahead. In N. Anderson, D.S. Ones, H.K. Sinangil, & C.
Viswesvaran (Eds.), Handbook of industrial, work and organizational psychology
(Vol. 1, pp. 110126). London: Sage.
Viswesvaran, C., Ones, D.S., & Schmidt, F.L. (1996). Comparative analysis of the
reliability of job performance ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(5), 557
574.
Waldman, D.A., & Avolio, B.J. (1986). A meta-analysis of age differences in job
performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 3338.

Copyright of Applied Psychology: An International Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content
may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express
written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

A Multi-Source, Multi-Study Investigation of Job Performance Prediction by Political Skill

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

A Multi-Source, Multi-Study Investigation of Job Performance Prediction by Political Skill

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL REVIEW, 2011, 60 (3), 449474

A Multi-Source, Multi-Study Investigation of Job

Tassilo Momm, Ingo Zettler and Paula B. Schneider

Political skill is a social effectiveness construct with a demonstrated capacity to

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

Next, structural distance (i.e. opportunities for interaction) theoretically

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

employees political skill by a supervisor/assessor, who is in a position to

A final issue here concerns whether to focus on the overall composite

Plan of the Research

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

concerning gender, age, weekly working hours, and occupational status.

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2011 International

First step: Target controls

Second step: Assessor controls

self-assessments of political skill are controlled. The regression results testing

Sample and Procedure

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

was designed for computer programmers, we adapted the items to be slightly

Control Variables and Data Analyses

2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2011 International

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

Second step: Assessor controls

which supports Hypotheses 1a and 1b. However, the direction of prediction

First step: Target controls

Second step: Assessor controls

Contributions of the Study

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

Second step: Assessor controls

major benefit of political skill is the ability to effectively navigate between

Strengths and Limitations

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

job performance to reduce single-source bias. That is, assessor As ratings of

Directions for Future Research

ductivity. A natural environment for this inquiry might be in a sales setting,

POLITICAL SKILL AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

Edwards, J.R. (2003). Construct validation in organizational behavior research. In

2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2011 International

2011 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2011 International

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi