J Bus Ethics (2013) 116:587599
DOI 10.1007/s10551-012-1497-x
The Moderating Effects of Political Skill and LeaderMember
Exchange on the Relationship Between Organizational Politics
and Affective Commitment
Takuma Kimura
Received: 23 March 2012 / Accepted: 13 September 2012 / Published online: 19 September 2012
Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012
Abstract Previous empirical studies have shown that
perceptions of organizational politics are negatively related
to individuals affective commitment. The key contribution
of this study was that it found the interactive moderating
effects of political skill and quality of leadermember
exchange (LMX) on the relationship between perceptions
of organizational politics and affective commitment. Our
results indicated that politics perception affective com-
mitment relationship was weaker when both political skill
and quality of LMX are high. When only political skill is
high and the quality of LMX is low, or LMX quality is high
but political skill is low, the negative relationship between
politics perception and affective commitment was not
mitigated. Limitations and implications for future research
are discussed.
Keywords Affective commitment
Leadermember
exchange
Organizational politics
Perceptions of
organizational politics
Political skill
Introduction
Since the 1960s, organizational politics has been a prom-
inent issue in organizational management studies, and in
the academic field, many definitions of organizational
politics have been proposed. Among them, one of the most
cited is Mintzbergs (1983) definition which regards
organizational politics as individual or group behavior
that is informal, ostensibly parochial, typically divisive,
T. Kimura (&)
Hosei University, 2-17-1 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 102-8160, Japan
e-mail: ktakuma@hosei.ac.jp
and above all in a technical sense, illegitimatesanctioned
neither by formal authority, accepted ideology, nor certi-
fied expertise (although it may exploit any one of these).
Politics is inherent in organizations (Ferris et al. 1989;
Gandz and Murray 1980; Pfeffer 1981), and is generally
regarded as pervasive, necessary for the normal function of
business, and a simple fact of organizational life (Miller
et al. 2009).
Literature regarding organizational politics can be
classified into three approaches: (1) studies of influence
tactics, conflict, and actual political behavior in organiza-
tions, (2) studies of the perceptions of organizational pol-
itics (POPs), and (3) studies of political skills and
capacities of individuals within the workplace (Drory and
Vigoda-Gadot 2010). Ferris et al. (1989) published a
seminal work related to the second approach; a paper that
proposed a causal model of employees POPs, and many
empirical studies have been conducted on the subject since.
In general, POPs studies focus on the unethical and
harmful side of organizational politics on the assumption
that political behaviors are unsanctioned influence attempts
that seek to promote self-interest at the expense of orga-
nizational goals (e.g., Ferris and Judge 1991; Ferris and
Kacmar 1992; Ferris et al. 1989). Ferris et al.s (1989)
model posited that POPs can induce negative work-related
outcomes, such as job dissatisfaction, job anxiety, and
organizational withdrawal, and that these POPsoutcome
relationships are influenced by two moderators: perceived
control and understanding.
Recently, there has been growing interest in the notion
of political skill in organizational politics research. Politi-
cal skill is considered to be necessary for involvement in an
organization, and is thought to have positive effects on the
performance and career success of employees. Studies of
political skill expand on those of influence tactics by
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588
dealing with tactics as aggregated skills that can be turnover intention (Karadal and Arasli 2009). Previous
improved upon over time, mainly with experience and
training (Drory and Vigoda-Gadot 2010).
As will be discussed, political skill can be regarded as a
construct that combines the aforementioned two modera-
tors: control and understanding. Therefore, it is possible
that political skill moderates the POPsoutcome relation-
ship. However, the results of Brouer et al.s (2011)
empirical study do not support the moderating effect of
political skill.
It is likely that empirical studies have not yet confirmed
the moderating effect of political skill because previous
studies have not considered all of factors that may affect
POPsoutcome relationships. For instance, previous stud-
ies have not focused on the supervisorsubordinate rela-
tionship, which, it has been suggested, is the most
important organizational relationship for employees (Harris
and Kacmar 2005). Thus, we assessed the quality of lea-
dermember exchange (LMX) as a vital moderator of
POPsoutcome relationship.
The purpose of this study was to expand on prior
research by investigating the interactive moderating effects
of political skill and LMX. We hypothesized that high
values of both political skill and LMX would significantly
mitigate the detrimental effects of POPs, but when only
one of these has a high value and not the other, the mod-
erating effect would be reduced. Figure 1 shows our
hypothesized model.
We employed the uncertainty management theory
(UMT; Lind and van den Bos 2002) as a framework for
establishing our hypothesis and conducting our empirical
analysis. In the next section, we review relevant studies and
explicate the theoretical basis of this study.
Theory and Hypothesis
Perceptions of Organizational Politics (POPs)
Since this study focuses on moderators of the POPsout-
come relationship, we review some studies that examine the
relationship between POPs and organizational commitment.
Organizational commitment is important because it impacts
work attitudes such as job satisfaction, performance, and
High Quality
Political Skill
LMX
POPs Affective
Commitment
Fig. 1 Hypothesized model
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T. Kimura
studies have suggested that POPs have detrimental effects on
the organizational commitment of employees.
Cropanzano et al. (1997) provided a theoretical basis for
why POPs could have negative effects on organizational
commitment. They argued that a workplace involves a
marketplace in which different individuals and groups
interact to exchange outcomes. They assumed that each of
us works to obtain certain objectives, and that to obtain
these objectives, work requires a considerable expenditure
of effort. Consequently, choosing to affiliate with a given
firm can be seen as an investment of personal resources.
When the marketplace is political, individuals attain
rewards through competition and by amassing power.
Since not everyone can belong to the strongest cabal, many
individuals will have trouble fulfilling their aspirations, and
might see their work environment as unsatisfying and
stressful. Moreover, in a political work environment,
rewards are allocated based on power, and the rules may
change from 1 day to the next. This uncertainty causes
individuals to have less confidence that their efforts will
lead to any beneficial outcomes, and thus they are less
likely to invest additional resources into the organization.
Therefore, in a political work environment, individuals see
their long-term contribution to the organization as a risky
investment, and are more likely to withdraw than those in a
less political work environment (Cropanzano et al. 1997).
On the basis of this argument, it can be assumed that
POPs are negatively related to organizational commitment.
In fact, several empirical studies have found the negative
relationship between POPs and organizational commitment
(Drory 1993; Nye and Witt 1993; Maslyn and Fedor 1998;
Witt 1998; Vigoda 2000; Vigoda-Gadot et al. 2003).
As discussed in Randall et al. (1999), it is necessary to
distinguish two types of commitment: affective commit-
ment and continuance commitment, when investigating the
relationship between POPs and organizational commit-
ment. According to Randall et al., while affective com-
mitment is expected to positively correlate with the level of
organizational politics, the continuance commitment of an
individual is not influenced by the overall level of politics
in the workplace. In Randall et al.s model, politics are
thought of as a rating of ones current work setting, and are
always present to some degree, In this model, the definition
of politics includes many non-economic transactions, such
as the allocation of power and respect within a group. Thus,
they assumed that there is no a priori theoretical reason to
expect that politics will be related to continuance com-
mitment, which is heavily influenced by economic alter-
natives. Indeed, Randall et al. (1999) found that perceived
level of politics is negatively related to affective commit-
ment, and is not correlated with continuance commitment.
Thus, we hypothesize the following:
The Moderating Effects of Political Skill and LeaderMember Exchange
Hypothesis 1 POPs will be negatively related to affective
commitment.
Uncertainty Management Theory (UMT)
We developed the theoretical basis of our study based on the
above review of POPs literature. We employed the UMT as a
theoretical framework for developing our hypothesis and
designing an empirical analysis of the moderators of POPs
outcome relationships. According to the UMT, the influence of
fairness is stronger in conditions of high uncertainty (Lind and
van den Bos 2002). More specifically, concerns about fairness
become more salient to people when they face uncertainty, and
therefore people tend to react more negatively to unfair events
in uncertain environments (Tangirala and Alge 2006).
Although both theoretical and empirical studies have found
discriminant validity between organizational politics and
organizational justice (Andrews and Kacmar 2001; Ferris et al.
2005), these constructs are closely related (Ferris et al. 1993). If
a decision-making process in the work environment is dictated
more by politics than by formal rules and regulations, the work
environment will be viewed as unjust and unfair (Andrews and
Kacmar 2001). Indeed, Andrews and Kacmars (2001) empir-
ical research revealed a significant negative relationship
between POPs and organizational justice, as well as a concep-
tual overlap. Thus, we consider it reasonable to apply the
framework of the UMT to the analysis of organizational politics.
Based on the UMT, we can assume that POPs have a larger
negative effect on work-related outcome when employees face
uncertainty. Thus, skill, knowledge, and other measures that
reduce uncertainty may moderate the detrimental effects of
POPs. In POPs literature, control and understanding are con-
sidered to be moderators of the POPsoutcome relationship
(e.g., Ferris et al. 1989, 2002). Given their conceptual defini-
tions, we argue that both control and understanding can serve as
measures to reduce environmental uncertainty. Recent studies
have paid much attention to the moderating effects of political
skill, which contains factors of both control and understanding.
In the following, we first review previous studies con-
cerning the moderating effects of control and understanding.
Then, we argue for the moderating effects of political skill.
Moreover, we propose a moderating effect of LMX and an
interactive moderating effect of political skill and LMX. As
we will discuss below, the quality of LMX as well as political
skill may be a salient moderator of the POPsoutcome
relationship, since the former reflects actual relationships
lead to a low level of uncertainty whereas political skill
represents a potential to lower environmental uncertainty.
Moderators of POPsOutcome Relationships
Among the moderators of the POPsoutcome relationship
presented in Ferris et al.s (1989) model and its revised
589
model (Ferris et al. 2002), control and understanding are
the most frequently examined in subsequent research.
Control represents the extent to which people can
exercise influence over an environment (Ganster and
Fusilier 1989). Sutton and Kahn (1986) proposed that
perceived control over ones work environment can trans-
late stressors into opportunities or threats. This assumption
was empirically supported by Tetrick and LaRocco (1987).
On the basis of these arguments, Ferris et al. (1993) sug-
gested that if people perceive little control over a process,
the existence of organizational politics, which, according to
Jex and Beehr (1991) is a stressor, could be interpreted as a
threat and would result in more negative outcomes.
Alternatively, if employees perceive higher levels of con-
trol over a process, this would result in more favorable
outcomes.
However, empirical studies have produced mixed
results. Ferris et al. (1993) found that perceived control
moderates the relationships between POPs and job anxiety,
job satisfaction, and negative evaluation of the decision to
take a current job, but does not moderate the relationship
between POPs and intentions to leave. Moreover, whereas
Ferris et al. (1996b) found that perceived control moderates
the negative effects of POPs on job anxiety and satisfac-
tion, Bozeman et al. (2001) did not find this moderating
effect on the relationships between POPs and organiza-
tional commitment, job satisfaction, intention to leave, or
job stress.
Understanding is defined as knowledge about the causes
of significant events that occur in the workplace (Sutton
and Kahn 1986). It refers to the extent to which one
comprehends why and how things happen the way they do,
and it is suggested that this comes with time and experience
(Ferris et al. 1989, 1994). Exposure to and experience in a
given situation lead to a better understanding of the situa-
tion. This improved understanding will result in a decrease
of subjectively experienced stress (McGrath 1976) and
environmental uncertainty, and then, will attenuate nega-
tive effects of POPs.
However, the results of empirical studies have been
mixed. Ferris et al. (1996b) found that understanding mit-
igated negative effects of POPs on job anxiety and satis-
faction with ones supervisor, but did not moderate the
effect of POPs on general satisfaction. Kacmar et al. (1999)
showed that understanding attenuates the negative effects
of POPs on job satisfaction, but does not moderate the
effect of POPs on anxiety.
Political Skill
According to the UMT, it seems quite possible that both
control and understanding moderate the negative impacts
of POPs, since they serve to reduce environmental
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590
uncertainty. However, as noted above, the results of
empirical research have not confirmed the moderating
effects of these factors. Here, we assume that political skill
is a more robust moderator because it includes both func-
tions of control and understanding.
Political skill is 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 (Ahearn et al. 2004).
According to Ferris et al. (2005), political skill consists of
four aspects: social astuteness, interpersonal influence,
networking ability, and apparent sincerity.
Individuals high in political skill possess an under-
standing of people, along with a basic belief that they can
control the processes and outcomes of interactions with
others (Perrewe et al. 2000, 2004). Due to their high levels
of social astuteness and networking ability, politically
skilled individuals have a keen understanding of the
workplace (Brouer et al. 2011). Furthermore, they are able
to read people and situations well and act on that knowl-
edge in ways that lead to interpersonal effectiveness. Such
successful interpersonal encounters contribute to the
experience of control and mastery over others in their work
environment (Ferris et al. 2007). Thus, political skill can be
regarded as a construct that includes both control and
understanding, both of which are thought to moderate the
negative effects of POPs on work-related outcomes.
Therefore, political skill may operate as a more robust
antidote for the detrimental effects of POPs than control
and understanding.
Some researchers have found that political skill mod-
erates the relationship between perceived stressors and
strain (Hochwarter et al. 2007; Perrewe et al. 2000, 2004,
2005). However, Brouer et al.s (2011) empirical study
indicated that political skill did not moderate the negative
relationships between POPs and the organizational com-
mitment of employees. Hence, there is still a need for
further analysis.
LeaderMember Exchange (LMX)
Based on the UMT, we can assume that the quality of the
LMX moderates the relationship between POPs and affec-
tive commitment, since the LMX is thought to influence the
level of uncertainty experienced by employees (Gerstner and
Day 1997; Rosen et al. 2011). The LMX theory focuses on
the dyadic relationship between supervisors and subordi-
nates. According to the LMX theory, the quality of the
relationship between supervisors and subordinates is based
on membership in the in-group or out-group since leaders
treat members differently (Graen 1976).
Ferris et al.s (1989) POPs model and its revised model
(Ferris et al. 2002) assume that interactions with coworkers
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T. Kimura
are antecedents of POPs. Indeed, several empirical studies
have found a negative relationship between POPs and LMX
(Kacmar et al., 1999; Valle and Perrewe 2000; Miller and
Nicols 2008). However, Andrews and Kacmar (2001)
showed that LMX is positively related to POPs. They con-
cluded that in-group members may be more in-the-know
about the political machinations of their organizations.
Some researchers have recently regarded LMX as a
moderator of the POPsoutcome relationship. For example,
Harris and Kacmar (2005) argued that a possible expla-
nation for the inconsistent results of studies on the mod-
erating effects of understanding is that these analyses did
not consider the supervisorsubordinate relationship.
According to the LMX theory, subordinates in high-
quality LMX relationships with supervisors receive several
advantages including high level of trust, continuous emo-
tional support, and formal and informal rewards (Dansereau
et al. 1975; Dienesch and Liden 1986; Graen and Scandura
1987). However, subordinates in low-quality LMX rela-
tionships cannot enjoy the same privileges as those in high-
quality LMX relationships (Liden et al. 1997).
Harris and Kacmar (2005) posited that the advantages
that high-quality LMX subordinates receive lower the level
of ambiguity and/or uncertainty. They found that LMX
quality can moderate the relationship between POPs and
strains such that the higher the quality of the LMX, the
weaker the POPsstrain relationship. Based on the UMT,
Rosen et al. (2011) hypothesized that LMX moderates the
negative relationship between POPs and job performance.
However, their results did not support this assumption. At
present, the results of research regarding the moderating
effects of LMX are mixed.
Interaction of Political Skill and LMX
From the discussion above, we can say that empirical
studies have not yet confirmed that either political skill or
LMX solely moderates the relationship between POPs and
work-related outcome. However, this should not negate the
existence of moderating effects of political skill and LMX.
Here, we would like to emphasize that the important issue
that has not yet been examined by previous studies is the
interactive moderating effect of political skill and LMX.
POPs include the sense of injustice caused by ambiguity
and uncertainty in decision-making, and by unproductive
and/or self-serving power games in the organization. Thus,
to reduce uncertainty in a political environment, individu-
als should not only develop political skills but also influ-
ential and instrumental alliances within the organization.
Workplace politics often have detrimental effects on
employees. However, due to their highly developed social
astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking, and appar-
ent sincerity (Ferris et al. 2005), politically skilled
The Moderating Effects of Political Skill and LeaderMember Exchange
individuals may enjoy network centrality which enables
them to gain access to important information, which in turn
enables them to gain control over events. Thus, these indi-
viduals tend to be able to cope with organizational politics
effectively (c.f. Ferris et al. 2005; Perrewe et al. 2005).
On the basis of Perrewe et al.s (2004) argument, Harris
et al. (2009) pointed out that politically skilled individuals
are able to use their social understanding, influence, and
networking abilities to garner important resources that may
assist with coping in negative situations. They further
argued that politically skilled individuals garner more
resources than their politically unskilled counterparts, even
in instances of low LMX quality, and so are able to buffer
the negative effects of a low-quality relationship with their
supervisors. Indeed, empirical studies have supported these
arguments (Harris et al. 2009).
Nevertheless, developing ones political skill is not
enough. Political skill is just a skill that represents the
potential to gain control in the political arena (Mintzberg
1983). To gain actual control over events, one needs to
obtain a real power base by forming instrumental networks
with influential people (Ibarra 1993; Pfeffer 2010; Varella
et al. 2012). Such networks can provide individuals with
power and opportunities to use their political skill. Among
these networks, one of the most instrumental is the rela-
tionship with ones immediate supervisor, since he or she
represents a proximal source of support for employees. If a
politically skilled employee has a low quality of LMX
relationshipand thus, receive little support from his/her
immediate supervisorthere is no way that he/she can act
on his/her political savvy. Therefore, it is possible that
political skill will not be useful if one does not develop
high-quality LMX relationships.
Ferris et al. (1996a) suggest the following: since diverse
groups have differential access to critical information about
politics in the work environment, increased understanding
will lessen the potential adverse effects of politics for some
groups, but not for others. Namely, understanding will
mitigate the negative effects of politics for insiders, but
not for outsiders. Indeed, they found that while under-
standing significantly moderate the relationships between
POPs, job anxiety, and job satisfaction for white males, it
did not significantly moderate the relationship between
POPs and employee reactions for racial/ethnic minorities.
These findings provide an important insight to the cur-
rent body of research. Ferris et al. (1996a) regarded white
males as insiders and racial/ethnic minorities as out-
siders. From the perspective of LMX, subordinates in the
in-group can be considered insiders, and subordinates
in the out-group can be considered outsiders. As
subordinates in the in-group are likely to have more
access to their supervisors, they have more opportunities to
receive support and thus, use their political skill.
591
Whether or not ones political skill can operate effec-
tively depends partly on the extent to which one has
opportunities to use that skill. Individuals high in LMX
for instance, those the in-grouptend to have more
access to their supervisors than those low in LMX, and thus
have more chances to use their political skill to influence
their superiors (Harris et al. 2009). Furthermore, individ-
uals high in political skill can be quite calculating and
shrewd about the social connections they form, inspiring
trust and confidence in others, which allows them to
effectively leverage social capital (Perrewe et al. 2000).
Given these arguments and findings, we can assume that
political skill, as an antidote, may be more effective when
an individual is in a high-quality LMX relationship. In
other words, political skill and LMX interact to moderate
the negative effects of POPs on employee attitudes.
Hypothesis 2 Political skill and LMX interact to mod-
erate the negative effects of POPs on the affective com-
mitment of employees. Specifically, they operate as a
three-way interaction: (1) when both political skill and
LMX are high, the negative relationship between POPs and
affective commitment will be weaker;, (2) when both
political skill and LMX are low, the negative relationship
between POPs and affective commitment will be stronger;
and (3) when either political skill or LMX is high and other
is low, the moderating effect will be reduced.
Method
Sample and Procedures
The sample consisted of 200 full-time employees (response
rate of 66.0 %) working in Japanese companies. The
respondents were primarily male (60 %) and all of them
were Japanese. The ages of the respondents ranged from 25
to 68 with a mean age of 38 years. Because of concerns
about response burden, tenure was measured categorically
with the responses grouped into four blocks (i.e., 2 years
and more to less than 3 years, 3 years and more to less than
4 years, 4 years and more to less than 5 years, and 5 years
and more). We limited the minimum tenure of the
respondents to 2 years, because a certain degree of tenure
is necessary for one to understand his or her work envi-
ronment, especially with respect to organizational politics.
Our sample included individuals from various job cat-
egories. Sixty-seven (33.5 %) were in sales, 49 (24.5 %)
were in general affairs, 44 (22.0 %) were in R&D, 29
(14.5 %) were in accounting and finance, and 11 (5.5 %)
were in planning. Interactions among co-workers are gen-
erally required in these occupations, and power struggles
and conflicts are common and inevitable. Therefore, this
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592 T. Kimura

sample population was appropriate for the analysis of
organizational politics.
Participants were selected from registered members of
an online research program administered by a research
institution. From those registered, we selected individuals
who satisfied the conditions of our survey (i.e., full-time
employees, tenure of 2 years or longer, and working in
sales, general affairs, R&D, accounting, finance, or plan-
ning), and sent them a written request by e-mail.
This survey was conducted via an online questionnaire.
Participants accessed the URL of the questionnaire, which
was included in the request letter, and then filled out the
form. To ensure anonymity and confidentiality, the
response data for each participant were automatically col-
lected and converted into comma separated values (CSV)
data. In this collection and conversion process, neither the
names of the participants nor any identifying information
were recorded.
LeaderMember Exchange (LMX)
LMX was measured using a seven-item scale developed by
Scandura et al. (1986). Sample items from this scale are
My immediate supervisor has enough confidence in me
that he or she would defend and justify my decisions if I
were not present to do so and Regardless of how much
formal authority my immediate supervisor has built into his
or her position, my supervisor would be personally inclined
to use his or her power to help me solve problems in my
work. Cronbachs alpha for scores on this scale was .87.
Affective Commitment
Affective commitment was measured using Meyer et al. (1993)
six-item scale. Sample items from this scale are I would be
very happy to spend the rest of my career in this organization
and I really feel as if this organizations problems are my
own. Cronbachs alpha for scores on this scale was .81.

Measures Control Variables

All items were measured on a five-point Likert-scale. The
anchors for the scale were strongly disagree = 1 to
strongly agree = 5. The items in the scales were aver-
aged to create an overall mean for each variable. The items
were then coded such that high values represented high
levels of each construct.
Perceptions of Organizational Politics (POPs)
POPs were measured using a five-item scale developed by
Ferris and Kacmar (1992). Sample items from this scale
include: You can get along around here by being a good
guy, regardless of the quality of your work. and Favor-
itism rather than merit determines who gets ahead.
Cronbachs alpha for scores on this scale was .61. Although
recent empirical studies have used a revised version of the
POPs scale that was developed by Kacmar and Carlson
(1997), we adopted this five-item scale due to concern
about response burden.
Political Skill
Political skill was measured using Vigoda-Gadot and
Meislers (2010) shortened eight-item version of the self-
reported Political Skill Inventory (Ferris et al. 2005).
Sample items from this scale include I always seem to
instinctively know the right thing to say or do to influence
others and I am able to make most people feel com-
fortable and at ease around me. Cronbachs alpha for
scores on this scale was .80.
We included gender, age, and organizational tenure as
biographical control variables in this study since previous
empirical studies have shown that these variables are
related to affective commitment (e.g., Allen and Meyer
1993; Meyer et al. 1993; Rhoades et al. 2001). Gender was
coded for with men as 1 and women as 0. Age was mea-
sured in number of years. As mentioned earlier, job tenure
was measured categorically in four blocks.
Analyses
We conducted a hierarchical moderated regression analysis
to examine the hypothesized relationships between POPs,
political skill, LMX, and affective commitment. In the first
step, we entered the control variables of gender, age, and
tenure. In the second step, we entered POPs, political skill,
and LMX. In the third step, we entered three different two-
way interactions between the variables entered in the sec-
ond step. Finally, in the fourth step, we entered a three-way
interaction term between variables for POPs, political skill,
and LMX. In the regression analysis, we centered the
independent variables before computing the interaction
terms in order to avoid a multicollinearity problem.
Results
Correlation Results
We ran two-tailed tests of significance for the correla-
tionship between the three control variables and four focal

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The Moderating Effects of Political Skill and LeaderMember Exchange 593

constructs (i.e., POPs, political skill, LMX, and affective
commitment). Results are provided in Table 1. Consistent
with previous empirical studies, POPs was negatively
related to LMX (r = -.474, p \ .01), and affective com-
mitment (r = -.438, p \ .01). Political skill was posi-
tively related to affective commitment (r = .273, p \ .01).
This result is consistent with findings from previous
empirical studies that found that political skill is positively
related to desired work attitudes and negatively related to
undesired attitudes (Ferris et al. 2005; Vigoda-Gadot and
Meisler 2010).
Regression Analysis Results
Results from the hierarchical moderated regression analy-
sis are provided in Table 2. In the first step, organization
tenure was positively related to affective commitment,
indicating that the longer the employees work for an
organization, the higher their affective commitment is.
Gender and age were not significantly related to affective
commitment.
In the second step, POPs were negatively and signifi-
cantly related to affective commitment, while both political
skill and LMX were positively and significantly related to
affective commitment. Thus, hypothesis 1 was supported.
In the third step, none of the three two-way interaction
terms created between POPs, political skill, and LMX were
significantly related to affective commitment. Finally, in
the fourth step, our results showed that the three-way
interaction term was negatively and significantly related to
affective commitment (b = -.173, p \ .001), and this
explained an additional 1.7 % of variance.
To graphically illustrate the three-way interaction, we
plotted the interaction of POPs and LMX for high and low
levels of political skill (Aiken and West 1991; see Figs. 2,
3). Figure 2 demonstrates that for individuals with a high
level of political skill, POPs were not related to affective
commitment under high LMX, but was negatively related
to affective commitment under low LMX. That is, for
individuals with a high level of political skill, LMX
moderates the negative relationship between POPs and
affective commitment.
Figure 3 demonstrates that for individuals with low
levels of political skill, POPs were negatively related to
affective commitment, irrespective of the level of LMX.
That is, for individuals with low levels of political skill,
high-quality LMX does not moderate the negative rela-
tionship between POPs and affective commitment.
Our results indicate that political skill is necessary to
enable LMX to moderate the relationship between POPs
and affective commitment. While LMX moderates the
POPscommitment relationship for politically skilled
individuals, it does not moderate this relationship for those
with low levels of political skill. When both political skill
and the quality of LMX are high, POPs have no influence
on the level of affective commitment. However, when
political skill is low, POPs have a negative effect on
affective commitment, irrespective of the level of LMX
quality. These findings provide support for Hypothesis 2.
Discussion
The results of this study provide empirical evidence to support
our hypotheses. In agreement with our first hypothesis, POPs
were negatively and significantly related to affective com-
mitment. This finding is consistent with the view of Cro-
panzano et al. (1997). While our finding regarding the
negative relationship between POPs and affective commit-
ment confirmed the results of previous research, our discovery
of a three-way interaction is an important contribution in that
it leads to an extension of the UMT and provides an integra-
tive view of organizational politics and the political dynamics
of individuals in organizations.
As predicted, political skill and LMX interact to mod-
erate the relationship between POPs and affective com-
mitment. More specifically, when both political skill and
LMX are high, the negative relationship between POPs and
affective commitment is mitigated. However, when only
one of these is high, the moderating effect is diminished.

Table 1 Means, standard deviations, and correlations

Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Gender .60 .49 .165** .048 -.098 -.021 .105 .081

2. Age 38.19 9.46 .165** .228*** .111 -.058 -.072 .036
3. Tenure 4.52 .83 .048 .228*** -.069 -.066 .043 .184***
4. POPs 3.26 .66 -.098 .111 -.069 -.012 -.474*** -.438***
5. Political skill 2.85 .65 -.021 -.058 -.066 -.012 .334*** .273***
6. LMX 2.90 .84 .105 -.072 .043 -.474*** .334*** .447***
7. Affective commitment 2.82 .81 .081 .036 .184*** -.438*** .273*** .447***
N = 200, * p \ .10, ** p \ .05, *** p \ .01

123
594 T. Kimura

Table 2 Hierarchical moderated regression analyses of the three-way interactions among politics, political skill, and LMX
Dependent variables = affective commitment
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

Step 1: Control variables

Gender .075 .013 .004 -.003
Age -.019 .064 .069 .071
Tenure .185** .151** .138** .155**
Step 2: Main effects
POPs -.328*** -.318*** -.297***
Political skill .210*** .214*** .134*
LMX .218*** .201*** .206***
Step 3: 2-way interactions
POPs*Political skill -.064 -.124
POPs * LMX .076 .107*
Political skill * LMX -.044 -.023
Step 4: 3-way interactions
POPs * Political skill * LMX -.173**
R2 .039 .329 .337 .353
DR2 .039 .290*** .007 .017**
N = 200, * p \ .10, ** p \ .05, *** p \ .01

High Political Skill Low Political Skill

3.3 3.3
Low LMX
Affective Commitment

Affective Commitment

Low LMX High LMX

2.8 2.8
High LMX

2.3 2.3

1.8 1.8
Low High Low High
Perceptions of Politics Perceptions of Politics

Fig. 2 Interaction between perceptions of politics and LMX on Fig. 3 Interaction between perceptions of politics and LMX on
affective commitment at high levels of political skill affective commitment at low levels of political skill

This kind of three-way interaction has not been integra-

tively theorized nor empirically examined in previous
studies of organizational politics.
Cropanzano et al. (1997) posited that a workplace
involves a marketplace in which different individuals and
groups interact to exchange outcomes, and that in a polit-
ical working environment, individuals see their long-term
contribution to the organization as a risky investment, and
are thus more likely to withdraw. On the other hand, in a
collaborative and supportive settingwhich is contrast to a
political settingthe environment is more predictable.
Thus, employees are more confident that their investment
will yield benefits and then are likely to invest their
resource to the organization (Cropanzano et al. 1997).
While UMT mainly suggest the effectiveness of justice
in managing uncertainty, it also serves to interpret the
interactive moderating effects of political skill and LMX.
According to UMT, fairness effects are stronger in the
presence of uncertainty. In other words, in an uncertain
setting, unfairness becomes more detrimental than in a
more certain setting.

123
The Moderating Effects of Political Skill and LeaderMember Exchange
Political environment is a kind of unfair setting in which
decision-makings are influenced by political games. In
such an environment, individuals who have political savvy
(i.e., politically skilled individuals) are able to read the rule
of the game and thus perceive less uncertainty. And indi-
viduals who receive support from important others (i.e.,
individuals in high-quality LMX) will perceive their
environment as stable and predictive. Such reduced per-
ceptions of uncertainty cause individuals to be more con-
fident that their efforts will produce any beneficial
outcomes. Thus, those individuals might be committed to
their organization.
Political skill enables workers to utilize opportunities or
overcome threats, while LMX provides workers with an
opportunity or threat at work. Thus, the interaction of
political skill and LMX should be regarded as a vital
moderator of the POPsoutcome relationship. Previous
studies have provided empirical evidence for regarding
political skill as an antidote for the detrimental effects of
workplace stressors, such as organizational politics. How-
ever, empirical studies have not confirmed the moderating
effects of political skill on the POPsoutcome relationship.
Our findings reveal some clues about why the moderating
effect of political skill has not been empirically supported
in previous studies. As our results indicate, political skill
does not mitigate the negative effect of POPs when LMX is
low. It is likely that a high-quality LMX is a necessary
condition for political skill to operate as an antidote for the
negative effects of POPs.
In terms of moderating effects on the relationship
between POPs and organizational commitment, there seem
to be two types of functions that political skill and LMX can
fulfill. First, these moderators can serve as coping mecha-
nisms for the stress caused by POPs. On the basis of the job
demands-resources model, we can assume that both control
gained by political skill and supervisor support secured by
high-quality LMX operate as job resources that can be used
to cope with job stress and make individuals more engaged
in their work (Demerouti et al. 2001; Mauno et al. 2007;
Schaufeli and Bakker 2004). This will, in turn, enhance their
organizational commitment (Schaufeli et al. 2008).
Second, these moderators can serve as methods to take
advantage of the political environment. With increased
control and understanding gained by political skill and
LMX, individuals can interpret organizational politics as an
opportunity rather than a threat. These factors can enable
them to understand the political game and feel that they
have a higher degree of control over the process and out-
comes (Ferris et al. 1989). They may then become more
committed to the organization. As moderators, political
skill as well as LMX has both of these two types of
functions. One may infer that LMX primarily serve as the
first function and political skill mainly work as the second
595
function. However, our results cannot provide confirmative
evidence for this issue. Thus, we can only suggest that both
political skill and LMX have two types of moderating
functions.
The findings of our study provide some practical
implications. It is argued that politics are an inherent part
of every organization, and that political behavior is a
normal part of business (Gandz and Murray 1980; Pfeffer
1981). Therefore, most organizations are not free from the
influence of organizational politics. Organizational politics
is an important process of social influence with potential
for being either functional or dysfunctional to organiza-
tions and individuals (Allen et al. 1979). Thus, organiza-
tional politics represent an important mechanism for
implementing organizational change (Pettigrew 1973; Pi-
chault 1995). As most strategic decision-making processes
are ultimately political (Allison 1971), political skill is
essential for managers who wish to be effective and effi-
cient (Bacharach 2005).
In terms of individual career development, one needs to
develop political skills as well as high-quality LMX rela-
tionships with immediate supervisors and/or higher man-
agers to be an effective leader. Although the word
political might have a somewhat negative nuance, we
suggest that political skills are essential to be an effective
leader in the process of organizational change.
Limitations and Future Research
Our study makes several contributions to the field of
organizational politics. First, we extended upon previous
research on POPsoutcome relationships by investigating
the moderating effects of political skill and LMX.
Second, we revealed the interactive moderating effects
of political skill and LMX. This finding helps to explain the
mixed results of previous empirical studies, which exam-
ined the moderating effect of political skill and LMX
separately. Moreover, this finding also has important
implications for human development practices within
organizations as well as personal career development.
Third, we obtained the predicted results even after
controlling for gender, age, and job tenure. This adds
strength to our findings and allows us to provide a more
conservative estimate of the hypothesized relationships.
Finally, in the current analysis, we used data from Jap-
anese employees. To the best of our knowledge, there has
been no empirical research on POPs conducted in a Japa-
nese sample. Our findings can act as a foothold to
strengthen the generalizability of the construct of POPs and
the related causal models.
We should note that there are some limitations in our
study. First, since all of our data were gathered from the
123
596
same source, used the same method (self-report), and col-
lected at the same time, there is a threat of common method
variance (CMV) in our analysis (Spector 1987, 2006). To
reduce potential risks associated with CMV, we provided
anonymity for each respondent throughout our research
design (Podsakoff et al. 2003). Moreover, we interspersed
all variables throughout the survey to reduce respondents
perception of any direct connection between variables.
In addition, we conducted a Harman one-factor test to
examine the presence of CMV (Podsakoff and Organ
1986). Our results show that the scales loaded on multiple
factors (four-factors) and that the main (first) factor
explained only 24.2 % of the variance. Moreover, a num-
ber of researchers have noted that CMV does not constitute
a threat when testing for interaction effects (e.g., Duffy
et al. 1998; Harris et al. 2007). Furthermore, previous
studies have shown that CMV is likely to attenuate rather
than to strengthen interaction effects (Wall et al. 1996).
Therefore, we do not consider CMV to be a serious prob-
lem in our analysis. Nonetheless, in future studies, we
should employ more appropriate research methods to
eliminate CMV.
Second, participants of our study were limited to Japa-
nese citizens. As previously mentioned, this is one of the
strengths of our study. However, it is not clear whether our
findings regarding interactive moderating effects can be
generalized to more diverse samples. Therefore, we should
conduct similar studies with various types of workers to
examine the generalizability of our results.
Third, some scales employed in our study are shortened
versions. Recent empirical studies generally use Kacmar
and Carlsons (1997) POPs scale, but we used Ferris and
Kacmars (1992) scales for reasons of parsimony. In future
studies, we should test our hypothesized model with a more
commonly used scale.
Ferris and Kacmars (1992) POPs measure, which was
used in this study, has a relatively low level of internal
reliability. Cronbachs alpha for scores on the scale was
.61. Although some theorists have suggested that Cron-
bachs alpha values of .60 or higher are acceptable (e.g.,
Gronlund 1981), the value of .70 has been traditionally
used (Nunnally and Bernstein 1994). Furthermore, a value
of .80 or greater has recently become a more generally
accepted standard of internal consistency reliability (Hen-
son 2001).
Ferris and Kacmars (1992) five-item scale has been
used in other empirical research, and in those studies the
value of Cronbachs alpha reached the desired level. For
example, it was .93 in a study by Ferris et al. (1996b), and
.89 for men and .86 for women in a study by OConner and
Morrison (2001). Thus, it is possible that the observed low
level of internal reliability reflects features of the work
environment in Japanese organizations. Therefore, to
123
T. Kimura
investigate organizational politics in Japanese firms, in
addition to choosing a more commonly used POPs scale
(such as the POPs scale used by Kacmar and Carlson), we
might need to revise our POPs scale to better suit to the
work context in Japanese firms.
The measure of political skill that we employed was also
a shortened version due to concerns about response burden.
Recent studies have argued that political skill consists of
four dimensions, and the multidimensional nature of
political skill has been empirically validated (e.g., Ferris
et al. 2005, 2007). By asking whether these dimensions
have differential impacts in moderating the relationship
between POPs and outcomes, we can enhance our under-
standing of how and why political skill moderates POPs
outcome relationships. The shortened-measure scales are
not suitable for dimensional analysis since the number of
items for each dimension is too small, threatening the
content validity of each dimension. Thus, in future
research, we should use the full-version of the Political
Skill Inventory (Ferris et al. 2005).
Finally, in our study, we included only affective com-
mitment as an outcome of POPs. As previous empirical
studies have revealed, POPs induce various kinds of out-
comes such as job dissatisfaction, job stress, and intention
to quit (Miller et al. 2008). Therefore, future research
should investigate the interactive moderating effects of
political skill and LMX on the relationships between POPs
and their various types of outcomes.
Conclusion
In this study, we showed that two moderators (i.e., political
skill and LMX) interact to moderate the POPsoutcome
relationship. This finding indicates that, for employees,
there are two approaches for coping with organizational
politics. One approach is focusing on individual skill (e.g.,
Ferris et al. 2005, 2007), and the other one puts emphasis
on acquiring real power in an organization (e.g., Pfeffer
2010). We found a three-way interaction, suggesting that
since there are two approaches for coping with politics, it is
necessary for individuals to obtain and utilize two types of
resources to effectively deal with organizational politics.
One of those resources is political skill and the other is
instrumental relationships. While the former is a kind of
potential and/or competence for gaining control or under-
standing, the latter is an actual relational basis. Though
instrumental relationships may not be limited to relation-
ships with supervisors, LMX may be the most salient
resource since the supervisor is a main proximal source of
information for employees.
Although several previous studies have examined either
level of political skill or quality of LMX as a moderator of
The Moderating Effects of Political Skill and LeaderMember Exchange
POPsoutcome relationships, this study is novel in that it
investigates these two moderators integratively. We believe
this integrative perspective on moderating effects leads to
an expansion of the POPs model and to a deeper under-
standing of political management in the workplace.
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