The link between networking behaviours and work outcomes: the role of political skills

PurposeNetworking behaviours are important for a range of work outcomes. Little empirical evidence of how internal vs external networking behaviours influence job commitment and job performance exists and whether political skills moderate these relationships. Using theories of social capital and personal initiative, this study examines the effect of internal and external networking behaviours on job commitment and job performance in the context of political skills.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sequential mixed-method research design with a four-month time lag, Study 1 data on networking behaviours, political skills and work outcomes were collected via a survey of middle managers and their supervisors from ten private sector organisations operating in Sri Lanka. Study 2 data were collected via interviews of a set of middle managers and their supervisors.FindingsStudy 1 findings indicate a positive relationship between internal networking behaviours and both job commitment and job performance. The authors also found a moderating effect of political skills on internal networking behaviours and job commitment. Study 2 findings explained, strengthened and extended results of Study 1.Practical implicationsMiddle managers can use these research findings to understand how internal networking behaviours improve their job commitment and job performance. These managers can use their political skills and internal networking behaviours to improve their job commitment. They can also advance their career through improved job commitment and job performance. Senior managers and human resource managers should facilitate and encourage internal networking behaviours. Training and development managers should develop middle managers' networking behaviours and political skills.Originality/valueThis study provides pioneering evidence of how internal networking behaviours impact middle managers' job performance and job commitment, and how internal networking behaviours improve job commitment for middle managers with high political skills.

“War against the Constitution”

This chapter recounts the battles outside and within the Supreme Court over the five cases, first argued in 1952, argued again the following year, and decided in May 1954 under the caption Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The chapter draws on transcripts of the lawyers’ oral arguments, notes of justices from the Court’s closed-door conferences to debate and decide cases, and the Court’s unanimous opinion striking down public school segregation. Among the dozen-plus lawyers who argued the five cases, Thurgood Marshall as NAACP general counsel and John W. Davis, former Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. solicitor general, who both argued in the South Carolina case, presented a sharp contrast over the rights of states to impose segregation in public schools. The Court’s closed-door conference after these arguments exposed a rift, with at least one and possibly four justices unwilling to jettison the Plessy “separate but equal” doctrine. Concerned that a split decision would inflame the heated national debate, Justice Felix Frankfurter proposed a second round of arguments a year later; the sudden death in September 1953 of Chief Justice Fred Vinson led President Dwight Eisenhower to name California governor Earl Warren to replace him. Warren used his personal charm and political skills to cajole the Court’s holdouts to join a unanimous decision. However, a third round of arguments on “implementation” of integration allowed Jim Crow schools to proceed with “all deliberate speed” in complying with the Court’s decree, which led to decade-long foot-dragging by southern officials. The chapter concludes with an account of the Little Rock, Arkansas, integration case, Cooper v. Aaron, holding that state officials could not wage “war against the Constitution” by resisting the Court’s orders.

Research on the Influence Mechanism of Personal Initiative on Enterprise Emergency Management Ability

This study aims to explore the influence mechanism of personal initiative on the overall emergency management ability of enterprises so as to put forward effective measures to improve the emergency management ability. Based on social interaction theory and feature activation theory, the concepts of organizational support theory, executive power, and political skills were introduced to construct a corresponding theoretical model. We collected data through an online questionnaire to test this model via structural equation model analysis and regression analysis, with 208 participants of varying backgrounds. The results show that personal initiative can strengthen enterprise emergency management ability. The mediating effect of executive power between personal initiative and emergency management ability of enterprise has also been proved. In addition, the two adjustment variables of political skills and perceived organizational support both have a positive impact on the improvement of personal initiative and execution. Therefore, in order to improve the enterprise emergency management ability, it is suggested that enterprises should give full play to the personal initiative and improve the individual and overall executive power. The conclusion of this paper can provide new methodological support for improving emergency management ability.

Organizational Politics and Work Outcomes: Moderating Role of Top Management Political Skills

This quantitative research was conducted to investigate the direct effects of Organizational Politics and moderating role of Top Management Political Skills on job outcomes such as Job Satisfaction and Employee Job Performance. The data was collected from 151 employees working in a private multinational tobacco manufacturing organization Phillip Morris Swabi Pakistan. Organizational Politics with others job outcomes were also studied in Pakistani context but the moderating effect of Political Skills needs to study for minimizing the negative consequences on employees and organizational goals. Self-administered questionnaire on 5-pointLikert scale was used for data collection. SPSS 21 was used for analysis and Descriptive Statistics, Pearson Correlation and Regression analysis were run for hypotheses testing. A letter was forwarded to IR manager for questionnaire filling assuring the confidentiality of the responses made by individuals and the reason choosing their organization for the study. The results revealed negative significant positive between Organizational Politics and Employee job performance and job satisfaction. The results also revealed that there is positive significant effect between the relationship of Organizational Politics and job outcomes i.e. Job Satisfaction and Employee Job Performance for the moderating role of Top Management Political Skills. Managerial implication and future research directions are suggested for further research.

Undermining alienative commitment through spiritual leadership: a moderated mediation model of social capital and political skill

PurposeThe purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between spiritual leadership and employees' alienative commitment to the organization, both directly and indirectly, via employee social capital. We also test the role of employee political skill as a boundary condition of the indirect spiritual leadership–alienative commitment link.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged data were collected from 491 employees in various manufacturing and service organizations. Data were analyzed using structural modeling equation in Mplus (8.6).FindingsSpiritual leadership was negatively associated with alienative commitment, both directly and indirectly, via social capital. Employee political skill moderated the indirect relationship between spiritual leadership and alienative commitment, such that the relationship was stronger when employee political skill was high (vs low).Practical implicationsThe demonstration of spiritual leadership's behaviors by both managers and employees can develop employees' social capital at work, which in turn can reduce employees' negative commitment to the organization. Likewise, improving employees' political skills can help leadership diminish alienative commitment.Originality/valueThe present work contributes to the literature on spiritual leadership by foregrounding how and why spiritual leadership undermines employee alienative commitment to the organization. By doing so, the study also enhances the nomological networks of the antecedents and outcomes of social capital and contributes to the scant literature on negative alienative commitment. Given the prevalence and negative repercussions of alienative commitment for employees' and organizations' productivity and performance, our findings are timely and relevant.

Networks open the door to the success of technological entrepreneurship: a perspective on political skills

PurposeBased on social influence theory (SIT) and social capital theory, this paper aims to explore the mediating role of entrepreneurial networks between technological entrepreneurs' political skills and entrepreneurial performance and whether market dynamics positively moderates this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected data from 454 technological entrepreneurs in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou in China and examined four hypotheses by hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping analysis in an empirical design.FindingsResults reveal that technological entrepreneurs' political skills not only have a direct positive impact on entrepreneurial performance (β = 0.544, t = 12.632, p < 0.001), but also have an indirect positive impact on entrepreneurial performance through entrepreneurial networks (β = 0.473, t = 10.636, p < 0.001). Entrepreneurial networks play a mediating role between entrepreneurs' political skills and entrepreneurial performance with 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals [0.034, 0.015]. Market dynamics plays a moderating role in the relationship among technological entrepreneurs' political skills, entrepreneurial networks and entrepreneurial performance (entrepreneurial performance: β = 0.190, t = 4.275, p < 0.001; entrepreneurial networks: β = 0.135, t = 4.455, p < 0.001). When market dynamics is high, technological entrepreneurs' political skills have a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial networks (simple slope = 0.309, t = 7.656, p < 0.001); but when market dynamics is low, there is no significant correlation between political skills and entrepreneurial networks (simple slope = 0.039, t = 0.966, p > 0.05).Research limitations/implicationsThe study relies on self-reported data from single informants. Although the severity of common method bias is tested through two methods, future research designs should avoid the influence of common method bias. Future research should adopt a vertical tracking design, collect data from multiple sources and use subjective assessment and objective indicators to measure variables. In addition, the applicability of the results outside China is worth further empirical exploration. Therefore, the authors hope that future studies can replicate the research to different countries, different cultural backgrounds and different organizational sections to explore the generalizability of the results.Practical implicationsThe findings provide useful suggestions for entrepreneurs, who can use political skills to build a strong entrepreneurial network to improve their entrepreneurial performance. The results also suggest that entrepreneurs should pay more attention to cultivating and developing their political skills through methods such as training and practice. In addition, the conclusion is of great implications to enrich the content of entrepreneurship education and guide entrepreneurship practice.Originality/valueThese findings enrich SIT and social capital theory by providing the empirical evidence of the effect of entrepreneurs' political skills on entrepreneurial performance through entrepreneurial network. They also provide deeper insights into market dynamics research by uncovering the moderating role of market dynamics in the relationship between entrepreneurs' political skills, entrepreneurial networks and entrepreneurial performance.

Feminism and Gynecocracy in Classical Autors Dona María de Zayas Sotomayor and Tirso de Molain

This study based on María de Zayas Sotomayor and Tirso de Molina, especially on their classical Golden Age books Prudence in Woman and Amorous and Exemplary Novels, has for purposes to raise the question of women empowerment again and analyze their handling approaches of the feminist subject matter, to identify and suggest solutions to the hindrances of the solvency of that social phenomenon of women discrimination now a days. We carried it out by socio-critical approach and with objective, comparative, esthetical and analytic heuristic methods. It turns out of our work that both of María de Zayas Sotomayor and Tirso de Molina are feminist writers, but there are some subtle differences between them: Tirso de Molina put special emphasis on women political skills, whereas María de Zayas develops femininity, condemns their objectification by men and advocates their intellectual and social emancipation. Apart from that, our analyzes revealed that social and cultural obstacles continue to maintain the phenomenon. We proposed a cleaning up of the habits and the lifting of old fashioned taboo, mainly in African cultural areas where such habits are still unchanging.