political skill inventory

8/13/2019 Political Skill Inventory

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http://jom.sagepub.comJournal of Management

DOI: 10.1177/01492063042713862005; 31; 126Journal of Management

and Dwight D. Frinkrald R. Ferris, Darren C. Treadway, Robert W. Kolodinsky, Wayne A. Hochwarter, Charles J. Kacmar, Ceasar Douglas

Development and Validation of the Political Skill Inventory

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10.1177/0149206304271386ARTICLEJournalofManagement/February2005Ferrisetal./ PoliticalSkillIn ventory

Development and Validation of the Political Skill Inventory

Gerald R. Ferris* Department of Management, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1110

Darren C. TreadwaySchool of Business Administration, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-1848

Robert W. Kolodinsky Department of Management, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807-0205

Wayne A. HochwarterCollege of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1110

Charles J. Kacmar Department of Information Systems, Statistics, and Management Science, College of Business,

University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0226

Ceasar DouglasCollege of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1110

Dwight D. Frink School of Business Administration, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-1848

The present research was developed to examine the conceptualization and measurement of the politicalskill construct and to provide validation evidence for thePoliticalSkill Inventory (PSI). The results of threeinvestigations, involving seven samples, are reported that demonstrate consistency of the factor structureacross studies, construct validity, and criterion-related validity of the PSI. As hypothesized, political skillwas positively related to self-monitoring, political savvy, and emotional intelligence; negatively related totrait anxiety; andnot correlated withgeneral mental ability. Also, thePSIpredictedperformance ratingsof managers in two samples. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are provided.

Keywords: political skill; savvy; social effectiveness; scale development and validation

This research was supported in part by the Florida State University Foundation, the PMB and William King Self EndowmentFund, and by a grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR N00014-00-1-0595-AA).

*Corresponding author. Tel.: 850 644-3548; fax: 850 644-7843.

E-mail address: [email protected]

Journal of Management, Vol. 31 No. 1, February 2005 126-152DOI: 10.1177/0149206304271386 2005 Southern Management Associations

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Foryears, scholars and practitionersalike have acknowledged the existence and importanceof poli-tics in organizations. Indeed, theory, research, and practice all have considered the types of strategiesand tactics peopleemploy in efforts to behave politically. What we know less about are thecharacteris-tics that enableone to exerciseinfluence in ways that lead to success. Some have referred to such quali-ties as interpersonal style, savvy, street smarts, and political skill. However, to date, there hasbeen little effort to move beyond conceptualization to instrumentdevelopment. Ferris et al. (1999) pro-vided an initial effort when they reported on thedevelopment of a concise, unidimensional measure of political skill. Their work helped establish some support for the construct, but it called for more com-prehensive attempts to fully explore the content domain of political skill and consider its potentialmultidimensional implications.

The purpose of the present research is to report the results of three studies designed to develop amultidimensional Political Skill Inventory (PSI), with item content that more broadly and representa-tively samples from the full domain of the construct. Furthermore, this research offers a more fullydeveloped conceptualization regarding the dimensions underlying thisconstruct, confirmatory valida-tion of thisfactorial structure,and evidenceof convergent, discriminant,and criterion-relatedvalidity.

Theoretical Development

Political Skill in Organizations

Overview . A perspective shared by many academicians is that organizations are inherently politicalarenas (Mintzberg, 1985). In this regard, it is assumed that although performance, effectiveness, andcareersuccess aredetermined in part by intelligenceand hard work, other factors such as socialastute-ness, positioning, and savvy also play important roles (e.g., Luthans, Hodgetts, & Rosenkrantz, 1988;Mintzberg, 1983). As one of the first to use the term political skill in the scholarly literature, Pfeffer(1981) argued fora politicalperspective on organizations. He suggested that politicalskillis needed tobe successful, and he called for research that would develop a more informed understanding of theconstruct. Mintzberg (1983) suggested that political skill referred to the exercise of influence through

persuasion, manipulation, and negotiation.Although considerable research has examined organizational politics, a serious omission has beenthe failure to evaluate the political skill of the influencer, leaving us ill-informed about why influenceefforts are(or arenot) successful. Indeed, theoryand research largely have assumed that themere dem-onstration of an influence attempt is synonymous with its effectiveness. However, it is not enough tostudy the particular influence tactics or political behaviors that reflect the what of influence. We alsoneed to critically examine the political skill of the influencer in order to understand the how of influ-ence, which addresses the selection of the most situationally appropriate influence tactics and theirsuccessful execution (Ferris, Hochwarter, Douglas, Blass, Kolodinsky, & Treadway, 2002). Inresponse to this gap, Ferriset al. (1999) made an initial effort to measure political skill by developing aconcise, six-item, unidimensional scale, with acceptable psychometric properties, for purposes of preliminary construct exploration.

Definition and specification of the construct domain . In an effort to capture the essential nature of theconstruct as Ferriset al. (1999), Mintzberg (1983), and othersdiscussed, we definepolitical skill asthe ability to effectively understand others at work, and to use such knowledge to influence others toact in ways that enhance ones personal and/or organizational objectives (Ahearn, Ferris,Hochwarter,Douglas, & Ammeter, 2004: 311). As such, politically skilled individualscombine socialastuteness with thecapacity to adjust their behavior to different and changing situational demands in a

Ferris et al. / Political Skill Inventory 127



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manner that appears to be sincere, inspires support and trust, and effectively influences and controlsthe responses of others.

Politically skilled individuals convey a sense of personal security and calm self-confidence thatattracts others and gives them a feeling of comfort. This self-confidence never goes too far so as to beperceived as arrogance but is always properly measured to be a positive attribute. Therefore, althoughself-confident, thosehigh in political skillare not self-absorbed (although they are self-aware) becausetheir focus is outward toward others, not inward and self-centered. This allows politically skilled indi-viduals to maintain proper balance and perspective, and also, along with their tendency to be conscien-tious, to ensurethat they keep a healthy gauge on theiraccountability to both othersand themselves.

We suggest that people high in political skill not only know precisely what to do in different socialsituations at work but how to do it in a manner that disguises any ulterior, self-serving motives andappears to be sincere. Furthermore, as we discuss later in this article, we seepolitical skill as independ-ent from general mental ability and related to personality traitsand other interpersonally oriented con-structs such as self-monitoring and emotional intelligence, but not too highly or to the degree indicat-ing construct redundancy. In terms of its derivation, we borrow from others who have suggested theusefulness of taking an integrative dispositional-situational approach to personality (e.g., Murtha,Kanfer, & Ackerman, 1996) and social effectiveness (e.g., Buck, 1991). Specifically, we believe thereare aspects of political skill that are dispositional, but we see other aspects that can be developed orshaped through a combination of formal and informal developmental experiences (e.g., Ferris,Anthony, Kolodinsky, Gilmore, & Harvey, 2002).

Content Validity and Dimensionality of Political Skill

Need and rationale . Careful examination of the organizational politics literature, with particularreference to that segment relating to political skill (i.e., even if not explicitly referred to by that term),indicates several important aspects that should be included in any representative measure of the politi-cal skill construct. These aspects or dimensions are social astuteness, interpersonal influence, net-working ability, and apparent sincerity. Certainly, the ability to read and understand people, and beingable to act on that knowledge in influential ways (i.e., consistent with our definition of political skill)represent two important dimensions of the construct reflecting social astuteness and interpersonalinfluence (e.g., Mintzberg, 1983; Pfeffer, 1981; Snyder, 1987). In addition, there are other aspects of political skill that are very important, according to power and politics scholars, and therefore need tobe represented in a content-valid representation of the political skill construct.

Connections, friendships, network building, alliances, and coalition building are critical for indi-viduals to navigatethe politics of organizations and thus represent an important aspectof politicalskill(e.g., Bacharach & Lawler, 1998; Pfeffer, 1981, 1992). Bacharach and Lawler concluded, To pursuepoliticalaction, it is inevitable that actors in theorganization align themselves with others (1998: 85).Furthermore, Pfeffer argued, Having connections, having allies, is important for developing andexercising influence (1992: 175). In addition, Luthans et al. defined networking as a systemof inter-connected or cooperating individuals. It is closely associated with the dynamics of power and the useof social and political skills (1988: 119-120). Furthermore, these activities associated with network-ing were, by far, the most dominant activities exhibited by successful managers.

A final aspect of political skill represented in the organizational politics literature is genuineness orsincerity, and this reflects the true execution component of political skill. It is not just what behaviorsindividuals exhibit but, more so, that they demonstrate influence attempts in ways that are intended toappearto be sincere andgenuine,devoid of ulterior motive, and that inspire trust andconfidence. Jones(1990) appealed for research examining the way influence attempts were executed, focusing on theinterpersonal style component that he argued gave the appearance of sincerity.

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The forgoing discussion reflects the four critical dimensions of political skill that should beincluded in any representative, content-valid measure of the political skill construct. The Ferris et al.(1999) six-item, unidimensional scale attempted to address the understanding or social astutenessdimension, as well as the interpersonal influence component (i.e., even though these two dimensionsdid not separate into distinguishable factors). However, theFerris et al. scale is deficient by neglectingto address the networking ability and apparent sincerity dimensions.

Therefore, we suggest theneed for a multidimensional, content-valid measure of political skill thatidentifies and assesses the four key dimensions reflected in the organizational politics literature. Eachdimension is described in detail below.

Socialastuteness . Individualspossessing politicalskillare astuteobservers of othersandare keenlyattuned to diverse social situations. They comprehend social interactions and accurately interpret theirbehavior, as well as that of others, in social settings. They have strong powers of discernment and highself-awareness. Pfeffer referred to this characteristic as sensitivity to others, and he argued, Some-what ironically, it is this capacity to identify with others that is actually critical in obtaining things foroneself (1992: 173). Socially astute individuals often are seen as ingenious, even clever, in dealingwith others. As such, this dimension of political skill would be expected to relate most strongly (of allthe dimensions) to supervisor evaluations of an employees job performance because of theemployees social astuteness at presenting his or her work behavior in the best possible light. In sum-mary, peoplehigh in socialastuteness have an accurate understanding of socialsituations as well as theinterpersonal interactions that take place in these settings.

Interpersonal influence . Politically skilled individuals have a subtle and convincing personal stylethat exerts a powerful influence on those around them. Individuals high on interpersonal influencenonetheless are capable of appropriately adapting and calibrating their behavior to each situation inorder to elicit particular responses from others. Indeed, aspects of the interpersonal influence dimen-sion capture what Pfeffer (1992) referred to as flexibility, which involves adapting ones behaviorsituationally to differenttargetsof influencein differentcontextual conditions in orderto achieve onesgoals.

Networking ability . Individuals with strong political skill are adept at developing and using diversenetworks of people. People in these networks tend to hold assets seen as valuable and necessary forsuccessful personal and organizational functioning. By the sheer force of their typically subtle style,politically skilled individuals easily develop friendships and build strong, beneficial alliances andcoalitions. Furthermore, because social networks are deliberately constructed structures, individualshigh in networking ability ensure they arewell positioned in order to both createand take advantageof opportunities (Pfeffer, 1992). Masters of thequid pro quo, they areoften highly skilled negotiatorsanddeal makers, and adept at conflict management.

Apparent sincerity . Politically skilled individuals appear to others as possessing high levels of integrity, authenticity, sincerity, and genuineness. They are, or appear to be, honest, open, and forth-right. This dimension of political skill strikes at the very heart of whether influence attempts will be

successful because it focuses on theperceived intentions (i.e., as assessed by the target of influence) of the behavior exhibited (i.e., by the actor). Indeed, perceived intentions or motives are important andhave been argued to alter the interpretation and labeling of behavior. As noted by Jones (1990), influ-ence attempts will be successful only when actors are perceived as possessing no ulterior motives.Because their actions are not interpreted as manipulative or coercive, individuals high in apparent sin-cerity inspire trust and confidence in and from those around them.




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Convergent and Discriminant Validity

Convergent and discriminant validity, respectively, reflect the extent to which a measure relates tosimilar constructs and does not relate to constructs from which it should differ. In this section, hypoth-eses are formulated concerning the constructs to which political skill (i.e., total score and separatedimensions) should and should not be related.

Personality and social effectiveness constructs . We conceptualize the political skill construct asoverlapping somewhat with selected personality traitsand with other related constructs that purport tomeasure socialeffectiveness (Ferris, Perrew, & Douglas, 2002). However, we also believe that politi-cal skill reflects its distinctiveness as a construct that is sufficiently different from others. Therefore,we expect that politicalskillwouldbe related positively and perhaps even significantly with constructssuch as self-monitoring and conscientiousness. However, these relationships should not be so great inmagnitude as to indicate construct redundancy.

Othersocial effectiveness constructs, which have been characterized in ways that suggest consider-able overlap with political skill, are political savvy and emotional intelligence. Political savvy sug-

gests adeptness at the nuances of politics in organizations and, as such, should be related positively,and perhaps significantly, to the composite measure of political skill. Work by Chao, OLeary-Kelly,Wolf, Klein, and Gardner (1994) indicated that political savvy might be driven by a knowledge orunderstanding component but could include an implicit capacity to act on that knowledge, althoughthat aspect is not made clear in its derivation.

Emotional intelligence has received considerable attention in the popular, business, and researchpress in the past 8 years, primarily as a function of Golemans (1995, 1998) best-selling books. Suchdiscussions of emotional intelligenceare broad and could be construed as being redundant with politi-cal skill. However, more careful reading of the scientific research indicatesthat emotional intelligencefocuses predominantly on the emotion-based aspects of interpersonal effectiveness, influence, andcontrol. Conversely, we see political skill as incorporating knowledge and skill that go beyond emo-tions. Therefore, particularly because of Golemans broad characterization of emotional intelligence(i.e., which has led some to suggest that Goleman regards emotional intelligence as including every-

thing except general mental ability or intelligence; Hedlund & Sternberg, 2000) and the foregoing dis-cussion of personality and social effectiveness constructs, we hypothesize the following:

Hypothesis 1: The political skill total score will correlate significantly and positively with self-monitoring,conscientiousness, political savvy, and emotional intelligence.

Of the four political skill dimensions, social astuteness should be most strongly related to self-monitoring, conscientiousness, and political savvy. The social astuteness dimension best captures theessence of the self-monitoring construct, as explained by Snyder (1987). Furthermore, theattention todetail, and, as Pfeffer stated, the almost clinical interest in the observation of behavior (1992: 173),relates this dimension of political skill most strongly with conscientiousness.

Notions of savvy in general, and political savvy in particular, make reference to a degree of understanding that is closely related to the social astuteness dimension. Chao et al. (1994) identified a

dimension of organizational socialization they called politics. Closer inspection of the item contentof this dimension reveals that it is actually measuring politicalsavvy or understanding. Items such as Ihave learned how things really work on the inside of this organization, I know who the most influ-ential people are in my organization, and I have a good understanding of the motives behind theactions of other people in the organization highlight the importance of the savvy or understandingaspect of politics,thus suggestingits relationship to thesocial astuteness PSI dimension. Therefore, weformulate the following hypothesis:




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Hypothesis2: Social astuteness willdemonstratethe strongest positive correlationswithself-monitoring,con-scientiousness, and political savvy of any of the PSI dimensions.

Influence tactics . In addition, we believe that political skill reflects the capacity to effectively exer-

cise influence over others at work. Therefore, political skill should be related to particular types of influence tactics, as Kipnis, Schmidt, and Wilkinson (1980) discussed, such as upward appeal andcoalition, but less so to assertiveness. Kipnis et al. discussed the upward appeal tactic as involvingobtaining thesupport of individualshigher up in theorganizational hierarchy. Coalition tactics refer tomounting coworkeror subordinate support to reinforce a position taken or resources requested, count-ing on a strength-in-numbers approach. Finally, assertiveness involves demanding, ordering, settingdeadlinesand checking up on others in order to exerciseinfluence. Indeed, we suggest that when thosehigh in politicalskill engage in influence tactics, they do so in an effective way. However, those high inpolitical skill might simply decide to avoid some influence tactics in favor of others.

Hypothesis 3: The political skill total score will correlate significantly and positively with upward appeal andcoalition influence tactics, but nonsignificantly with assertiveness.

Concerning the dimensions of political skill, we argue that a significant positive relationshipbetween the coalition influence tactic and the networking ability dimension of political skill will sur-face. We make a similar argument for the upward appeals influence tactic because networks and con-nections are necessary to the facilitation of upward appeal because such linkages allow one to operatefrom a position of greater strength (i.e., through such connections and social capital). Similarly, net-working ability should be most strongly related to the use of assertiveness as an influence tactic. Theuseof assertiveness, as a wayto influenceothers, canbe intricate, and itseffectssometimes can be pos-itive and sometimes negative. We suggest that individuals who possess a high degree of networkingability will be well positioned (e.g., by virtue of the connections, alliances, and social capital theycontrol) to employ assertiveness as a successful influence tactic.

Hypothesis 4: Networking ability will demonstrate the strongest positive correlation with the upward appeal,coalitions, and assertiveness tactics of any of the PSI dimensions.

Trait anxiety . Furthermore, we suggest that political skill demonstrates an inverse relationship withtrait anxiety, which reflects relatively stable individual differences in anxiety-proneness, that is, todifferences between people in the tendency to perceive stressful situations as dangerous or threateningand respond to such situations with elevations in the intensity of their state anxiety (S-Anxiety) reac-tions (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983: 4). We believe political skill generatesan increased sense of self-confidence and personal security because such individuals should experi-ence a greater degree of control over activities that transpire in social interactions at work.

Indeed, Perrew, Ferris, Frink, and Anthony (2000) argued that such greater self-confidence andcontrol should lead individualshigh in politicalskillto experience significantly less stressor anxiety atwork. Furthermore, Perrew, Zellars, Ferris, Rossi, Kacmar, and Ralston (2004) recently reportedresults supportive of thisnotion, demonstrating that political skillneutralized the dysfunctional effects

of role conflict on strain for four of five behavioral and physiological strain measures (i.e., even pro-ducinga reductionin systolicblood pressure). Consequently, politicalskill mayserve as an antidote,of sorts, to the negative consequences of stress.

Hypothesis 5: The political skill total score will demonstrate a significant negative correlation with traitanxiety.




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Concerning the dimensions of political skill, it appears that interpersonal influence should exhibitthe strongest negative relationship with trait anxiety. The heightened sense of personal security andself-confidence are likely associated with perceiving greater control over ones work environment,which includes the people with whom one interacts. Such feelings are likely reflective of the percep-tions of greater interpersonal control they derive from past experiential success at exercising interper-sonal influence. Therefore, we argue that feelings of control and personal security that result frombeing high on the interpersonal influence dimension of political skill would provide a comfort levelthat would result in reduced anxiety, thus exhibiting the strongest negative relationship of any of theother dimensions.

Hypothesis 6: Interpersonal influence will demonstrate the strongest negative correlation with trait anxiety of any of the PSI dimensions.

General mental ability . Theprincipal argument for thediscriminant validityof politicalskillrelatesto theexpected relationship with general mental ability (GMA). Typically, scholars bear the burden of demonstrating empirically that their interpersonally oriented constructs are not simply a small part of,and thus not distinguishable from, GMA. Supporters of the GMA-dominant position (e.g.,Gottfredson, 1997) would argue that political skill (and other measures of social effectiveness) couldbe effectively subsumed under GMA, thus implying that politicalskill would reflect a large correlationwith GMA. However, we see political skill as independent of GMA, and Ferris et al. (1999) reported anonsignificant relationship between their six-item measure of political skill and GMA (i.e., r = .08,n.s.), thus demonstrating support for its discriminant validity.

Hypothesis7: Thepolitical skill total score, andeachof thePSI dimensions,willdemonstrate zerocorrelationswith GMA.

Criterion-Related Validity

Although there has been limited previous work concerning the criterion-related validity, we pro-

pose that political skill will demonstrate significant predictive ability, particularly for work perfor-mance criteria that are subjectively assessed by others (e.g., supervisors, peers, etc.). Ahearn et al.(2004) found leaderpolitical skill to be a significant predictorof team performance. Furthermore,Hig-gins (2000) reported that political skillwas related significantly to recruitment interviewer ratings andevaluationsof jobapplicants.Thesetwo studies used theFerris et al.(1999) measure of politicalskill.

Hypothesis 8: The political skill total score will demonstrate significant positive prediction of work perfor-mance ratings.

Finally, regarding criterion-related validity, social astuteness would be expected to relate moststrongly to supervisor evaluations of job performance because of theemployees adeptness at present-ing his or her work behavior in the best possible light. Socially astute individuals use their ability toread situations and people and use their flexibility as input to the design of tailored attempts to

influence others.

Hypothesis 9: Social astuteness will demonstrate the strongest positive prediction of job performance ratingsof any of the PSI dimensions.




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Plan of Research and Sequence of Studies

As an expansion of Ferris et al.s (1999) earlier work, this research involves three studies and sevensamples that are designed to examine, as comprehensively as possible, the psychometric properties of the PSI. Study 1 focuses on creating the PSI, assessing its dimensionality, and providing initial evi-dence of convergent and discriminant validity. Study 2 attempts to confirm the factor structure andconstruct dimensionality (Sample 1) and to provide additional evidence of convergent anddiscriminant validity, including additional measures of political savvy, emotional intelligence, andGMA (Samples 2 and 3). Finally, Study 3 attempts to demonstrate the criterion-related validity of thePSI by assessing itscapacity to predict subordinate evaluations of leadership effectiveness (Sample 1)and supervisor ratings of subordinate performance (Sample 2).

Study 1: PSI Development and Initial Validation

Sample

Two samples were obtained in an effort to further explore the political skill construct. First, a sam-ple of 226 undergraduate students at a large southern university completed surveys during class time.All students present in class that day participated in thedata collection. The average age of the respon-dents in this sample was 22.61 ( = 6.39), 50% of the sample was female, and the majority were part-time workers. For the second sample, the Human Resources department at a large university in thesoutheastern United States generated a list of 220 employees classified as either managerial oradministrative.

Surveys were distributed and subsequently returned to the researchers via interoffice mail. A totalof 124 employees completedsurveys fora response rate of 56%. Theaverage ageof therespondents inthe second sample was 39.54 ( = 9.74), nearly 70% were female, and the average organizational ten-ure was 9.47 years ( = 7.07). In scale development particularly, larger samples are necessary to helpensurea greater degree of stabilityof theobtainedresults,so we combined thetwo data sets ( N = 350).

Measures

Political skill item pool . A total of 40 items were generated to representatively assess the politicalskill construct and specifically to reflect the four dimensions believed to comprise political skill, thusmaximizing content validity. In so doing, we built on, and expanded, the earlier work on the measure-ment of political skill by Ferris et al. (1999). We included the original six items developed by Ferriset al. in the total item pool and conducted a systematic review of the literature on organizational poli-tics, with particular reference to skills in using politics effectively. In so doing, theauthors wrote itemsto representatively reflect the key areas identified to best characterize the political skill construct and,as such, employed a logical partitioning approach to deductive scale development discussed byHinkin (1995). Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed with each state-ment about themselves at work, using a 1 ( strongly disagree ) t o 7 ( strongly agree ) Likert-type scale.Acopy of the 40 items generated from the above process is included in the appendix.

Self-monitoring . Self-monitoring reflects the extent to which individuals monitor and control theimages they project in social situations, and it was measured with the 18-item instrument presented inSnyder (1987). The coefficient alpha for this scale was .75.




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Personality . Conscientiousness wasexamined using items from McCraeand Costa (1987). Consci-entiousness suggests the tendency to be organized, disciplined, and dependable. The coefficient alphafor the 14-item Conscientiousness Scale was .87.

Influence tactics . The Kipnis et al. (1980) measure of influence tactics was used to assess the fre-quency with which individuals employed upward influence tactics. Specifically, the scale containedupward appeal (one-item measure), coalition (three items, = .63), and assertiveness (six items, =.79) tactics.

Trait anxiety . Trait anxiety identifies tendencies for individuals to naturally be anxiety prone andperceive stressful situations as threatening, and it was measured with the 20-item Spielberger et al.(1983) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y-2). The coefficient alpha for this scale was .88.

Social desirability . Social desirability was measured using the 10-item scale developed by Strahanand Gerbasi (1972). This measure had a coefficient alpha of .71.

Results

Item analyses . Because our interest was in scale development, we retained only those items thatprovided the best representation of the political skill construct, while measuring this construct in themost parsimonious way. Thus, we undertook several phases of scale construction. First, we conducteditem analyses, retaining those with the highest item-to-total correlations (i.e., item-to-total correla-tions of .40 or greater; Nunnally, 1978). This resulted in theelimination of 5 items (i.e., Items 1, 11, 27,28, and 40 in the appendix). Next, we examined correlations of political skill items with the total scoreon the Social Desirability Scale and deleted items with statistically significant correlations at p < .05.This resulted in the elimination of an additional 10 items (i.e., Items 6, 12, 14, 15, 17, 22, 33, 34, 35,and 36 in the appendix).

Finally, to examine the extent to which there might be remaining items that demonstrated problem-atic high cross loadings on factors that precluded clear interpretation, we conducted a preliminaryprincipal components analysis with oblique rotation. The pattern of factor loadings showed that 7items (i.e., Items 2, 4, 7, 10, 18, 19, and 20 in the appendix) loaded on two or more factors greater than.35, with the highest loading not being on the intended factor. Therefore, these 7 items were elimi-nated, resulting in this three-step item-reduction procedure yielding a setof 18 items that metthe crite-riafor item retention and would be subjected to principal axis factoring to assess the factor structureof the PSI.

The item-to-total correlations for these 18 items ranged from .42 to .71. Moreover, the total scorefor the 18 items did not correlate significantly with the Social Desirability Scale total score ( r = .02,n.s.). Also, thecorrelations and mean differences of politicalskillwith genderand agewere examined,and no systematic relationships were detected. The internal consistency reliability estimate for theresulting 18-item scale total score was .90 (the 18 items making up this scale are asterisked in theappendix). Also, the original 6 items comprising the Ferris et al. (1999) Political Skill Scale wereincluded in this 40-item pool used to generate the final 18-item PSI. Of those 6 items, 3 items wereretained as part of the final 18-item inventory (the Ferris et al. 6 items are noted in the appendix).

Dimensionality of political skill . To determinethe factorstructure of the18-item PSI, and followingtheitem-reduction procedures specifiedabove, we performed factoranalysison the18 items,using theprincipal axis method and oblique, direct oblimin factor rotation. It has been noted that oblique factorrotation generally is more desirable than orthogonal rotation (e.g., Hair, Anderson, & Tatham,1987) at




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this early stage of scale development because of thefewer constraints it imposes. Furthermore, obliquefactor rotation is most appropriate when the a priori theory indicates that obtained factors or dimen-sions are likely correlated. A four-factor solution emerged that satisfied the Kaiser-Guttman criterionof retaining only those factors with eigenvalues exceeding 1.0. Fabrigar, Wegener, MacCallum, andStrahan (1999) recommended using relevant theory and multiplemethods in factor retention decisionsin order to balance the need for parsimony with that of plausibility.

As shown in Table 1, eigenvalues ranged from 1.19 to 6.98, with 63% of the total varianceexplained. The factor explaining most of the variance was networking ability (six items, indicated byitalics in the table), with 39% of the variance explained. Factor 2, apparent sincerity (three items, itali-cized) explained 10% of the variance, social astuteness (five items, italicized) accounted for 7%, andinterpersonal influence (four items, italicized) explained 6.6% of the total variance.

Reliability and factor correlations . As noted in Table 1, internal consistency indices revealed reli-ability estimates ranging from .78 (interpersonal influence) to .87 (networking ability) fordimensionscontained within the modified 18-item scale. These values are above the .70 level recommended byNunnally (1978). The lower diagonal of Table 2 reports the intercorrelations of the political skilldimensions, which range in magnitude from .36 to .57, reflecting only modest relationships.

Fit statistics and alternative models . Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test thehypothesis that four dimensions comprised the political skill construct. Several recommended mea-sures of overall goodness of fit were used, including the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), the Normed FitIndex (NFI), the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) (Tucker & Lewis, 1973) or Non-Normed Fit Index(NNFI), theGoodness-of-Fit Index (GFI), theAdjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index (AGFI), the root meansquareerrorof approximation (RMSEA), thestandardized root mean squareresidual(SRMR), and theratio of chi-square relative to the degrees of freedom ( 2 / df ) (e.g., Hu & Bentler, 1999; La Du &Tanaka, 1989; Wheaton, Muthen, Alwin, & Summers, 1977).

Values of .90 or higher are desired and presumed to result in an acceptable model fit to the data forthe CFI, NFI, NNFI, and GFI (e.g., Hatcher, 1994; Medsker, Williams, & Holohan, 1994; Mulaik,James, Van Alstine, Bennet, Lind, & Stillwell, 1989), whereas a valuehigher than .80 is recommended

for the AGFI (Gefen, Straub, & Boudreau, 2000). The appropriate level for the RMSEA was estab-lishedat a cutoff valuecloseto .06 (Hu & Bentler, 1999: 27), andfor theSRMR,a cutoff valuecloseto .08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999: 27). Values of less than 5 for the 2 / df ratio indicate acceptable model fit(Wheaton et al., 1977).

The four-factorproposed model wastested for fit and compared to thefit indices forone-, two-, andthree-factormodels(Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). The results from structural equation modeling anal-yses (LISREL 8; Jreskog & Srbom, 1993) are presented in Table 3 and reveal that the four-factorsolution was superior to the other three models. Specifically, the one-factor model results indicated anunacceptable fit, whereas the four-factor solution results were at (or justbelow) acceptablelevels, indi-cating a better fit relative to theone-factor solution. Based on these findings, and the chi-square differ-ence test between the one- and four-factor models ( 2 difference = 454.64, df = 6), the unidimensionalsolution was rejected in favor of the multidimensional model.

Both two-factor and three-factor models were also tested and compared with the four-factor target

model. The most plausible two-factor model was tested that had the social astuteness and networkingability items comprising one factor and the interpersonal influence and apparent sincerity items mak-ing up a second factor. The two-factor model indicated an unacceptable fit and, along with the signifi-cant chi-square difference test ( 2 difference = 256.92, df = 5), indicates that the four-factor model issuperior to the two-factor model. In addition, two other two-factor models were run, and in both casesthe fit statistics were unacceptable, and the chi-square difference tests demonstrated the superiority of the four-factor model.




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136

T a b l e

1

F a c t o r A n a l y s i s a n d I t e m A n a l y s i s R e s u l t s ( S t u d y 1 )

F a c t o r 1

F a c t o r 2

F a c t o r 3

F a c t o r 4

S o c i a l

N e t w o r k i n g

A p p a r e n t

S o c i a l

I n t e r p e r s o n a l

I t e m - T o t a l

D e s i r a b i l i t y

I t e m

A b i l i t y

S i n c e r i t y

A s t u t e n e s s

I n f l u e n c e

r

r

1 . I s p e n d a l o t o f t i m e a n d e f f o r t a t w o r k n e t w o r k i n g w i t h o t h e r s .

. 7 9

. 0 1

. 0 8

. 0 3

. 5 9

. 0 8

2 . A t w o r k , I k n o w a l o t o f i m p o r t a n t p e o p l e a n d a m w e l l c o n n e c t e d .

. 7 8

. 0 1

. 0 8

. 0 4

. 7 1

. 0 8

3 . I a m g o o d a t u s i n g m y

c o n n e c t i o n s a n d n e t w o r k s t o m a k e t h i n g s h a p p e n a t w o r k .

. 7 3

. 0 1

. 1 3

. 0 6

. 6 3

. 0 4

4 . I h a v e d e v e l o p e d a l a r g e n e t w o r k o f c o l l e a g u e s a n d a s s o c i a t e s a t w o r k w h o

I c a n c a l l o n f o r s u p p o r t w h e n I r e a l l y n e e d t o g e t t h i n g s d o n e .

. 6 7

. 2 6

. 0 3

. 0 7

. 5 8

. 0 2

5 . I s p e n d a l o t o f t i m e a t w o r k d e v e l o p i n g c o n n e c t i o n s w i t h o t h e r s .

. 6 0

. 0 7

. 0 1

. 1 3

. 5 3

. 0 1

6 . I a m g o o d a t b u i l d i n g r e l a t i o n s h i p s w i t h i n f l u e n t i a l p e o p l e a t w o r k .

. 4 7

. 1 6

. 2 5

. 1 7

. 6 0

. 0 5

7 . I t i s i m p o r t a n t t h a t p e o p l e b e l i e v e I a m s i n c e r e i n w h a t I s a y a n d d o .

. 1 2

. 7 2

. 0 3

. 1 4

. 5 1

. 0 3

8 . W h e n c o m m u n i c a t i n g w i t h o t h e r s , I

t r y t o b e g e n u i n e i n w h a t I s a y a n d d o .

. 0 3

. 7 0

. 0 9

. 0 1

. 4 2

. 0 8

9 . I t r y t o s h o w a g e n u i n e i n t e r e s t i n o t h e r p e o p l e .

. 0 2

. 5 8

. 1 2

. 2 4

. 5 3

. 0 1

1 0 .

I a l w a y s s e e m t o i n s t i n c t i v e l y k n o w t h e r i g h t t h i n g t o s a y o r d o t o i n f l u e n c e o t h e r s .

. 1 6

. 2 1

. 6 6

. 1 4

. 5 9

. 0 1

1 1 .

I h a v e g o o d i n t u i t i o n o r s a v v y a b o u t h o w t o p r e s e n t m y s e l f t o o t h e r s .

. 1 5

. 0 3

. 6 4

. 1 3

. 6 8

. 0 6

1 2 .

I a m p a r t i c u l a r l y g o o d a t s e n s i n g t h e m o t i v a t i o n s a n d h i d d e n a g e n d a s o f o t h e r s .

. 0 4

. 1 7

. 6 3

. 1 6

. 4 5

. 0 3

1 3 .

I p a y c l o s e a t t e n t i o n t o p e o p l e s f a c i a l e x p r e s s i o n s .

. 0 9

. 1 5

. 4 5

. 2 0

. 4 9

. 0 3

1 4 .

I u n d e r s t a n d p e o p l e v e r y w e l l .

. 0 7

. 1 1

. 4 0

. 1 8

. 5 3

. 0 4

1 5 .

I t i s e a s y f o r m e t o d e v e l o p g o o d r a p p o r t w i t h m o s t p e o p l e .

. 0 8

. 0 9

. 1 1

. 7 2

. 5 5

. 0 6

1 6 .

I a m a b l e t o m a k e m o s t p e o p l e f e e l c o m f o r t a b l e a n d a t e a s e a r o u n d m e .

. 0 2

. 0 1

. 0 7

. 7 2

. 5 5

. 0 1

1 7 .

I a m a b l e t o c o m m u n i c a t e e a s i l y a n d e f f e c t i v e l y w i t h o t h e r s .

. 0 8

. 0 4

. 1 1

. 5 6

. 5 7

. 0 0

1 8 .

I a m g o o d a t g e t t i n g p e o p l e t o l i k e m e .

. 0 7

. 1 1

. 1 1

. 4 6

. 5 3

. 0 4

E i g e n v a l u e

6 . 9 8

1 . 8 6

1 . 2 9

1 . 1 9

P e r c e n t a g e o f v a r i a n c e e x p l a i n e d

3 9 . 0

0

1 0 . 3

5

7 . 1 7

6 . 6 3

C u m u l a t i v e p e r c e n t a g e o f v a r i a n c e e x p l a i n e d

3 9 . 0

0

4 9 . 1

4

5 6 . 3

1

6 2 . 9

4

C o e f f i c i e n t a l p h a r e l i a b i l i t y e s t i m a t e s

. 8 7

. 8 1

. 7 9

. 7 8



13/28

137

T a b l e

2

C o r r e l a t i o n s o f P o l i t i c a l S k i l l D i m e n s i o n s

N e t w o r k i n g

A p p a r e n t

S o c i a l


D i m e n s i o n

M a

S D a

a

M b

S D b

b

A b i l i t y

S i n c e r i t y

A s t u t e n e s s

I n f l u e n c e

N e t w o r k i n g a b i l i t y

4 . 9 0

1 . 0 4

. 8 7

3 . 5 1

. 6 6

. 8 2

. 2 8

. 5 6

. 4 9

A p p a r e n t s i n c e r i t y

5 . 9 2

0 . 8 4

. 8 1

4 . 0 5

. 5 6

. 7 3

. 3 6

. 4 7

. 5 7

S o c i a l a s t u t e n e s s

5 . 1 8

0 . 9 1

. 7 9

3 . 7 2

. 5 8

. 7 9

. 5 7

. 4 5

. 6 9

I n t e r p e r s o n a l i n f l u e n c e

5 . 6 0

0 . 8 7

. 7 8

4 . 0 1

. 5 4

. 7 7

. 5 3

. 5 0

. 5 6

N o t e : C o e f f i c i e n t s b e l o w t h e d i a g o n a l r e f l e c t t h e f a c t o r c o r r e l a t i o n s f o r S t u d y 1 ( N = 3 5 0 ) , a n d t h o s e a b o v e t h e d i a g o n a l r e f l e c t t h e f a c t o r c o r r e l a t i o n s f o r S t u d y 2 ( N = 9 3 ) . A l l c o r r e l a t i o n s i n t h e

t a b l e a r e s i g n i f i c a n t p < . 0 0 1 .

a . I n d i c a t e s S t u d y 1 r e s u l t s .

b . I n d i c a t e s S t u d y 2 r e s u l t s .

T a b l e 3

S t r u c

t u r a

l E q u a t

i o n

M o d e l

i n g

S t a t

i s t i c s

f o r

O n e - ,

T w o - , T

h r e e - , a n

d F o u r - F a c

t o r

M o d e l s

i n S t u d

i e s

1 a n

d 2

S t u d y 1 M o d e l s

S t u d y 2 M o d e l s

F i t I n d i c e s

4 - F a c t o r

3 - F a c t o r

2 - F a c t o r

1 - F a c t o r

4 - F a c t o r

3 - F a c t o r

2 - F a c t o r

1 - F a c t o r

C o m p a r a t i v e F i t I n d e x ( C F I )

. 9 2

. 8 7

. 8 6

. 8 0

. 9 4

. 9 1

. 9 1

. 9 1

N o r m e d F i t I n d e x ( N F I )

. 8 8

. 8 4

. 8 2

. 7 7

. 8 7

. 8 4

. 8 5

. 8 4

N o n - N o r m e d F i t I n d e x ( N N F I ) ( o r T u c k e r - L e w i s I n d e x )

. 9 0

. 8 5

. 8 3

. 7 7

. 9 2

. 8 8

. 8 9

. 8 8

G o o d n e s s - o f - F i t I n d e x ( G F I )

. 9 1

. 8 7

. 8 4

. 8 0

. 8 9

. 8 7

. 8 8

. 8 7

A d j u s t e d G o o d n e s s - o f - F i t - I n d e x ( A G F I )

. 8 7

. 8 2

. 7 9

. 7 4

. 8 4

. 8 1

. 8 2

. 8 1

R o o t m e a n s q u a r e e r r o r o f a p p r o x i m a t i o n ( R M S E A )

. 0 7

. 0 9

. 1 0

. 1 2

. 0 6

. 0 8

. 0 7

. 0 8

S t a n d a r d i z e d r o o t m e a n s q u a r e r e s i d u a l ( S R M R )

. 0 5

. 0 8

. 0 7

. 0 8

. 0 6

. 0 7

. 0 7

. 0 7

R a t i o o f c h i - s q u a r e t o d e g r e e s o f f r e e d o m (

2 / d f )

2 . 6 1

3 . 6 7

4 . 5 0

5 . 9 8

1 . 7 5

2 . 1 1

2 . 0 0

2 . 0 8



14/28

Themost plausiblethree-factor model also wastested where thethreefactors reflectedthe network-ing ability, social astuteness, and interpersonal influence dimensions, with the three items from theapparent sincerity dimension spread across these three factors. The fit statistics for the three-factormodel, and the significant chi-square difference test ( 2 difference = 142.80, df = 3), indicate that thefour-factor model also provides a better fit than the three-factor model. An additional three-factormodel wasrun, and it too wasfound to be inferior to the four-factormodel according to thefit statisticsand chi-square difference test.

Convergent and discriminant validity . As argued, we expect political skill to be positively corre-lated with self-monitoring and conscientiousness (Hypothesis 1). Also, we need to demonstrate thatpolitical skill is not simply synonymous with influence tactics of upward appeal and coalitions, andthat it is not related to assertiveness (Hypothesis 3). Finally, we believe that political skill should beinversely related to trait anxiety such that politically skilled individualsare aptto experience less strain(Hypothesis 5).

The correlations of the PSI composite measure, the four dimensions of political skill, and the otherscales are presented in Table 4. Preliminary results provide evidence for the convergent anddiscriminant validity of the political skill construct. As expected, the overall political skill constructwas significantly and positively related to self-monitoring ( r = .39, p < .001) and conscientiousness(r = .31, p < .001), thus supporting Hypothesis 1.

Hypothesis 2 proposed that the social astuteness dimension of political skill would demonstrate thestrongest relationship with both self-monitoring and conscientiousness. For self-monitoring ( r = .37,

p < .001) and conscientiousness ( r = .27, p < .001), social astuteness did exhibit the highest correla-tions of the four dimensions. However, the differences between the correlations for these two con-structs with the other three PSI dimensions were not statistically significant when conducting signifi-cance tests for the differences between dependent correlation coefficients (e.g., Cohen & Cohen,1983; because these are directional hypotheses, the statistical tests for differences use one-tailed sig-nificance tests, with N 3 degrees of freedom). Thus, Hypothesis 2 failed to receive full support.

Results also showed evidence that political skill is not redundant with influence tactics. Indeed,none of the correlations between political skill and the individual influence tactics approached a level

to suggest multicollinearity ( r > .80, Lewis-Beck, 1980). Specifically, political skill was related to theupward appeal ( r = .25, p < .001) and coalition ( r = .21, p < .001) influence tactics. Furthermore, it wassuggested that political skill, being more indirect, would not likely be correlated with assertiveness.Indeed, the correlation of political skill with assertiveness was not significant ( r = .09, n.s.). Theseresults for the relationships with influence tactics provide support for Hypothesis 3.

Because the nature of networking involves involvement with others and being able to mobilizecoalitions for influence, networking ability was hypothesized to demonstrate the strongest positiverelationship with the upward appeal and the coalition influence tactics, and that was found to be thecase( r = .30, p < .001; r = .31, p < .001, respectively). Significance tests for the difference between cor-relations reported that the networking abilityupward appeal correlation was significantly larger thanthecorrelations of any of the other PSI dimensions with upward appeal (i.e., t = 1.89, p < .05 for socialastuteness; t = 5.29, p < .001 forinterpersonal influence; and t = 2.92, p < .01 forapparentsincerity).

Finally, it washypothesized that thenetworking ability dimension would provide thepositioning to

allow one to effectively use assertiveness. Indeed, networking ability demonstrated a significant posi-tive relationship with assertiveness ( r = .18, p < .001), which was found to be significantly greater thanthe correlations of any of the other PSI dimensions with assertiveness (i.e., t = 1.43, p < .10 for socialastuteness; t = 4.98, p < .001 for interpersonal influence; and t = 3.88, p < .001 for apparent sincerity).These results lend support for Hypothesis 4.

Political skill exhibited a significant negative correlation with trait anxiety ( r = .31, p < .001), pro-viding support for Hypothesis 5. It was hypothesized that feelings of control and personal security,




15/28

139

T a b l e 4

D e s c r i p t

i v e

S t a t

i s t i c s ,

C o r r e

l a t i o n s o f

P o l i t i c a l

S k i l l W i t h O t h e r

M e a s u r e s , a n

d C o m p e

t i t i v e

P r e d

i c t i o n o f

O t h e r M e a s u r e s F r o m P o l i t i c a l S k i l l D i m e n s i o n s a n d F e r r i s e t a l . ( 1

9 9 9 ) M e a s u r e ( S t u d y 1 )

P o l i t i c a l

S o c i a l


N e t w o r k i n g

A p p a r e n t

F e r r i s e t a l . ,

M e a s u r e

M

S D

S k i l l T o t a l

A s t u t e n e s s

I n f l u e n c e

A b i l i t y

S i n c e r i t y

6 - i t e m

M e a s u r e

S e l f - m o n i t o r i n g

1 . 4 6

0 . 2 1

. 7 5

. 3 9 * * *

. 3 7 * * *

. 3 0 * * *

. 3 7 * * *

. 1 1

. 3 0 * * *

( . 2 1 * * )

( . 1 2 )

( . 2 3 * * * )

( . 1

3 * )

( . 0 1 )

C o n s c i e n t i o u s n e s s

3 . 6 8

0 . 6 3

. 8 7

. 3 1 * * *

. 2 7 * * *

. 2 5 * * *

. 2 4 * * *

. 2 4 * * *

. 2 7 * * *

( . 0 9 )

( . 0 2 )

( . 0 8 )

( . 1 0 )

( . 1 2 )

U p w a r d a p p e a l

2 . 6 6

1 . 1 1

. 2 5 * * *

. 2 1 * * *

. 0 4

. 3 0 * * *

. 1 3 *

. 1 0

( . 1 4 )

( . 2

3 * )

( . 3 3 * * * )

( . 0 8 )

( . 0 3 )

C o a l i t i o n

2 . 5 5

0 . 8 3

. 6 3

. 2 1 * * *

. 1 4 * *

. 0 4

. 3 1 * * *

. 0 3

. 1 2 *

( . 0 2 )

( . 1

8 * )

( . 4 0 * * * )

( . 0

5 )

( . 0 2 )

A s s e r t i v e n e s s

2 . 3 3

0 . 7 8

. 7 9

. 0 9

. 1 1 *

. 0 7

. 1 8 * * *

. 0 5

. 0 1

( . 1 5 * )

( . 2

0 * )

( . 2 6 * * * )

( . 0

7 )

( . 0 7 )

T r a i t a n x i e t y

1 . 9 9

0 . 4 6

. 8 8

. 3

1 * * *

. 2 8 * * *

. 3 7 * * *

. 2 0 * * *

. 1 5 * *

. 3 4 * * *

( . 1

1 )

( . 2

8 * * * )

( . 0 4 )

( . 0 8 )

( . 1 0 )

M

5 . 2

9

5 . 1 4

5 . 6 0

4 . 9 0

5 . 9 4

5 . 4 8

S D

0 . 7

4

0 . 8 9

0 . 8 4

1 . 0 2

0 . 8 4

0 . 7 3

. 9 0

. 7 9

. 7 8

. 8 7

. 8 1

. 7 3

N o t e : D u e t o m i s s i n g v a l u e s , t h e s a m p l e s i z e r a n g e s f r o m 3 2 6 t o 3 5 0 . T

h e s i x - i t e m F e r r i s e t a l . ( 1 9 9 9 ) P o l i t i c a l S k i l l S c a l e c o r r e l a t e d r = . 7

8 * * * w i t h t h e P o l i t i c a l S k i l l I n v e n t o r y ( P S I ) t o t a l s c o r e ,

r = . 6

6 * * * w i t h t h e s o c i a l a s t u t e n e s s d i m e n s i o n , r = . 8

1 * * * w i t h t h e i n t e r p e r s o n a l i n f l u e n c e d i m e n s i o n , r = . 5

4 * * * w i t h t h e n e t w o r k i n g a b i l i t y d i m e n s i o n , a n d r = . 5 2 * * * w i t h t h e a p p a r e n t s i n c e r -

i t y d i m e n s i o n . T h e v a l u e s i n p a r e n t h e s e s a r e t h e s t a n d a r d i z e d r e g r e s s i o n c o e f f i c i e n t s f o r t h e p r e d i c t i o n o f e a c h o f t h e c o n s t r u c t s i n t h e l e f t c o l u m n f r o m t h e f o u r p o l i t i c a l s k i l l d i m

e n s i o n s a n d t h e

F e r r i s e t a l . ( 1 9 9 9 ) s i x - i t e m

s c a l e . N o r e l i a b i l i t y c o e f f i c i e n t i s r e p o r t e d f o r u p w a r d a p p e a l b e c a u s e i t i s a o n e - i t e m m e a s u r e .

* p . 0

5

* * p . 0

1

* * * p . 0

0 1



16/28


17/28

veys. Occupations in the sample included patrol officer, human resource manager, chief executive offi-cer, and accountant. The student received course credit for securing appropriate completion of thesurveys.

The sampleconsisted of 85 male employees (44%) and 108 femaleemployees (56%), and theaver-age age was approximately 42 years ( M = 42.24, = 10.75). Respondents had an average of almost 20years of full-timework ( M = 19.55, = 10.52), had workedin theircurrent position for roughly 7 years( M = 7.22, = 8.82), and had been with their current organization for almost 9 years ( M = 8.86, =8.95). Participants reported supervising an average of roughly 15 employees ( M = 14.94, = 50.87,range 0-524). Finally, 72 respondents (37%) reported professional staff as their position followed by47 (24%) reporting middle management, 42 (22%) reporting nonmanagement, 18 (9%) reportingupper management, and 12 (6%) reporting other.

Sample 1: Results

The four-factor solution met most of the standards to demonstrate adequate fit of the model,whereas the one-factor solution had less acceptable fit, as seen in Table 3. A chi-square difference test

of the two models showed that they were not redundant ( 2

difference = 44.39, df = 6). Because thefour-factor solution provided better data fit indices and is more theoretically sound, we concluded itwas the best representation of the constructs underlying dimensionality.

Both two-factor and three-factor models also were tested and compared with the four-factor targetmodel. The two-factor model with the social astuteness and networking ability items comprising onefactor and the interpersonal influence and apparent sincerity items making up a second factor showedlower-than-recommended fit statisticsand, along with the significant chi-squaredifference test ( 2 dif-ference = 37.78, df = 5), indicates that the four-factor model is superior to the two-factor model.

The same three-factor model as tested in Study 1 was examined here as well, where networkingability, social astuteness, and interpersonal influence reflected the three dimensions, with the threeitems from the apparent sincerity dimension spread similarly across these three factors. The fit statis-tics for the three-factormodel and thesignificant chi-square difference test ( 2 difference = 46.09, df =3) indicates that the four-factor model also provides a better fit than the three-factor model.

Each of the four political skill dimensions demonstrated adequate reliability estimates. Specifi-cally, the social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, and apparent sincerity dimen-sions achieved reliability coefficients of .79, .77, .83, and .73, respectively. All items demonstratedacceptable standardized factor loadings with their hypothesized underlying construct, and the fourdimensions exhibited correlations with one another, ranging from .28 to .69, as noted above thediagonal in Table 2.

Sample 2: Sample and Procedure

A total of 148 full-timeworkers in law firmsin a large southeastern city were contacted to completean online survey that provided data to test political skillsconvergent and discriminantvalidity. Ninety-three (93) employees in 49 different legal entities voluntarily completed surveys online by accessing

the researchers Web site, reflecting a 63%response rate. Respondents occupied a wide variety of posi-tions, including legal administrators, paralegals, legal assistants, secretaries, attorneys, and officemanagers. The average age of the respondents in this sample was 41.0 years ( = 10.05), 84% of thesample was female, 58% had at least a 4-year college degree, and the majority was Caucasian (94%).The average tenure was 7.2 years ( = 6.46) with the organization, and 44% supervised at least oneother employee as part of their job responsibilities.




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Sample 2: Measures

Political skill . The 18-item PSI developed in Study 1 was used to measure political skill and itsdimensions. For this study, the 7-point response format was used. The coefficient alpha internal con-sistency reliability estimate for the overall scale was .89, and the reliabilities for the political skilldimensions were as follows: networking ability (.87), interpersonal influence (.87), social astuteness(.80), and apparent sincerity (.58).

Self-monitoring . Self-monitoring was measured with the 18-item instrument presented in Snyder(1987). The coefficient alpha reliability for this scale was .76.

Conscientiousness . Conscientiousness was examined using items from McCrae and Costa (1987).The coefficient alpha reliability estimate for the 14-item conscientiousness scale was .82.

Influence tactics . Kipnis et al.s (1980) measure was used to assess the frequency with which indi-viduals employed upward influence tactics. Each of the influence tactics scales had four items and

included upward appeal ( = .82), coalition ( = .80), and assertiveness ( = .77).Trait anxiety . Trait anxiety was measured with the 20-item Spielberger et al. (1983) State-Trait

Anxiety Inventory (Form Y-2). The coefficient alpha reliability for this scale was .87.

Political savvy . A six-item scale developed by Chao et al. (1994) was used, which assessed under-standing or savvy about politics in the organization. The coefficient alpha reliability estimate for thisscale was .85.

Sample 2: Convergent and Discriminant Validity Results

Table 5 shows the descriptive statistics for the variables used in the current study and the correla-tions of political skill (and its dimensions) with each of the other scales. Among all the variables, onlythe apparent sincerity political skilldimension ( = .58) had an inferior internal consistency reliabilityestimate.

We expected political skill to be positively correlated with self-monitoring and with conscientious-ness. The overall PSI was found to positively correlatewith self-monitoring ( r = .33, p < .01). Interest-ingly, although positive, the correlation of the PSI with conscientiousness was not significant in thisstudy. Furthermore, political skill should be positively correlated with the Chao et al. (1994) measure,which assesses political savvy. As shown in Table 5, the overall PSI was found to positively correlatewith political savvy ( r = .47, p < .001), thus providing partial support for Hypothesis 1.

Social astuteness demonstrated the highest correlation with self-monitoring ( r = .32, p < .001), butthis correlation was not significantly different from the network buildingself-monitoring relationship(i.e., t = .22, n.s.). Social astuteness also was hypothesized to demonstrate the highest correlation withconscientiousness of any of the PSI dimensions, and tests for the difference of correlations verify this,thus providing support for Hypothesis 2 (i.e., t = 2.03, p < .05 for interpersonal influence; t = 3.38,

p < .001 for network building; and t = 1.55, p < .10 for apparent sincerity).Hypothesis 2 also proposed that social astuteness would demonstrate the strongest relationship

with political savvy of any of the four political skill dimensions, and the results appear to support this(r = .60, p < .001). Furthermore, the results of the correlation difference tests demonstrate that thesocial astutenesspoliticalsavvy correlation is significantly larger than the correlation of politicalsavvywith any other PSI dimension (i.e., t = 7.83, p < .001 for interpersonal influence; t = 2.76, p < .01 fornetwork building; and t = 5.76, p < .001 for apparent sincerity).




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143

T a b l e

5

D e s c r i p t i v e S t a t i s t i c s a n d C o r r e l a t i o n s o f P o l i t i c a l S k i l l W i t h O t h e r M e a s u r e s ( S t u d y 2 , S a m p l e 2 ) ( N = 9 3 )

P o l i t i c a l

S o c i a l


N e t w o r k i n g

A p p a r e n t

M e a s u r e s

M

S D

S k i l l T o t a l

A s t u t e n e s s

I n f l u e n c e

A b i l i t y

S i n c e r i t y

S e l f - m o n i t o r i n g

1 . 4 2

0 . 2 0

. 7 6

. 3 3 * *

. 3 2 * *

. 2 1 *

. 3 0 * *

. 1 3

C o n s c i e n t i o u s n e s s

5 . 7 5

0 . 9 1

. 8 2

. 1 7

. 3 1 * *

. 1 5

. 0 0

. 1 5

U p w a r d a p p e a l

1 . 4 2

0 . 5 8

. 8 2

. 1 7

. 1 0

. 0 0

. 2 6 *

. 0 3

C o a l i t i o n

1 . 9 2

0 . 7 5

. 8 0

. 2 8 * *

. 2 3 *

. 1 2

. 3 0 * *

. 1 0

A s s e r t i v e n e s s

1 . 5 2

0 . 7 0

. 7 7

. 1 6

. 1 6

. 0 4

. 2 2 *

. 0 1

T r a i t a n x i e t y

1 . 6 9

0 . 3 5

. 8 7

. 2 7 * *

. 2 5 * *

. 4 2 * *

. 1 1

. 1 9

P o l i t i c a l s a v v y

5 . 4 9

1 . 0 9

. 8 5

. 4 7 * *

. 6 0 * * *

. 1 4

. 3 8 * *

. 1 1

M

5 . 5 2

5 . 2 9

5 . 8 7

5 . 0 0

6 . 4 9

S D

0 . 7 1

0 . 9 0

0 . 8 2

1 . 1 3

0 . 4 6

. 8 9

. 8 0

. 8 2

. 8 7

. 5 8

p < . 1

0

* p < . 0

5

* * p < . 0

1

* * * p < . 0

0 1



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Political skill should be related to various influence tactics, including upward appeal and coalitiontactics, but not to assertiveness, as was found in Study 1. Results provided evidence that political skillis not redundant with influence tactics. Specifically, the PSI positively correlated with the coalitiontactic ( r = .28, p < .01), and it did not correlate with assertiveness ( r = .16, n.s.), both findings support-ive of Hypothesis 3. However, the PSI exhibited a positive, but not a significant, correlation with theupward appeal tactic, which fails to support part of Hypothesis 3.

The networking ability dimension was positively related to the upward appeal influence tactic ( r =.26, p < .05), the coalition tactic ( r = .30, p < .01), and the assertiveness tactic ( r = .22, p < .05). How-ever, examination of the correlation difference tests indicate mixed results and therefore only partialsupport for Hypothesis 4. The network buildingupward appeal correlation was significantly greaterthan for any of the other PSI dimensions (i.e., t = 1.68, p < .05 forsocial astuteness; t = 2.56, p < .01 forinterpersonal influence; and t = 1.88, p < .05 for apparent sincerity). For the coalition influence tactic,the network building correlation was not significantly different from the social astuteness correlationwith thecoalitiontactic (i.e., t = .74, n.s.), and thenetworking-assertiveness correlation wasnot signif-icantly different from the social astutenessassertiveness relationship (i.e., t = .62, n.s.).

In addition, political skill should be negatively related to trait anxiety such that politically skilledindividuals are apt to experience less anxiety or tension. Results show that the PSI indeed wasinversely related to trait anxiety ( r = .27, p < .01), as found in Study 1, and supportive of Hypothesis 5.Also replicating results from Study 1, interpersonal influence showed the strongest relationship withtrait anxiety ( r = .42, p < .01), and correlations of trait anxiety with all other PSI dimensions werefound to be significantly smaller in magnitude, thus supporting Hypothesis 6 (i.e., t = 2.26, p < .01 forsocial astuteness; t = 3.22, p < .001 fornetwork building;and t = 2.59, p < .01 forapparentsincerity).

Sample 3: Participants and Procedure

A sample of 184 undergraduate students in two required undergraduate business classes at amidsize southeastern university completed surveys during class time. All students present in class onthat day participated in the research. The average age of the respondents in this sample was 21.8 ( =2.74), 49% of the sample were female, and 86% were Caucasian.

Sample 3: Measures

Politicalskill . Politicalskill( M = 5.68, = .61, = .87), again, wasmeasured with the18-item PSI.Thedescriptive statistics for the four dimensions of politicalskillare as follows: socialastuteness, M =5.77, = .69, = .71; interpersonal influence, M = 5.51, = .77, = .73; networking ability, M = 5.82, = .68, = .76; and apparent sincerity, M = 5.52, = .95, = .66.

General mental ability . GMA was measured using the Wonderlic Personnel Test Form A(Wonderlic Personnel Test, 1992). The mean score was 25.76 ( = 5.2).

Emotional intelligence . Emotional intelligence was measured using the Emotional Competence

InventoryUniversity Edition (ECI-U; Goleman & Boyatzis, 2001). Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso(2000) described this scale as a mixed-model scale in that it goes beyond the emotions and emotion-thought interactions and incorporates other characteristics such as consciousness states, abilities, andmotivations ( M = 3.84, = .48, = .96).




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Sample 3: Results

With allthe attentionthe emotionalintelligence constructhas received in recentyears, it wasimpor-tant to demonstrate that it was not highly correlated with political skill. We would expect a significantcorrelation between political skill and emotional intelligence, but we would not expect the magnitudeof the correlation to be so high as to indicate construct redundancy. The correlation between these twoconstructs was .53, providing support for Hypothesis 1. Furthermore, the correlations of the fourdimensions of political skill with emotional intelligence ranged from .38 to .43.

Based on these results, two observations deserve mention. First, we would conclude that this levelof relationship is only moderate in magnitude. Second, in light of the extensiveness regarding howGoleman and hiscolleagues have conceptualized thecontent domain of emotional intelligence (i.e., asreflected in themeasure used in this study), it could be construed as surprising that thecorrelation withpoliticalskill wasnot even higher. Some have suggested that Goleman views emotionalintelligence aseverything except GMA (e.g., Hedlund & Sternberg, 2000), suggesting a measure that would overlapsubstantially with a number of social effectiveness constructs.

It is critical to demonstrate that political skill is uncorrelated with, and therefore not simply sub-

sumed by, GMA. The correlations of the PSI total score, and the four dimensions, with GMA all werefound to be zero. This supports the emerging theory on political skill, as well as the evidence providedby Ferris et al. (1999) on the initial six-item measure, which was found to reflect a zero correlationwith GMA (i.e., also using the Wonderlic Personnel Test to assess intelligence). Also, these resultsprovide support for Hypothesis 7.

Study 3: Criterion-Related Validity Evidence

The establishment of sound evidence of construct validity is an essential first step in the develop-ment of any new measure, before such measures can be used in substantive research (e.g., Schwab,1980). However, criterion-related validity ultimately is critical to the determination of any new con-structs role in the predictability of important organizational phenomena.

To examine the criterion-related validity of political skill and provide tests of Hypotheses 8 and 9,samples were gathered from two organizations, involving different occupational groups, to assess theextent to which political skill predicted job performance and effectiveness ratings. In both samples,employees completed questionnaire measures, including political skill, and job performance or effec-tivenessratings were filled outby other sources (i.e., either thesubordinates or the supervisors of thoseemployees).

Sample 1: Sample and Procedures

This sample wascollected from school administrators in a public school district located in the mid-western United States. The survey was distributed to 35 administrators through interdepartmentalmail, 26 surveys were returned for a 74% response rate, and participation was voluntary. The respon-dents were all Caucasian, and predominantly male (62%), with most holding a masters or higher

degree (73.1%). The average respondent was 48 years old with an average of 7.1 years of organizational tenure.

Sample 1: Measures

Political skill was measured using the 18-item PSI as discussed earlier. Respondents were asked torate their agreement with the questions on a scale of 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 7 ( strongly agree ). Three




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items were used to measure leadereffectiveness, gathered from responsesby thesubordinates or directreports of each school administrator: (a) Our manager is effective in representing the work unit toupper management, (b) Our manager is effective in meeting the job-related needs of work unit mem-bers, and (c) Our manager is

political skill inventory

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