How does political skill lead to job and organization engagement? Role of self-evaluations

Purpose: Political skill is a valued resource employees use to achieve success. Earlier research has mostly focused on the effect of political skill on others rather than on the self of the politically skilled individuals. Specifically, there is disconnect between political skill and employee engagement research as both these fields have been growing in isolation. Drawing from theories of engagement and conservation of resources, this study bridges this gap in knowledge by investigating how political skill leads to job and organization engagement of politically skilled employees via impacting their self-evaluations of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and organizational identification. 

Design/methodology/approach: Using a survey method, data were obtained from 188 employees who worked in three private schools of Lahore, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model. 

Findings: This study found that individuals who used political skill by practicing social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking and sincerity rated themselves high in OBSE and organizational identification. As a consequence, high OBSE enhanced their job engagement, whereas high organizational identification increased their organization engagement. 

Originality/value: This study is one of the first studies to present political skill as a driver of job and organization engagement. It reveals that the self-evaluations of OBSE and organizational identification mediate the political skill–engagement relations in unique manners.