Do emotional intelligence & organizational politics influence the employee work behaviors and attitudes? Mediating role of political skill

Abstract

Employees are contemplated as an indispensable pillar of the organization. Their attitudes and behaviors at the workplace have a drastic effect on organizational performance and success. Employees' emotional intelligence and political skill at the workplace have immense importance in shaping their behaviors and attitudes. On the other hand, behaviors and attitudes plummet towards negativity in the politically polluted environment in the organization. To investigate the impact of emotional intelligence and perception of organizational politics on employees' behaviors and attitudes through the mediation of political skill, the current study collected data from employees of the banking sector of Pakistan. The data were collected through questionnaires by applying non-probability convenient sampling technique. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structure equation modeling (SEM) techniques have been used for statistical analysis. The results revealed the positive interplay of emotional intelligence with behaviors and attitudes. Further, results also indicated a negative association of perception of organizational politics with behaviors and attitudes. In addition, the findings depicted that political skill mediates the relationship of emotional intelligence with behaviors and attitudes. Similarly, political skill also mediates the interplay of perception of organizational politics with behaviors and attitudes. The scant research attention had been given to explore the mediating role of political skill among these variables and present study addressed this gap. The significance of the study was provided at the end. The limitations were also delineated which followed directions for future research.