Impact of organisational politics on job dissatisfaction and turnover intention: An application of social exchange theory on employees working in Zimbabwean small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Abstract

Organizational politics has been seen as detrimental to the smooth running of firms. Despite increasing awareness of the importance of managing the negative effects of organizational politics at the workplace, research on consequences relating to employees’ perceptions of the same in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, especially Zimbabwe in particular, has received little attention. This paper uses Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to test the causal relationships between the three variables which are organizational politics, job dissatisfaction and turnover intention. Amos 23.0 software has been used as it is the current software on the market for SEM usage. Therefore, using data of 154 SMEs in Zimbabwe, this paper examines the effects of employees’ perceptions of organizational politics on job dissatisfaction and turnover intentions. All the posited three hypotheses were supported by the sample data. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed and limitations and future research directions are indicated.