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The Moderating Effect of Impression Management on the Organizational Politics–Performance Relationship

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Abstract

This study investigates the complexities in the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and performance ratings by examining the moderating effect of impression management on that relationship. Expectancy theory was employed to better understand the moderating effect. We proposed that two kinds of impression management tactics occurred: supervisor-focused and job-focused, respectively. It was hypothesized that increased exercise of impression management would mitigate the negative effects of perceptions of organizational politics and performance ratings. Data were collected from 290 full-time employees of ten state-owned enterprises in Taiwan. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis of data revealed that the job-focused tactics exerted a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and performance ratings. When perceptions of organizational politics are low, employees who engage in high levels of job-focused impression management tactics are more likely to gain better ratings than those who employ low-level tactics.

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Acknowledgments

Besides the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission and the State-Owned Enterprise Commission, we thank all directors of human resources department of these ten state-owned enterprises for supporting this project, professor Tsai for his thoughtful comments, professor Chow for his technical assistance, and Catherine for proofreading the manuscript. We thank the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission and the State-Owned Enterprise Commission for supporting the research project, which lead to this paper.

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  1. Department of Business Administration, National Taipei University, 151 University Rd., San Shia, Taipei, 23741, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Yei-Yi Chen & WenChang Fang

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  1. Yei-Yi Chen
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  2. WenChang Fang
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Correspondence to Yei-Yi Chen.

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Chen, YY., Fang, W. The Moderating Effect of Impression Management on the Organizational Politics–Performance Relationship . J Bus Ethics 79, 263–277 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9379-3

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