Got political skill? The impact of justice on the importance of political skill for job performance

Abstract

The present study examined the moderating effects of procedural and distributive justice on the relationships between political skill and task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among 175 supervisor-subordinate dyads of a government organization. Using Mischel's (1968) situationist perspective, high justice conditions were considered "strong situations," whereas low justice conditions were construed as "weak situations." We found that when both procedural and distributive justice were low, political skill was positively related to performance. Under conditions of both high procedural and high distributive justice, political skill was negatively related to performance. Finally, under conditions of low distributive justice, political skill was positively related to OCB, whereas under conditions of high distributive justice, political skill had little effect on OCB. These results highlight the importance of possessing political skill in weak but not strong situations.