Examining The Role Of Psychological Contract Breach,Political Skill And Work Ethic In The Perceptions Of Organizational Politics-Job Attitudes Relationship

In recent times,higher education has become a global vehicle for human resource and national development in which Pakistan is not exempted.The higher education industry in Pakistan for some time is greeted with the perceptions of organizational politics mainly caused by unfair distribution of decision-making power and influence that drawback the wheel of academic progress in the sector as it adversely impacts the efficiency and productivity of employees.There has been a dearth of studies on the influence of perceptions of organizational politics on job attitudes in the higher education sector of Pakistan.Thus,drawing on Job demand resource theory and conservation of resource theory the study seeks to fill the gap in literature on perceptions of organizational politics and the need for broader utilization of the theories in the current research area.To do this,the study seeks to examine how and why perceptions of organizational politics affects the job attitudes of higher education employees in Pakistan.In view of this,the study has six specific objectives that aided the achievement of the broader objectives.The initial specific objective of this research was to investigate the influence of perception of organizational politics on workforce job attitudes and on overall job attitudes.The next was to establish the mediating role of Psychological contract breach in the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes follow by examination on how certain attributes like political skill and work ethic can affect the negative relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes.These objectives were achieved by descriptive survey research design method through questionnaire.Data of the respondent were obtained from the public sector universities of Pakistan follow by distribution of questionnaire through cluster sampling technique.The study initially performed preliminary analysis by conducting exploratory factor analysis to reduce the data using Statistical package for social sciences version 24.Therefore,a sample of 943 answered questionnaire were obtained from the respondents and were analyzed by the Structural Equation Modeling via SMART PLS software version 3.0 to test the hypothesized relationships.Findings of the results indicated that the perception of organizational politics is significantly and negatively associated to each one of the job attitudes as well as overall job attitudes.Furthermore,the comparative analysis indicated high negative impact of perception of organizational politics on overall job attitudes as compare to individual Job Attitudes.Moreover,the results indicated that psychological contract breach fully mediates the association between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes(job satisfaction and organizational commitment)as well as overall job attitudes.However,psychological contract breach did not mediate the association between turnover intentions and perceived organizational support.In addition to this,the findings of comparative investigation demonstrated higher negative mediating effect of Psychological contract breach in the relationship between perception of organizational politics and overall job attitudes as compare to individual Job attitudes.Further,the findings indicated that work ethic significantly moderated the association between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes(job satisfaction,organizational commitment,turnover intentions and Perceived organizational support).As proposed,the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes(job satisfaction,organizational commitment,turnover intentions and Perceived organizational support)was weakest for those highest in work ethic.However,political skill did not moderate the association between perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes(job satisfaction,organizational commitment,turnover intentions and Perceived organizational support).Therefore,based on statistically significant,the distinct mediating role of psychological contract breach in the perceptions of organizational politics-Job attitudes relationship imply that perceptions of organizational politics may induce psychological contract breach that produce negative attitudes.Given that work ethic is an important personal resource that moderates the perceptions of organizational politics and job attitudes in such a way that the negative relationship is more pronounced between politics and job attitudes who are weak in work ethic.The present study has several innovation points that have expanded the notion of perception of organizational politics.The first innovation point of the study has to do with theoretical contribution of the study.On theoretical contribution as an innovation point,lies on the proposed theoretical framework.This framework expands the literature of perception of organizational politics by extending it into the field of higher education.Another significant innovative contribution of the study is the inclusion of both mediation and moderation elements in the proposed framework,therefore,it is a major milestone contribution to the literature on perception of organizational politics.Furthermore,although the previous studies have focused on quantitative approach little is done on the area by the use of structural equation modelling through SMARTPLS software.This software was employed because of its robustness in establishing causal relationship among constructs and again very efficient in checking predictive application and theory establishment.As part of fact finding contribution of the study is that it uncovered the impact of perception of organizational politics on individual as well as on the overall job attitudes.As part of ensuring innovation,the study departs from earlier studies that focused on the negative aspect of politics.The empirical findings of the study revealed a positive job skills in the higher education institutes of Pakistan,thus,resulting to increase organizational success.The findings of this study offer essential policy implications on government and managerial level of public sector universities.On Governmental level,it is recommended that Government can strengthen or institute a law to regulate political heads in the public sector of higher education institutes to ensure equity of resource allocation to individual employees Government can provide sufficient training programs to deliver required skills for employment,encompassing all aspects of the professional skill development to function with greater effectivity.Such initiatives fulfills the prerequisites for enhancing the quality of teaching and improving the personal abilities of employees.Furthermore,government should formulate uniform rules and regulations that clearly underlines the criteria for promotions,competencies required for the specified job,rewards distribution and other basic policies to wipe of the negative political activities that hinder the success of an organization and motivate employees to take active part in achieving the objectives of the organization.Moreover,government could provide resources to the higher education institutes to meet their daily educational expenditures that can help the public sector universities to fulfill the needs of the organization.The managerial implication for the present study as follows.Managers or heads of higher education institutions should be equipped with the knowledge and ideas of embracing acts such as initiating training and development for employees to enhance their skills at work.In addition,Leaders should monitor the subordinate incumbents to know any deviance from the official working.Supervisors need to use all possible means to control the unproductive and illegitimate activities.Mentoring,counseling or any other approach may also be used in the best interest of the organizations.