Workplace Political Discourse and Employee Productivity: The Mediating Roles of Work Cohesion and Team Dynamics in the Public Sector

Purpose – Workplace political discourse is increasingly visible in public sector organizations, yet prior research has largely examined organizational politics as a structural and behavioural phenomenon while paying limited attention to discourse as a distinct communicative construct. The mechanisms through which political discourse shapes employee productivity — particularly via relational processes — remain insufficiently theorized and empirically tested. Aim(s) – This study investigates the direct and indirect effects of workplace political discourse on employee productivity in a public university context, with work cohesion and team dynamics as mediating mechanisms. Specifically, it examines the influence of political discourse on work cohesion and team dynamics and assesses their mediating roles in the discourse–productivity relationship. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Data were collected from 319 academic and non-academic staff of a Nigerian public university. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data and test the proposed direct and indirect relationships. Findings – The results indicate that workplace political discourse has significant negative effects on work cohesion, team dynamics, and employee productivity. Work cohesion and team dynamics have significant positive effects on productivity and partially mediate the relationship between political discourse and productivity. Limitations of the study – The cross-sectional design limits causal inference, and the study focuses on a single public institution. Future research could adopt longitudinal designs and comparative public sector contexts. Practical implications – Public sector managers should manage political discourse carefully while strengthening cohesion and team dynamics to protect productivity. Originality/value – The study advances organizational politics literature by treating workplace political discourse as a distinct communicative construct, separate from generalized perceptions of organizational politics. It introduces a conceptual typology distinguishing constructive from polarizing political discourse and provides novel empirical evidence on the relational mechanisms — work cohesion and team dynamics — through which political discourse affects productivity in a developing-country public sector context.