IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v50y2025i2p607-630.html

When and how political skill becomes counterproductive: A moral licensing view

Author

Listed:
  • Fariha Zahid
  • Arif Nazir Butt
  • Muhammad Abdul Rahman Malik

Abstract

Counterintuitive to the generally prevailing positive view of political skill, we suggest that this social competency also has the potential to foster dysfunctional outcomes for organizations. Drawing insights from moral licensing theory, the study examines a framework that explains how politically skilled employees strategize to fulfill their self-serving objectives through leader-member exchange (LMX) relations. The findings from a multi-source sample of 250 private sector employees supported our proposed framework and demonstrated that political skill is indirectly related to self-serving counterproductive behaviors through LMX, with psychological entitlement as an important boundary condition. The study’s implications, its strengths and limitations, and future research directions are also discussed. JEL Classification: D23

Suggested Citation

  • Fariha Zahid & Arif Nazir Butt & Muhammad Abdul Rahman Malik, 2025. "When and how political skill becomes counterproductive: A moral licensing view," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 50(2), pages 607-630, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:50:y:2025:i:2:p:607-630
    DOI: 10.1177/03128962231205455
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03128962231205455
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/03128962231205455?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li‐Qun Wei & Jun Liu & Yuan‐Yi Chen & Long‐Zeng Wu, 2010. "Political Skill, Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi and Career Prospects in Chinese Firms," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 437-454, May.
    2. Henry Mintzberg, 1985. "The Organization As Political Arena," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 133-154, March.
    3. Zahid, Fariha & Butt, Arif Nazir & Khan, Abdul Karim, 2022. "Political skill and self-serving counterproductive work behaviors: Moderating role of perceptions of organizational politics," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(5), pages 993-1010, September.
    4. Feng Wei & Steven Si, 2013. "Tit for tat? Abusive supervision and counterproductive work behaviors: The moderating effects of locus of control and perceived mobility," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 281-296, March.
    5. Ryan K. Jacobson & Chockalingam Viswesvaran, 2017. "A Reliability Generalization Study of the Political Skill Inventory," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(2), pages 21582440177, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Demirbağ Orkun & Demir Hale Cide & Yozgat Uğur, 2020. "Political Will, Political Skill, Network Resources and Personal Reputation: A Serial Two-Mediator Model," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 28(3), pages 26-56, September.
    2. Ariail, Donald L. & Khayati, Amine & Shawver, Tara, 2021. "Perceptions by employed accounting students of ethical leadership and political skill: Evidence for including political skill in ethics pedagogy," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    3. Yidong Tu & Xinxin Lu, 2016. "Work-to-Life Spillover Effect of Leader–Member Exchange in Groups: The Moderating Role of Group Power Distance and Employee Political Skill," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1873-1889, October.
    4. Franke, Henrik & Foerstl, Kai, 2018. "Fostering integrated research on organizational politics and conflict in teams: A cross-phenomenal review," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 593-607.
    5. Tsang Kai Hung & Mu Tian & Jie Wu, 2025. "Trickle-down politics: exploring the social learning process of supervisor political skill and its impact on subordinate," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(5), pages 742-771, November.
    6. Jinqiang Zhu & Shiyong Xu & Kan Ouyang & David Herst & Elaine Farndale, 2018. "Ethical leadership and employee pro-social rule-breaking behavior in China," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(1), pages 59-81, February.
    7. Long Zhang & Yulin Deng & Qun Wang, 2014. "An Exploratory Study of Chinese Motives for Building Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(4), pages 659-675, November.
    8. Ulrike Reisach, 2016. "The creation of meaning and critical ethical reflection in operational research," EURO Journal on Decision Processes, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 4(1), pages 5-32, June.
    9. Long-Zeng Wu & Ho Kwong Kwan & Li-Qun Wei & Jun Liu, 2013. "Ingratiation in the Workplace: The Role of Subordinate and Supervisor Political Skill," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(6), pages 991-1017, September.
    10. Sana Mumtaz & Chris Rowley, 2020. "The relationship between leader–member exchange and employee outcomes: review of past themes and future potential," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 165-189, February.
    11. Vafai, Kouroche, 2002. "Preventing abuse of authority in hierarchies," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1143-1166, October.
    12. Ahsan Ali & Hussain Tariq & Yanling Wang, 2025. "Finding the silver lining: why and when abusive supervision improves the objective service performance of abused employees," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 559-593, June.
    13. Hongjuan Zhang & Rong Han & Liang Wang & Runhui Lin, 2021. "Social capital in China: a systematic literature review," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(1), pages 32-77, February.
    14. Elbanna, Said, 2016. "Managers' autonomy, strategic control, organizational politics and strategic planning effectiveness: An empirical investigation into missing links in the hotel sector," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 210-220.
    15. Hongjuan Zhang & Rong Han & Liang Wang & Runhui Lin, 0. "Social capital in China: a systematic literature review," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 0, pages 1-46.
    16. Yonghong Liu & Chen Zhao & Zhiyong Yang & Zhonghua Gao, 2025. "The Effect of Abusive Supervision on Employee Job Performance: The Moderating Role of Employment Contract Type," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 209-221, January.
    17. Chen, Xiao-Ping & Ren, Han, 2023. "Indirect cronyism and its underlying exchange logic: How managers’ particularism orientation and the third Party’s hierarchical power strengthen its existence," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    18. Jun He & Kun Liang & Peng Wu, 2022. "Stability Governance of E-commerce Supply Chain: Social Capital and Governance Mechanism Design Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-17, October.
    19. Peixu He & Zhenglong Peng & Hongdan Zhao & Christophe Estay, 2019. "How and When Compulsory Citizenship Behavior Leads to Employee Silence: A Moderated Mediation Model Based on Moral Disengagement and Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi Views," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 259-274, March.
    20. Xinqi Du & Md Sohel Chowdhury & Dae-seok Kang, 2022. "Reducing the Negative Effects of Abusive Supervision: A Step towards Organizational Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:50:y:2025:i:2:p:607-630. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.