Organizational political climate and employee engagement in political behavior in public sector organizations

Purpose: This paper aims to understand how the organizational political climate as a contextual antecedent contributes to individual engagement in political behavior; and the moderating role of organizational commitment and trust in local government organizations. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed methods integration and an explanatory-sequential mixed methods design were used. Data were collected from 217 managers and employees, and 16 interviews were conducted. Data were collected in sequence, and the quantitative results were explained by the qualitative data. Findings: The results suggest that political climate is related to political behavior and that both trust and affective commitment are negatively related to political climate. Trust moderated between political climate and political behavior. However, affective commitment moderated by the political climate and political behavior only for women. The qualitative results suggest that men perceive organizational politics as having more positive outcomes than women. Practical implications: Human resource practitioners and managers can use this model to gain insights into their organizational political climate and to implement practices that will foster a climate that is functional and positive and which will cultivate a positive subjective experience in the workplace for their employees. Originality/value: The mixed methods design for studying the contextual-organizational antecedent (perception of political climate) for politicking and individual engagement in political behavior may serve to expand the theory of organizational politics.