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Article
Political Skill and Will as Predictors of Impression Management Frequency and Style: A Three-Study Investigation
Journal of Vocational Behavior
  • Liam P. Maher, Boise State University
  • Vickie Coleman Gallagher, Cleveland State University
  • Ana Maria Rossi, Clinica de Stress e Biofeedback
  • Gerald R. Ferris, Florida State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-1-2018
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.05.004
Abstract

To date, few empirical studies have confirmed the long-accepted notion that politically skilled individuals discriminately and strategically employ or avoid particular political behaviors in the workplace. The purpose of this multi-study investigation is to evaluate political skill and political will as antecedents of configurational impression management strategies. The configurations of impression management tactics found by Bolino and Turnley (2003) are confirmed using hierarchical and K-means cluster analysis, and discriminant analysis is employed to demonstrate the effects of political skill and political will in the prediction of impression management configurations. Consistent with the two-component model of impression management (Leary & Kowalski, 1990), the results of these studies suggest that political will and political skill represent the cognitive processes that enable impression management configuration selection. Post-hoc analyses illustrate that there may be slight differences in usage of some impression management tactics directed at specific targets (in two of our four samples). Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Copyright Statement

This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. © 2018, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license]. The final, definitive version of this document can be found online at The Journal of Vocational Behavior, doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2018.05.004

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International
Citation Information
Maher, Liam P.; Coleman Gallagher, Vickie; Rossi, Ana Maria; and Ferris, Gerald R. (2018). "Political Skill and Will as Predictors of Impression Management Frequency and Style: A Three-Study Investigation". Journal of Vocational Behavior, 107, 276-294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.05.004