Defining
​political skill
Welcome to Module 1
By the end of this module, you will be able to correctly describe what is Political Skill in a workplace.
​
​FIRST,
WHY DO YOU NEED IT?
Political Skill is often taken in the negative light of manipulation. Hence some people abhor it and even profess not to practice it.
However, according to research, it is present in every organisation and is an essential workplace effectiveness skill.
Watch this Youtube video to hear the advice by the authors of the book "Being the Boss: The 3 imperatives for Becoming the Great Leader" on why you need Political Skill in the workplace.
Click on the video to play it. To enlarge the video, click on the bottom right corner of it.
​
(Estimated 3 minutes)
WHAT RESEARCHERS SAY
about Political Skill
Charn P. McAllister, B. Parker Ellen IIIa, Pamela L. Perrewe, Gerald R. Ferris, Daniel J. Hirsch (2015)
Political skill "allows people to be effective at work by giving them the capacity to more accurately recognize opportunities in the work environment and effectively capitalize on those opportunities."
Ingo Zettler
and Jonas W.B. Lang (2018)
"research has, amongst other things, suggested that political skill is a positive linear predictor of job performance, and this idea has often been supported by empirical findings."
Christopher C. Rosen, K. Michele Kacmar, Kenneth J. Harris,
Mark B. Gavin, and Wayne A. Hochwarter (2017)
"Research investigating politics from the rater’s perspective
(e.g., Ferris & Judge, 1991; Kozlowski et al., 1998;
Longenecker, Sims, & Gioia, 1987) indicates that political
considerations are almost always part of the evaluation process."
