A Study of the Effects of Organizational Politics on Employee’s Commitment to Organization in Banking Sector of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

This empirical study was designed to investigate the effects of organizational politics on employees` commitment to organization. For this purpose cross sectional data from 217 respondents (employees) of banking sector of Khyber Puktunkhwa was collected through simple random sampling technique using authentic measures. For measuring organizational politics & it`s factors a 55-items multi-dimensional construct “Perception of Politics Scale” POPS (Ferris and Kacmar, 1991) was used while for measuring employees’ commitment a 15-items scale developed by (Porter & Smith, 1970) was employed. These scales revealed high reliability statistics in this study (Cronbach`s alphas: 0.756, 0.828) respectively. Statistical analysis, particularly Pearson correlation analysis found negative & strong relationship of pay & promotion, decision making, organizational goals & allocation of resources with employees commitment that deducted a significant & strong relationship of these Independent variables with the Dependent variable (Employees Commitment). In addition, linear regression analysis also confirmed a strong negative relationship of the Independent variables with dependent variable (Employees Commitment). The devised hypotheses were tested & verified and the empirical findings tried an attempt to fill the previous research gap as well as this study offers a modified & developed theoretical model named as “An Integrative Organizational Behavior & Self Determination Model of Employees Commitment” that provides a qualified explanation of the mechanism of organizational politics & employees commitment.. The study suggests that the negative effects of organizational politics in organization can be reduced by actually controlling the level of politics in organizations. Once the extent of political actions in organization is controlled, only then the perceptions of politics in the employees mind can be lowered that will also lessen the negative effects of politics perception of employees. The people who are best positioned to control political actions are the middle level managers who tie the upper and lower management together. Middle level managers have an important role in increasing or decreasing political actions in an organization. By leaving aside political considerations while nominating employees for training courses and pay increases can lower the perception of politics in the employees mind. Moreover, training courses geared towards helping employees understand political environments and also how to protect their interests in such environments should be a regular feature of all organizations. The study can be implemented for various purposes including the counseling regarding negative intentions towards work like non participation, neglecting ones duties & increased turnover rates.