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The purpose of this paper is to examine hostility as a mediator of the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics (POP) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB).

The authors’ examined the mediation model using a sample of 171 full-time employees studying in an evening MBA program. The authors’ collected the data for this study in three waves.

The findings supported all of the hypotheses. POP was positively related to both hostility and CWB. Moreover, hostility mediated the relationships between POP and both organizational and interpersonal CWB.

Given that individuals high in emotional intelligence (EI) are better at regulating their negative emotions, EI training may be a powerful tool for reducing the hostility elicited among organizational members in response to POP, and consequently, their engagement in CWB.

The current study uncovered the emotional mechanism that underlies the POP-CWB relationship. The findings have intriguing implications in terms of potential moderators that can be developed through interventions in an attempt to reduce the hostility and CWB that result from POP.

This chapter builds on previous research that conceptualized organizational politics as an organizational stressor. After reviewing the studies that integrated the occupational stress literature with the organizational politics literature, it discusses the negative implications of the use of intimidation and pressure by supervisors, implications that have generally been overlooked. Specifically, the chapter presents a conceptual model positing that the use of intimidation and pressure by supervisors creates stress in their subordinates. This stress, in turn, affects subordinates’ well-being, evident in higher levels of job dissatisfaction, job burnout, and turnover intentions. The stress also reduces the effectiveness of the organization, reflected in a high absenteeism rate, poorer task performance, and a decline in organizational citizenship behavior. The model also maintains that individual differences in emotional intelligence and political skill mitigate the stress experienced by subordinates, resulting from the use of intimidation and pressure by their supervisors. In acknowledging the destructive implications of such behavior in terms of employees’ well-being and the productivity of the organization, the chapter raises doubts about the wisdom of using it, and advises supervisors to rethink its use as a motivational tool. Implications of this chapter, as well as future research directions, are discussed.

The study examined the effects of two context variables, such as work experience and opponent's power on the styles of handling interpersonal conflict. 480 subjects were asked to consider a short critical incident describing an interpersonal conflict in an organization and to indicate their response to the situation in terms of the five conflict management styles: integrating, obliging, avoiding, dominating, and compromising. The results suggest that under the low‐power opponent condition there was a higher preference for dominating and a lower preference for avoiding, obliging, and integrating. Inexperienced subjects did not change their choice of using the different conflict management styles in view of their opponent's power. The results also showed significant interaction effects of the two independent variables. The implications for the study are discussed.

The effect of ambiguity is investigated with regard to the success of a venture on the initial choice of interpersonal conflict management strategy of the venture's initiator. In the experiments reported here, subjects were asked to imagine a hypothetical situation in which the decision‐maker, in a capacity as an organization member, seeks the use of an organizational resource in order to initiate the venture. The conflict arises as another member of the organization also lays claim to the same resource. Subjects, taking on the role of the decision‐maker, show more collaboration in managing the conflict when experts disagree about the probability of successful outcome of the venture. Similar inclinations are revealed when the possible long‐term adverse consequences of the conflict are made explicit. These findings support the interpretation of ambiguity effect in terms of increased loss aversion due to personal responsibility.

The purpose of this paper is to compare patterns of impression management in two organizational systems, namely, organic and mechanistic.

Qualitative data were gathered from 23 employees by means of in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews. In addition, questionnaires pertaining to the use of impression management strategies toward superiors and peers were given to 208 employees from military and R&D organizations.

The results suggest that employees in mechanistic systems engage more in impression management behavior and direct their efforts more often toward their superiors than toward their peers, most frequently by using the strategy of “Ingratiation”. On the other hand, employees in the organic system sample use impression management to a lesser extent, and they direct it more equally toward superiors and peers. Their predominant strategy is “Initiation.” These results are discussed in light of the differences in the norms and structural characteristics of the two organizational systems.

The mechanistic system was represented by a military organization and there is disproportionate representation of males in the survey sample.

The paper demonstrates the importance of the specific characteristics of an organizational system in shaping employees' impression management behavior.

Increasingly, groups external to educational systems are offering time, expertise and products, creating an intricate web of educational governance where entities outside of formal education contribute to state-funded education systems. While this involvement and its motivations have been considered in the literature, it has been less common to explore these interactions between school systems and outside organizations as they relate to the transition from the knowledge economy to the intelligent economy. Such research is important to understand the numerous inputs to education, which can then inform future decision-making. This study traces scripts around the commodification of knowledge, which connects education to individual employability or the economy and cyborg dialectic, or the mutual relationship between humans and technology. These scripts intersect to contribute to the perpetuation of data creation and usage as part of the educational intelligent economy. The scripts traced here originate from Battelle, a primarily a Ohio-based research and development organization, also focused on classroom teaching and learning, specifically in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. Mapping scripts related to the commodification of knowledge and the cyborg dialectic indicates promotion of the intelligent economy broadly and individually for Battelle itself across Ohio and beyond, through investments in educators, students and policy-makers but also Battelle’s potential employees and collaborators. This data-focus creates an educational intelligence not only in students, teachers and policy-makers but also in Battelle itself, legitimating it as an actor in education.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect authentic leadership (AL) has on professional identity (PI), ethical climate (EC) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and political behavior (PB) among elementary school principals in Israel.

Four hundred and ten elementary principals from various Israeli districts participated in the study. The research is based on principals' self-report questionnaires. The analysis focused on SEM using AMOS software.

Results indicated that AL fully mediates the relationships between PI and OCB and PB while partially mediates the relationships between EC and OCB and PB.

This study could contribute to the design of an integrative model not previously researched, while exploring relationships between behaviors perceived as mutually opposite. This study suggested that to increase OCB and decrease PB, authentic leadership among elementary school principals should be enhanced by educational leaders.

The new model is likely to help school principals to deal with political behaviors while fostering citizenship behaviors during their work. Educational leaders may design professional training for principals in order to encourage the development of the positive aspects of OCB and PB.