Overcoming organizational politics with tenacity and passion for work: benefits for helping behaviors

Abstract

Purpose

This study unpacks the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational politics and their helping behavior, by explicating a mediating role of employees' affective commitment and moderating roles of their tenacity and passion for work.

Design/methodology/approach

Quantitative survey data were collected from 476 employees, through Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Findings

Beliefs that the organizational climate is predicated on self-serving behaviors diminish helping behaviors, and this effect arises because employees become less emotionally attached to their organization. This mediating role of affective commitment is less salient to the extent that employees persevere in the face of challenges and feel passionate about working hard.

Practical implications

For human resource managers, this study pinpoints a lack of positive organization-oriented energy as a key mechanism by which perceptions about a negative political climate steer employees away from assisting organizational colleagues on a voluntary basis. They can contain this mechanism by ensuring that employees are equipped with energy-boosting personal resources.

Originality/value

This study addresses employees' highly salient emotional reactions to organizational politics and pinpoints the critical function of affective commitment for explaining the escalation of perceived organizational politics into diminished helping behavior. It also identifies buffering effects linked to two pertinent personal resources.

Citation

De Clercq, D., Shu, C. and Gu, M. (2023), "Overcoming organizational politics with tenacity and passion for work: benefits for helping behaviors", Personnel Review, Vol. 52 No. 1, pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2020-0699