Perceived Organizational Support, its Behavioral and Attitudinal Work Outcomes: Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Politics

Received 07 Aug, 2015

Accepted 15 May, 2017

Published 31 Dec, 2017

This study aimed at exploring the moderating role of perceived organizational politics in the relationship of perceived organizational support with affective organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, in-role job performance, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, turnover intention, and job stress among university teachers of Pakistan. Sample of the study included 450 university teachers (278 males and 172 females) from four different geographic locations of Pakistan (Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Federal Capital). To assess the correlation between the study variables, Pearson Product Moment correlation was computed. Co-relational analysis showed that perceived organizational support was positively related to affective organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, in-role job performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and job satisfaction while, it was found to have negative relationship with perceived organizational politics, turnover intention, and job stress. Perceived organizational politics was found to have a positive relationship with turnover intention and job stress and negatively related to perceived organizational support, affective organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression showed that perceived organizational politics moderated the relationship of perceived organizational support with in-role job performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and job stress. Limitations of the study are also discussed.

Developing trend in research is looking at positive aspect of individual's capacities and abilities, instead of his/her negative side of the story. In organizational science, it is considered more important to add positive contribution to an employee's work life and to remove the barriers that hinder them to perform at their best. Keeping this positive approach in mind, this study aimed to explore the positive contribution of employee's perceived organizational support (POS) in his/her work attitudes and behaviors. The main focus of this study was to see how perceived organizational politics (POP) maligns the positive contribution of POS in individual's work life. During the last decade, POP has gained much attention in organizational research due to the fact that it negatively affects the behaviors and attitudes related to individual work like that ultimately affect their job performance. Consequently, the end loser is the organization, as organizational performance is based on how well its employees perform and contribute.

Successful organizations are those that give value to the contribution of their employees by giving them, both, tangible and intangible rewards. Such supportive measures definitely add positive contribution to their work related behaviors and attitudes that are desired for the organizational productivity and development. POS has been chosen to see how individuals reciprocate to supportive measures, taken by the organization, in terms of their affective organizational commitment (AC) and normative organizational commitment (NC), in-role job performance (IJP), organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), job satisfaction (JSAT), turnover intention (TOI), and job stress (JS).

For the purpose of investigating the relationship of aforementioned variables, sample of university teachers from different geographic regions of Pakistan was drawn because this sector is widely ignored in Pakistan with reference to organizational psychology's research. Secondly, this sector is also important as this enterprise is one of the basic social institutions of a society and its development plays a vital role in the development of the society. This research is likely to contribute to the improvement in organizational dynamics of this previously ignored area.

According to organizational support theory (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchinson, & Sowa, 1986), when employees' socio-emotional needs are met and organization shows willingness to reward employees' increased effort and also facilitates them to perform their job in a better way, employees develop POS. POS is based on Blau's (1964) social exchange theory in order to explain employee's relationship with the organization. This theory proposes that employees and the organization have mutual expectations and perceptions about each other. These mutual expectations and impressions require each party to provide its share of benefits to the other one. On the basis of this theoretical framework, POS encompass the degree of employee's perception and feeling that the organization is concerned in fairly treating and rewarding their input, in terms of their work, and it also includes their perception about the organization to the extent that it will help and facilitate them in fulfilling their job requirements in a better way (Aube, Rousseau, & Morin, 2007).

In the area of management and psychology, POS has appealed a great deal of researches (Allen, Armstrong, Reid, & Riemenschneider, 2008; Aube et al., 2007; Fuller, Barnett, Hester, & Relyea, 2003; Rhodes & Eisenberger, 2002; Stamper & Johlke, 2003). POS has been majorly defined as the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (Allen et al., 2008; Eisenberger et al., 1986). Employees put more effort in organizational goals and objective in reciprocation to their high level of POS, and it has a significant positive impact on certain behavioral and attitudinal outcomes like organizational commitment and job satisfaction (Aselage & Eisenberger, 2003; Aube et al., 2007; Rhodes & Eisenberger, 2002; Riggle, Edmondson & Hansen, 2009).

A meta-analysis conducted by Rhodes and Eisenberger (2002) showed that POS is positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement, in-role job performance, and organizational citizenship behavior; while, it is negatively related to stress, turnover intention, and absenteeism behaviors. There are researches that investigated the relationship of POS with dimensions of organizational commitment (affective and normative) inferred that higher POS contribute positively to employees' affective organizational commitment and normative organizational commitment (Aube et al., 2007; Riggle et al., 2009; Yoon & Thye, 2002).

Numerous studies found a positive relationship between POS and in-role job performance (Eisenberger, Armeli, Rexwinkel, Lynch, & Rhoades, 2001; Riggle et al., 2009). POS is found to have a positive effect on OCB in an Iranian study (Asgari, Silong, Ahmad, & Samah, 2008). Similarly, Wayne, Shore, Bommer and Tetrick (2002) also found that higher perception of organizational support will reinforce display of OCB. Miao (2011) also concluded that POS is positively related to IJP, OCB and JSAT. There are many other researchers who found a positive relationship between POS and JSAT (Rhodes & Eisenberger, 2002; Stamper & Johlke, 2003). There are also number of researches that have found a negative relationship of POS with turnover intention and job stress (Allen, Shore, & Griffeth, 2003; Okello-Ouni, 2004; Pathak, 2012).

POP has been considered as the employee’s subjective evaluation about the extent to which the work environment is characterized by co-workers and supervisors who demonstrate such self-serving behavior (Ferris, Harrell-Cook, & Dulebohn (2000). According to Ferris, Adams, Kolodinsky, Hochwarter, and Ammeter (2002), individuals engage in POP in order to secure their personal gains and to avoid any sort of negative outcomes in their organizational life. Ferris, Russ, and Fandt (1989) model is considered as a very valuable mean for studying how POP functions in the organizational environment. Several studies (Chang, Rozen, & Levy, 2009; Miller, Rutherford, & Kolodinsky, 2008; Vigoda, 2001) establish the negative impact of POP on certain work attitudes and behaviors like organizational commitment and job satisfaction and certain undesirable behavioral and attitudinal outcomes like job stress, job burnout, negligent behavior and turnover intention. Vigoda (2002) claimed that in all types of organizations and in their organizational cultures, POP is crucial and of prime importance. During the last few years, researchers have extensively studied POP and its detrimental effect that any organization can face (Bodla, Danish, & Nawaz, 2012; Chang et al., 2009; Vigoda & Drory, 2010) such as job satisfaction (Vigoda, 2006; Vigoda & Kapun, 2005). Vigoda (2002) conducted a research on the detrimental effects of POP across cultures and found that with higher POP, Israeli employees scored lower than their British counterparts on turnover intention.

From the perspective of social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) the relationship of POP and POS can be well explained. According to Kacmar and Baron (1999), when employees perceive their organization to be highly political, they develop a feeling that as their organization is not being supportive of its employees; therefore, people are engaged in political behavior to further extend and secure their personal interests and benefits. Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005) also proposed that according to social exchange theory, positive behavioral and attitudinal outcomes only occur when the quality of exchange is high. With low quality of exchange relationship between the employee and the organization, negative behavioral and attitudinal outcomes are developed.

Nature of this relationship between POS and POP has lead us to investigate the moderating effect of POP in the relationship of POS with AC, NC, IJP, OCB, JSAT, TOI and JS. It was assumed that POP would be detrimental for the relationship of POS with it positive outcomes. In the light of above mentioned literature, following hypotheses were proposed for this study;

Hypotheses

1.	The positive relationship of perceived organizational support with affective organizational commitment shall be moderated by perceived organizational politics such that it will weaken their relationship
2.	The positive relationship of perceived organizational support with normative organizational commitment shall be moderated by perceived organizational politics such that it will weaken their relationship
3.	The positive relationship of perceived organizational support with in-role job performance shall be moderated by perceived organizational politics such that it will weaken their relationship
4.	The positive relationship of perceived organizational support with organizational citizenship behaviour shall be moderated by perceived organizational politics such that it will weaken their relationship
5.	The positive relationship of perceived organizational support with job satisfaction shall be moderated by perceived organizational politics such that it will weaken their relationship
6.	The negative relationship of perceived organizational support with turnover intention shall be moderated by perceived organizational politics such that it will weaken their relationship
7.	The negative relationship of perceived organizational support with job stress shall be moderated by perceived organizational politics such that it will weaken their relationship

METHOD

Sample
The sample consisted of 450 teachers (278 males and 172 females) of public and private universities from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Sargodha, and Bahawalpur. Mean age of the sample was 35.84 years (SD = 8.82). Respondents of the study included 238 lecturers, 116 assistant professors, 43 associate professors, and 53 professors. One hundred and thirty four participants of the study held Master’s degree, 176 with M.Phil/MS, and 140 held PhD degrees.

Measures
Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (POPS). This scale comprised of 15-item developed by Kacmar and Carlson (1997) was utilized to assess perception of organizational politics of employees. A 5-point Likert type rating scale was used for scoring from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Items number 3, 4, 10, and 11 were reversed scored. The estimate for internal consistency of the scale was found to be .87 (Andrews & Kacmar, 2001).

Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS). Eisenberger et al.'s (1986) shortened version of SPOS was used to determine POS. It comprised of eight items and the scale was scored on a 7-point Likert type rating scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). Items number. 2, 3, 5, and 7 were reversed scored. The alpha reliability of this scale was found to be .90 (Eisenberger et al., 1997).

Transformational Leader Behavior Inventory. Multifactor Leadership Inventory by Bass and Avolio’s (1995) was used to assess employees' perception of transformational leadership. The scale comprised of 40 items where 20 items each, measure transactional leadership and transformational leadership. In the present study, 20 items measuring transformational leadership were selected from the scale. Items were rated on a 5-point scale that range from not at all (1) to always (5). The Cronbach alpha for this scale was found to be .89 (Bass & Avolio, 1995).

Job Satisfaction Survey. Pop-Vasileva, Baird and Blair's (2011) adapted version of Spector’s Job Satisfaction Survey was used to measure job satisfaction, that selected one item to represent each of its nine dimensions (promotion, communication, fringe benefits, supervision, operating conditions, the nature of the work, contingent rewards, co-workers, and pay). The responses were acquired on 5-point Likert type with response categories ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Cronbach alpha for this scale was found to be .74 (Pop-Vasileva et al., 2011).

Turnover Intentions Scale. Turnover intention was assessed by using Seashore, Lawler, Mirvis and Camman's (1982) three items' Turnover Scale. Seven-point Likert-type scale included responses categories that ranged from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (7). The coefficient alpha value for this instrument was .71 (Seashore et al., 1982).

Job Stress Scale. Parker and De Cotiis' (1983) 13 items Job Stress Scale was utilized to measure job stress. Responses were obtained on 5-point Likert-type ranging from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). The Cronbach alpha reliability for this scale was found to be .85 (Jamal & Baba, 2000).

Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale. Lee and Allen's (2002) Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale, comprising of 16-items, was used to measure OCB. This scale measures OCB's both dimensions (OCBI and OCBO) and uses a 5-point Likert-type scale that range from never (1) to always (5). Lee and Allen (2002) reported the reliabilities of .83 for OCBI and .88 for OCBO. Farh, Zhong, and Organ (2004) summed the 16 items of the OCB Scale to form a combine score for the construct of OCB. The coefficient alpha for the composite OCB scale was found to be .89 (Farh et al., 2004).

Organizational Commitment Scale. Affective and normative organizational commitment was assessed by Meyer, Allen, and Smith's (1993) shortened version of Organizational Commitment Scale. This scale has three subscales that is, Affective Commitment, Normative Commitment, and Continuance Commitment. It consists of 18 items (6 items for each subscale) and measured on 5-point Likert scale with response options ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The subscale of affective commitment and normative commitment were used for this study. The alpha reliabilities of .87 and .75, respectively, were obtained for the two subscales (Allen & Meyer, 1990).

Procedure
With the permission from the relevant administrative authorities, research questionnaires were distributed among 750 full time faculty members from different universities of Pakistan. Out of these 750 distributed questionnaires, 523 questionnaires were returned and only 450 questionnaires were found acceptable out of those 523 questionnaires. Participants of the study were assured about the confidentiality of the information they provide. Written as well as oral instructions were provided to the participants when needed.

RESULTS

The moderating effect of POP was computed through hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Furthermore, before computing the moderating effect of POP, correlational analysis was conducted through Pearson Product Moment correlation to see the direction of simple relationship between all the study variables. Alpha reliability coefficients of all the variables were also computed.

Table 1:	Reliabilities and Inter Scale Correlations among Study Variables (N = 450)
Note. POP = Perceived organizational politics, POS = Perceived organizational support AC = Affective organizational commitment, NC = Normative organizational commitment IJP-S = In-role job performance, OCB = Organizational citizenship behavior JSAT = Job satisfaction, TOI = Turnover Intention, JS = Job stressp *p< .05. **p< .001

Results in Table 1 shows that perceived organizational politics is positively related to turnover intention and job stress while it was found to have negative relationship with perceived organizational support, affective organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Its relationship with normative organizational commitment, in-role job performance and organizational citizenship was found to be non-significant. Perceived organizational support was found to be positively related with affective and normative organizational commitment, in-role job performance, organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction while it was found to have negative relationship with perceived organizational politics, turnover intention and job stress. The Table also shows that all the scales fall into an acceptable range of reliability except job satisfaction.

Table 2 suggested that perceived organizational support predicted affective organizational commitment in positive direction explaining about 9% variance in it. Organizational politics did predict affective organizational commitment of university teachers in negative direction by explaining 2% variance in it. In third step, the interaction term of organizational politics and perceived organizational support was not found significant and did not add any unique variance in the prediction of affective organizational commitment. Overall, organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and their interaction explained 11% variance affective organizational commitment.

Table 2:	Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting Affective Organizational Commitment from Perceived Organizational Politics and Perceived Organizational Support (N = 450)
Note. POP = Perceived Organizational Politics, POS = Perceived Organizational Support ***p < .001

Table 3 suggested that perceived organizational support predicted normative organizational commitment in positive direction explaining about 3% variance in it.

Table 3:	Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting Normative Organizational Commitment from Perceived Organizational Politics and Perceived Organizational Support (N = 450)
Note. POP = Perceived Organizational Politics, POS = Perceived Organizational Support **p < .01. ***p < .001

Table 3 further showed that neither organizational politics nor the interaction term of organizational politics and perceived organizational support was found to be significant and did not add any unique variance in the prediction of normative organizational commitment. Overall, organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and their interaction explained 3% variance normative organizational commitment.

Table 4:	Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting In-Role Job Performance from Perceived Organizational Politics and Perceived Organizational Support (N = 450)
Note. POP = Perceived Organizational Politics, POS = Perceived Organizational Support **p < .01. ***p < .001

Table 4 suggested that perceived organizational support predicted in-role job performance in positive direction explaining about 9% variance in it. Organizational politics did predict in-role job performance of university teachers in positive direction by explaining 1% variance in it. In third step, the interaction term of organizational politics and perceived organizational support was found significant and did add a unique variance of 5% in the prediction of in-role job performance. Overall, organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and their interaction explained 14% variance in in-role job performance.

Fig. 1: Moderating Affect of Perceived Organizational Politics between Perceived Organizational Support and In-Role Job Performance

Figure 1 shows that perceived organizational politics has moderated the relationship of perceived organizational support and in-role job performance of university teachers such that it has decreased their in-role job performance. When the level of perceived organizational politics is low, in-role job performance is high with high perceived organizational support. On the other hand, when the level of perceived organizational politics is high, in-role job performance is even decreased even with high perceived organizational support.

Table 5:	Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting Organizational Citizenship Behavior from Perceived Organizational Politics and Perceived Organizational Support (N = 450)
Note. POP = Perceived Organizational Politics, POS = Perceived Organizational Support *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001

Table 5 suggested that perceived organizational support predicted organizational citizenship behavior in positive direction explaining about 3% variance in it. Organizational politics did predict organizational citizenship behavior of university teachers in positive direction by explaining 1% variance in it. In third step, the interaction term of organizational politics and perceived organizational support was found significant and did add a unique variance of 2% in the prediction of organizational citizenship behavior. Overall, organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and their interaction explained 14% variance organizational citizenship behavior.

Fig. 2: Moderating effect of Perceived Organizational Politics between Perceived Organizational Support and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Figure 2 shows that perceived organizational politics has moderated the relationship of perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship behavior of university teachers such that it has decreased their organizational citizenship behavior. When the level of perceived organizational politics is low, organizational citizenship behavior is high with high perceived organizational support. On the other hand, when the level of perceived organizational politics is high, organizational citizenship behavior is decreased even with high perceived organizational support.

Table 6:	Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting Job Satisfaction from Perceived Organizational Politics and Perceived Organizational Support (N = 450)
Note. POP = Perceived Organizational Politics, POS = Perceived Organizational Support ***p < .001

Table 6 suggested that perceived organizational support predicted job satisfaction in positive direction explaining about 34% variance in it. Organizational politics did predict job satisfaction of university teachers in positive direction by explaining 5% variance in it. In third step, the interaction term of organizational politics and perceived organizational support was not found significant and did not add any unique variance in the prediction of job satisfaction. Overall, organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and their interaction explained 39% variance organizational citizenship behavior.

Table 7 suggested that perceived organizational support predicted turnover intention in positive direction explaining about 8% variance in it. Organizational politics did predict turnover intention of university teachers in positive direction by explaining 1% variance in it. In third step, the interaction term of organizational politics and perceived organizational support was not found significant and did not add any unique variance in the prediction of turnover intention. Overall, organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and their interaction explained 9% variance turnover intention.

Table 7:	Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting Turnover Intention from Perceived Organizational Politics and Perceived Organizational Support (N = 450)
Note. POP = Perceived Organizational Politics, POS = Perceived Organizational Support *p < .05. ***p < .001

Table 8 suggested that perceived organizational support predicted job stress in positive direction explaining about 11% variance in it.

Table 8:	Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting Job Stress from Perceived Organizational Politics and Perceived Organizational Support (N = 450)
Note. POP = Perceived Organizational Politics, POS = Perceived Organizational Support **p < .01. ***p < .001

Organizational politics did predict job stress of university teachers in positive direction by explaining 2% variance in it. In third step, the interaction term of organizational politics and perceived organizational support was found significant and did add a unique variance of 1% in the prediction of job stress. Overall, organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and their interaction explained 14% variance job stress.

Fig. 3: Moderating effect of Perceived Organizational Politics between Perceived Organizational Support and Job Stress

Figure 3 shows that perceived organizational politics has moderated the relationship of perceived organizational support and job stress of university teachers such that it has decreased their job stress. When the level of perceived organizational politics is low, job stress is also low with high perceived organizational support. On the other hand, when the level of perceived organizational politics is high, job stress is increased even with high perceived organizational support.

DISCUSSION

This study was conducted on a sample of 450 university teachers from different geographical regions of Pakistan, including universities from Islamabad (capital), Punjab, Sindh, and Baluchistan provinces. All the scales, used in the study, showed acceptable levels of reliability, except job satisfaction scale whose reliability was found to be .62. The reason for this low level of reliability could be attributed to the factor that the original scale developed to measure job satisfaction by Spector (1985) was comprised of 36 items measuring 9 facets of job satisfaction and each facet included 4 items. While in this study, the shortened version of job satisfaction scale adapted by Pop-Vasileva et al. (2011) was used that contained 9 items in which one item was extracted from each facet of Spector's (1985) original scale. It could not have been possible to have a consistent pattern of responses on all the nine items, as each item was representing one construct and respondent might have agreement with one item and disagreement with the other item representing a construct, resulting into inconsistency between different constructs of job satisfaction. This might be the reason for lower reliability of the scale. To resolve this problem of lower alpha reliability, 34 respondents of the main study were given the same questionnaire again to fill, in order to calculate its test-retest reliability, and that was found to be .73.

The first hypothesis of the study proposed that the positive relationship of POS with AC shall be moderated by POP such that it will weaken their relationship. Results from table 2 shows that POP did not moderate the relationship of POS with AC. Similarly, the second hypothesis of the study proposed that the positive relationship of POS with AC shall be moderated by POP such that it will weaken their relationship. Results from table 3 shows that POP did not moderate the relationship of POS with NC as well. Thus, data did not support our hypotheses one and two.

Third hypothesis of this study proposed that the positive relationship of POS with IJP shall be moderated by POP such that it will weaken their relationship. Results from table 4 shows that POP moderated the relationship of POS with IJP such that with lower level of POP and higher level of POS, employees showed higher in-role job performance. But with higher level of POP, employees' in-role job performance decreased despite their higher level of POS. Similarly, Fourth hypothesis of this study proposed that the positive relationship of POS with OCB shall be moderated by POP such that it will weaken their relationship. Results from table 5 shows that POP moderated the relationship of POS with OCB such that with lower level of POP and higher level of POS, employees showed higher OCB. But with higher level of POP, employees' OCB decreased despite their higher level of POS. Thus, our third and fourth hypotheses were supported by the data.

Fifth hypothesis of this study proposed that the positive relationship of POS with JSAT shall be moderated by POP such that it will weaken their relationship. Results from table 6 shows that POP did not moderate the relationship of POS with JSAT. Similarly, data also did not provide support to our sixth hypothesis, stating that negative relationship of POS with TOI shall be moderated by POP such that it will weaken their relationship. Moreover, seventh hypothesis of this study proposed that the negative relationship of POS with JS shall be moderated by POP such that it will weaken their relationship. Results from table 8 shows that POP moderated the relationship of POS with JS such that with lower level of POP and higher level of POS, employees showed lower JS. But with higher level of POP, employees' JS increased despite their higher level of POS. Thus, our seventh hypothesis was supported by the data.

It is also interesting to note that POP has moderated only to the relationship of POS with behavioral work outcomes (IJP, OCB and JS) and did not moderate the relationship of POS with attitudinal work outcomes (AC, NC, JSAT and TOI). The reason for the relationship of POS with AC, NC, JSAT and TOI being unaffected by POP could be attributed to the fact that, as mentioned earlier, according to social exchange perspective (Blau, 1964), employees get emotionally attached to the organization and also develop sense of moral obligation to reciprocate positively to the organization. In such state of affair, they feel unaffected by POP due their higher level of POS. Similarly, when employees receive higher job satisfaction due to organization's concern for their wellbeing and benefit, they show no concern to POP, whether it exists or not. Similarly, when employees feel more committed to their organization, their level of satisfaction in job is also high and they are performing better in exchange to their higher POS, their turnover intention is already low. In such state of affairs, POP becomes irrelevant for employees to increase their turnover intention.

One of the most basic characteristic of Emerson's theory (1972) is his recognition of power balancing operations. He defined exchange relations as unbalanced where power is not equally distributed between the exchange partners. Exchange relations face strain due to this imbalance in power distribution and create drive for structural change. According to Emerson, (as cited in Cook, Cheshire, & Gerbasi, 2006), to stabilize the relationships, the less powerful person can reduce the value of the resources and withdraw from the exchange relation. This can be the reason that employees respond negatively in their behaviors to the perception of organizational politics in their work environment. Their job stress is increased, in-role job performance and organizational citizenship behavior is decreased as an outcomes of increased perception of politics.

LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

There may be certain issues that contribute to the weaknesses of the study. Some of those weaknesses are mentioned below. Instead of using multiple sources of data collection, this study used only self-report method. The problem of individual's subjectivity is always inclusive of self-report measures. This perceptual nature of data collection may face the issue of inflated responses from the participant. To overcome this weakness, future researches should include more than one sources for data collection. As the data was collected through purposive convenient sampling, the participants who volunteered to participate into this research do not represent to that segment of the population that did not show their consent to participate into the research or who were not included into the sample purposefully. This may raise the issue of generalizability of the findings of this research to the whole population. The sample of the study included teachers from the major cities of Pakistan. The organizational cultures as well work environments differ in developed urban societies from the under-developed rural areas. To overcome this weakness, future researches should include teachers from under-developed areas of the country as well, so that the heterogeneity of the sample can be ensured. Future researches should also include some important demographic variables like age, educational level, job experience, marital status and level of income as these variables have vital role in determining POP, POS, AC, NC, IJP, OCB, JSAT, TOI, and JS.

IMPLICATIONS

The current study shall provide an insight into understanding the dynamics of perceived organizational politics in organizational settings. Findings of this study provide an opportunity for the future researchers to explore the reasons for the moderating role of perceived organizational role in the relationship of perceived organizational support with behavioral and attitudinal job outcomes. This study also suggests organizations and their management teams to be cautious about the deleterious role of perceived organizational politics in employees’ behavioral work outcomes. Organizations should ensure fairness and justice in reward allocation and resource allocation to decrease employees’ perception of organizational politics. If organizations ignore the implications of unfair and unjust work environment, employees’ decreased performance will ultimately affect organizational productivity.

CONCLUSION

This study showed that POP only moderated the relationship of POS with IJP, OCB and JS. POP was not found to be moderating the relationship of POS with AC, NC, JSAT and TOI. POS showed a positive relationship with AC, NC, IJP, OCB and JSAT. While it showed a negative relationship of POS with POP, TOI and JS. POP shoed a positive relationship with TOI and JS while its relationship with POS, AC and JSAT was found negative. Research data supported our hypotheses 3,4 and 7 while data did not provide support to our hypotheses 1, 2, 5 and 6.

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