See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/235292434

Organizational politics on employee performance: An exploratory study on readymade

garments employees in Bangladesh

Article in Business Strategy Series · April 2011

DOI: 10.1108/17515631111130112

CITATIONS READS
31 4,452

3 authors, including:

Ahasanul Haque
International Islamic University Malaysia
238 PUBLICATIONS 3,480 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Ahasanul Haque on 04 June 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Business Strategy Series
Organizational politics on employee performance: an exploratory study on readymade garments employees in
Bangladesh
Sabbir Rahman Bashir Hussain Ahasanul Haque
Article information:
To cite this document:
Sabbir Rahman Bashir Hussain Ahasanul Haque, (2011),"Organizational politics on employee performance: an exploratory study on
readymade garments employees in Bangladesh", Business Strategy Series, Vol. 12 Iss 3 pp. 146 - 155
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17515631111130112
Downloaded on: 13 April 2016, At: 21:20 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 32 other documents.
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 3264 times since 2011*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

(2014),"Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance", International Journal of Productivity and
Performance Management, Vol. 63 Iss 3 pp. 308-323 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-01-2013-0008
(2002),"What makes contact employees perform? Reactions to employee perceptions of managerial practices", International Journal of
Bank Marketing, Vol. 20 Iss 7 pp. 325-332 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02652320210451223
(2013),"Employee performance evaluation: a fuzzy approach", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 62
Iss 7 pp. 718-734 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-01-2013-0013

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:316947 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about
how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/
authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than
290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional
customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and
also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

 Organizational politics on employee
performance: an exploratory study on
readymade garments employees in
Bangladesh
Sabbir Rahman, Bashir Hussain and Ahasanul Haque
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)
Sabbir Rahman is a
Graduate Research
Student, Department of
Business Administration,
International Islamic
University, Malaysia, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
Bashir Hussain is based in
the Department of Business
Administration at North
South University, Dhaka,
Bangladesh.
Ahasanul Haque is based in
the Department of Business
Administration,
International Islamic
University, Malaysia, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
PAGE 146 j BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES
Introduction
At present the concepts of organizational politics, employees’ commitment and
performance under the perspective of Bangladeshi readymade garments employees is
lacking. Not only that organization need empirical data of this phenomena but also they need
to understand how to integrate these concepts into managing the employees so that the
organizations would be able to introduce management intervention in concert with the
business objectives. This knowledge gap is where the present study wishes to contribute.
This study examines the effect of employee’s politics, employee’s commitment and
performance across various readymade garments companies in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Employees’ performance is pivotal for most of the firms, but it has received very little
attention from researchers under the perspective of organizational politics, employees’
commitment and job satisfaction. The current study utilized in-depth literature research to
explore relationships in order to develop a conceptual framework.
Work place politics and job satisfaction
Marques (2010) contended that success should be synonymous with happiness rather than
with affluence, while the real definition of human progress entails something that our
civilization radically defies: acceptance of our legitimate place as members of a community
that consists of human beings, as well as species different from – yet not inferior to – the
human. Salimäki and Jämsén (2010) found that perceptions of politics and fairness
distinctively and interactively predicted whether the pay system was perceived as effective
in achieving its objectives. The results of them also suggested that some forms of politics in
performance appraisals (e.g. compression) might be perceived less detrimental than others
(e.g. favoritism).
In a highly political environment, the pay system effectiveness varied as a function of the
level of distributive justice. Voice in the pay system development only mattered in a situation
where there was a low level of organizational politics as demonstrated in Karadal and Arasli
(2009) where data collected were from 4- and 5-star hotels in Northern Cyprus. The research
hypotheses were tested using LISREL 8.54 through path analysis. The model test results
indicated that scarce resources are a significant determinant of superior politics. In addition,
path analysis results showed that superior politics and scarce resources have a significant
negative association with subordinate performance. The model test findings also
demonstrated that superior politics and scarce resources are negatively associated with
job satisfaction.
j VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011, pp. 146-155, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1751-5637 DOI 10.1108/17515631111130112
 Work place politics and employees commitment
Vigoda-Gadot and Meisler (2010) supported a moderating role of emotional intelligence in
the relationship between organizational politics and emotional commitment, as well as
between organizational politics and employees’ absenteeism. Kacmar et al. (2009) used
trait activation theory as a framework, the researchers examined the moderating role of two
situational variables-perceptions of organizational politics and perceptions of leader
effectiveness-on the relationship between core self-evaluations and job performance.
Results from two samples (n ¼ 137 and n ¼ 226) indicated that employee perceptions of
their work environment moderated the relationship between their core self-evaluations and
supervisor ratings of their performance. Hallin et al. (2009) results indicated that there were
no significant differences in the accuracy of executives (as experts) and frontline employees
(as novices). Although executives demonstrate overconfidence in their judgments and
frontline employees demonstrate under confidence, in line with earlier CA (confidence and
accuracy) theory of experts and novices, the differences we find are not significant. Similarly,
the CA (confidence and accuracy) calibration performance difference between the two
groups was not significant. They also suggested that their findings differ from earlier CA
studies because of organizational politics and culture by power distance, social capital,
misuse of knowledge and the size of the business.
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

Chang et al. (2009) tested a model that links perceptions of organizational politics to job
performance and ‘‘turnover intentions’’ (intentions to quit). Meta-analytic evidence
supported significant, bivariate relationships between perceived politics and strain (0.48),
turnover intentions (0.43), job satisfaction (2 0.57), affective commitment (20.54), task
performance (20.20), and organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals (2 0.16)
and organizations (20.20). Additionally, results demonstrated that work attitudes mediated
the effects of perceived politics on employee turnover intentions and that both attitudes and
strain mediated the effects of perceived politics on performance. Finally, from their findings
exploratory analyses provided evidence that perceived politics represent a unique
hindrance stressor.
Rosen et al. (2009) examined the role of emotions in mediating the effects of perceived
politics on adverse employee outcomes. The researchers proposed that frustration
translates employees’ perceptions of politics into lower levels of performance and increased
organizational withdrawal (i.e. turnover intentions) through a meditational path that involves
job satisfaction. In particular, there was evidence that frustration and job satisfaction
mediated the effects of politics perceptions on employee behavioral outcomes. Davey
(2008) organizational politics is implicated in all levels of organizational functioning, from
power structures and informal interaction to individual identity. This study argued that
organizational politics provides an approach to examining professional women’s
experiences of organizations as gendered. Women graduates in male-dominated
organizations claimed not to be limited by explicit discrimination, but they construct
organizational politics as being masculine in character and as a barrier to their careers.
Chen and Fang (2008) investigated the complexities in the relationship between perceptions
of organizational politics and performance ratings by examining the moderating effect of
impression management on that relationship. Expectancy theory was employed to better
understand the moderating effect. They proposed that two kinds of impression management
tactics occurred: supervisor-focused and job-focused, respectively. Hierarchical moderated
regression analysis of data revealed that the job-focused tactics exerted a significant
moderating effect on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and
performance ratings. When perceptions of organizational politics are low, employees who
engage in high levels of job-focused impression management tactics are more likely to gain
better ratings than those who employ low-level tactics (Chen and Fang, 2008).
Miller et al. (2008) applied meta-analysis on 79 independent samples from 59 published and
unpublished studies involving 25,059 individual participants. Results indicated strong
negative relationships between Perceptions of organizational politics (POP) and job
satisfaction and between POP and organizational commitment, moderately positive
relationships between POP and the outcomes of job stress and turnover intentions, and a

j j
VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES PAGE 147
 non-significant relationship between POP and in-role job performance. Moderator tests
show that age, work setting (i.e. public sector or private sector), and cultural differences (i.e.
domestic sample or international sample), have contingent effects on certain POP
relationships.
Vigoda-Gadot (2007) supports the mediating effect of organizational politics on the
relationship between leadership, in-role performance and organizational citizenship
behavior (OCB). A direct relationship between leadership and performance (in-role and
OCB) was also found. Al-Alawi et al. (2007) found that trust, communication, information
systems, rewards and organization structure were positively related to knowledge sharing in
organizations. The authors believe that further research is required to address governmental
sector institutions, where organizational politics dominate a role in hoarding knowledge,
through such methods as case studies and observation. Conner (2006) examined
human-resource professionals’ occupation-related and general work experience,
socialization from participation in professional activities, organizational size, and
perceived independence as predictors of perceptions of organizational politics. It was
most notable that work experience appeared to have an inverse relationship with POPS
among human-resource professionals in the area of pay and promotions. The author
discussed results in relation to the implications and directions for future research. Rosen
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

et al. (2006) proposed a model suggesting that organizational environments supporting high
levels of informal supervisor and co-worker feedback are associated with lower employee
perceptions of organizational politics. Findings suggested that when employees have
greater access to information regarding behaviors that are acceptable and desired at work,
perceptions of politics are reduced and work outcomes are enhanced. Byrne (2005)
responses from 150 employees revealed that procedural justice reduced the negative
effects of perceptions of covert, self-serving political behaviors (e.g. going along with
others), but not overt political behaviors (e.g. tearing others down to build up self) on
turnover intentions. Both procedural and interactional justice moderated effects of covert,
but not overt political behaviors, on OCB beneficial to the organization; however, the
interaction between interactional justice and covert behaviors was in the opposite direction
than hypothesized. Neither interactional nor procedural justice moderated the two forms of
perceptions of politics on supervisory rated job performance or OCB beneficial to
supervisors. Treadway et al. (2005) examined the interaction of organizational politics
perceptions and employee age on job performance in three studies. On the basis of
conservation of resources theory, the authors predicted that perceptions of politics would
demonstrate their most detrimental effects on job performance for older workers. Results
across the three studies provided strong support for the hypothesis that increases in politics
perceptions are associated with decreases in job performance for older employees and that
perceptions of politics do not affect younger employees’ performance.
Bozionelos (2005) concluded that there is a need for systematic investigation to establish the
prevalence of the phenomenon, develop taxonomies, and examine its relationship with
variables and outcomes of importance to organizations. Nurse (2005) results confirmed the
hypothesis that workers who believed that performers were not treated fairly as a result of
performance appraisal would also agree that their expectations regarding development and
advancement were not being met. We found significant, but relatively moderate
relationships between perceptions about treatment of performers and their expectations
about career advancement. Zivnuska et al. (2004) results indicated that the interaction of
organizational politics and impression management explained a significant incremental
amount of variance in supervisor ratings of employee performance. These findings
demonstrated that the extent to which an individual engaged in impression management in a
non-political atmosphere may have been a key component to receiving favorable
performance ratings. Poon (2004) examined the effects of employees’ perceptions of
political motives in performance appraisal on their job satisfaction and intention to quit using
survey data from an occupationally heterogeneous sample of white-collar employees
(n ¼ 127) from various organizations. Regression analysis results indicated that when
employees perceived performance ratings to be manipulated because of raters’ personal
bias and intent to punish subordinates, they expressed reduced job satisfaction that, in turn,

j j
PAGE 148 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011
 led to greater intentions to quit their jobs. Witt et al. (2002) explored the process of evaluating
contextual performance in the context of a politically charged atmosphere. Results indicated
that the interaction of politics and the personality dimension of agreeableness explained a
significant incremental amount of variance in the interpersonal facilitation facet of contextual
performance. Randall et al. (1999) investigated the relationship of organizational politics and
organizational support to various work attitudes and behaviors among a field sample of 128
participants. Consistent with our hypothesis, politics and support were related to job
satisfaction, commitment, turnover intentions, and supervisor ratings of organizational
citizenship behaviors. However, only support was related to job performance. Fit indices
obtained from confirmatory factor analysis suggested that it is more parsimonious to treat
politics and support as opposite ends of the same construct, though the two-factor model
did show a slightly better fit.
Based on literature review; this study concentrates on conceptual framework of
organizational politics and employees’ performances. This framework emphasizes
organizational politics, employees’ commitment and employees’ performance. In this
framework we incorporated employees’ commitment as a mediating variable between
organizational politics and employees’ performance. However, this study hypothesized that
variations in the levels of the independent variable (organizational politics) significantly
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

account for variations in the presumed mediator (employees’ commitment) also variations in
the mediator significantly account for variations in the dependent variable (employees’
performance). A depiction of the framework is given in Figure 1.
Following hypothesis proposed for further statistical test:
H1. The higher the organizational politics the lower the employee’s performances.
H2. Organizational politics have significant influence on employees’ commitment.
H3. Employees’ commitment affect positively towards employees’ performances.

Methodology
Given that the major purpose of the study was to learn about the organizational politics and
employees’ performances, a self-structured questionnaire was developed to collect the
required primary data from the various lower and middle level employees’ of garment
manufacturing companies in Dhaka city. The survey questionnaire was composed of three
distinct sections, each section contained relevant questions pertaining to different parts of
the study. Questionnaires were systematically distributed utilizing a convenient sampling
method. The sampling frame for conducting the principal component analysis was
comprised with 250 workers. A seven-point scale was used ranging from ‘‘strongly
disagree’’ to ‘‘strongly agree’’ was used. A total of 300 samples were distributed among the
potential respondents for the study, of which 275 questionnaires were received. After the
screening process was completed, only 250 responses were considered complete and valid
for data analysis. This represented a rate of 83.33 percent, which was considered to be
sufficient given the time, cost, certainty and geographical constraints.

Figure 1 Theoretical framework for the proposed study

j j
VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES PAGE 149
 The first stage of the data analysis conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify
the factor structure for measuring the factor that affected organizational politics and
employees’ performances. The second part of the data analysis was employed with
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm the factor structure for measuring
organizational politics and employees’ performances.
Hence in this study structural equation models were used and deemed to be appropriate
because of the multiple dependence relationships in the hypothesized model. Structural
equation modeling (SEM) was considered to be an appropriate data analysis technique for
this study of multiple dependent relationships proposed in the models of factor influencing
Malay Muslim consumers’ to purchase foreign goods under the umbrella of religiosity and
ethnocentrism perspectives.
However, SEM provides a method of testing hypotheses about relationships among latent
and observed variables by estimating a set of separate multiple regression equations
simultaneously (Hair et al., 1998; Hoyle, 1995). Structural equation modeling draws together
elements of path analysis and factor analysis and is more powerful tool than other
multivariate techniques that are capable of examining only single relationships at one time
(Bollen, 1989; Hair et al., 1998).
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

SEM is an analytical tool used in a wide array of disciplines and has been used routinely by
marketing researchers over the last 20 years (Baumgartner and Homburg, 1996; Tabachnick
and Fidell, 2001). Furthermore, SEM determines how much variance in the dependent
variables of a model is accounted for by the independent variables, and how reliable is each
of the measured variables based on relative, makes comparisons among alternative models
and evaluates differences between groups (Hair et al., 1998). In testing H1-H3, the third part
of the data analysis identified the structural relationships between the organizational politics
and employees’ performances. In order to test the fitness level of the model, the
goodness-of-fit measures was included in the analysis.

Data analysis
Reliability coefficient of all the items in the instruments
In order to measure the reliability for a set of two or more constructs, in this study we used
Cronbach alpha which is a commonly used method where alpha coefficient values range
between 0 and 1 with higher values indicating higher reliability among the indicators (Hair
et al., 1992) as depicted in Table I.

Factor analysis
The results obtained from 250 respondents were analyzed and the results are explained in
this section. Applying SPSS, the principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out to
explore the underlying factors associated with 14 items. The construct validity was tested
through Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity and The Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Measure of sampling
adequacy. The Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin measures of sampling adequacy (KMO) were first
computed to determine the suitability of using factor analysis. The value of KMO varies from
0 to 1, and KMO overall should be 0.60 or higher to perform factor analysis. Result for the
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity and the KMO revealed from this study indicated that both were
highly significant and thus concluded that this variable was suitable for factor analysis
(Table II).
For this study, the general criteria were accepted items with a loading of 0.40 or greater. The
result showed that total variance explained by the two factors was 62.040 percent. The

Table I Reliability analysis for all variables

Cronbach’s alpha Cronbach’s alpha based on standardized items Number of items

0.902 0.903 18

j j
PAGE 150 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011
 Table II KMO and Bartlett’s Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.815
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 964.684
Df 95
Sig. 0.000

values of Table III indicate the affiliation of the items to a factor. Generally, the factor is the
natural affinity of an item for a group. The higher loading (factor) indicates the stronger
affiliation of an item to a specific factor. The findings of this study indicate that each of the two
dimensions (organizational politics, employees’ commitment) was homogeneously loaded
to the different factors.

Reliability test of each item under each factor after factor analysis
Reliability is the degree to which the observed variable measures the ‘‘true’’ value and is
‘‘error free’’; thus, it is the opposite of measurement error. If the same measure is asked
repeatedly, for example, more reliable measures will show greater consistency than less
reliable measures (Hair et al., 2006). The coefficient alpha estimates for the multi-item
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

scales used in this study are presented in Table IV. Reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s
Alpha) were computed for the items that formed each factor. The reliability coefficients for
the two factors: organizational politics (Practice of fairness irrespective of male and female
– o1; Supervisor’s politics affect performance appraisals – o2; Practice of favoritism – o3;
Distributive justice – o4) and employees’ commitment (Self-evaluations – c1; Turnover
intentions – c2; Job satisfaction – c3; Organizational citizenship behaviors – c4) were
0.879, 0.848 respectively. As depicted on the table, all alpha coefficients for the data
exceed the minimum standard for reliability of 0.70 recommended by Nunnally (1978) for
basic research. Thus, the results indicate that these multiple measures are highly reliable
for measuring each construct.

Statistical significance of parameter estimates

In this stage this study utilized critical ratio (CR), which represents the parameter estimate
divided by its standard error, as such, it operates as a z-statistic in testing that the estimate is
statistically different from zero. Based on a probability level 0.05, then, the test statistic
needs to be . ^1.96 before the hypothesis (that estimates equals 0.0) can be rejected.

Table III Factor loading matrices following rotation of two-factor solutions

Organizational politics Employees’ commitment
Items (F1) (F2)

Practice of fairness irrespective of male and female (o1) 0.662

Supervisor’s politics affect performance appraisals (o2) 0.694
Practice of favoritism (o3) 0.521
Distributive justice (o4) 0.760
Self-evaluations (c1) 0.651
Turnover intentions (c2) 0.531
Job satisfaction (c3) 0.685
Organizational citizenship behaviors (c4) 0.567

Notes: Extraction method: principal component analysis; Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization; Rotation converged in five
iterations

Table IV The reliability coefficients for derived factors

Factor Number of cases Number of items Cronbach’s alpha

Organizational politics 250 4 0.779

Employees’ commitment 250 4 0.858

j j
VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES PAGE 151
 Non-significant parameters, with the exception of error variances, can be considered
unimportant to the model; in the interest of scientific parsimony, albeit given an adequate
sample size, they should be deleted from the model. On the other hand, it is important to note
that non-significant parameters can be indicative of a sample size that is too small (Byrne,
2001).

Hypotheses testing
The structural equation model was examined to test the relationship among constructs.
Goodness-of-fit indicates for this model were chi-square/df ¼ ð161:959=51Þ ¼ 3:17,
GFI ¼ 0:939, AGFI ¼ 0:907, CFI ¼ 0:904, NFI ¼ 0:868, RMSEA ¼ 0:06. Figure 2 depicts
the full model. Of the three paths hypothesized in the model, all the paths were not significant
at p , 0:05. (H1) The higher the organizational politics in the work environment the lower the
employee’s performance. Therefore the null hypotheses H1 is rejected at 0.5 level of
significance p . 0:000. Regarding the H2: Organizational politics have significant influence
on employees’ commitment. Therefore, this null hypothesis is accepted at p , 0:000. Lastly,
H3: Employees’ commitment positively affect employees’ performance, thus, this null
hypothesis is accepted at p , 0:000. Among all the significant variables, from the result,
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

organizational politics is the most significant factor that affect employees’ commitment
among garment industry employees (see Table V).

Figure 2 Organizational politics and employees’ performances (for total sample): default
model

0.66 0.45 0.71 0.74

0.62 1.01 0.50 0.61
e1 e2 e3 e4
e5 e6 e7 e8
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
o1 02 o3 o4
p1 p2 p3 p4
0.98 0.81
1.00 0.75 1.00 1.04 1.22 1.03

0.15
OP EP
0.50 1
0.51 0.33
0.31
e14

0.26 1
e13 EC
1.39 1.11
1.53 1.00

c1 c2 c4 c5

1 1 1 1
e12 e11 e10 e9

1.30 0.54 0.75 0.82

Note: OP = Organizational Politics; EP = Employees’ performance; EC = Employees’

commitment

Table V Standard estimation of the main model

Standardized regression weight Estimate SE CR P value

H2 Employees’ commitment (EC) ( Organizational politics (OP) 0.508 0.076 6.676 0.000
H3 Employees’ performance (EP) ( Employees’ commitment (EC) 0.311 0.093 3.361 0.000
H1 Employees’ performance (EP) ( Organizational politics (OP) 0.147 0.079 1.844 0.065

j j
PAGE 152 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011
 Conclusion
The results derived from this study suggested that a significant proportion of garment
industry employees’ especially middle and lower level is affected by organizational politics.
In addition, respondents also believed that employees’ commitment also affects their own
job performance. In other words, in a country like Bangladesh, most of the garment workers
are poor and illiterate so they are not aware of organizational politics and its influence on their
performance. Previous studies support our findings suggesting that organizational politics
and employees’ commitment are positively related and that employees’ commitment and
performance are also positively related (Salimäki and Jämsén, 2010; Karadal and Arasli,
2009; Chang et al., 2009).

Implications
Based on the above findings, it can be concluded that garment industry employees’
especially those in the middle and lower levels are affected by organizational politics. In
addition, this study disagrees with the common belief of organizational politics and
employees’ performance under the garments industry perspective in Dhaka city,
Bangladesh. This findings itself provide a sound an alarm, not only for Bangladeshi
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

garments firms, but for the firms of any developing nation.

Limitations of the study

The study suffers from a number of limitations even though the findings supported by
previous studies. The study utilized data from garment industry employees from Dhaka city
and thus cannot be generalized to other industries.

Future research directions

This study examined only the organizational politics and employees’ performances. Future
studies can incorporate variables such as impact of interaction, position, workplace culture,
job involvement; work based self-esteem on working women perception. Given that
correlations have some causal foundation, future studies may focus on the cause and effect
between interaction, position, workplace culture, job involvement.

References
Al-Alawi, A.I., Al-Marzooqi, N.Y. and Mohammed, Y.F. (2007), ‘‘Organizational culture and knowledge
sharing: critical success factors’’, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 22-42.

Baumgartner, H. and Homburg, C. (1996), ‘‘Application of structural equation modeling in marketing and
consumer research: a review’’, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 139-61.
Bollen, K.A. (1989), Structural Equations with Latent Variables, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.
Bozionelos, N. (2005), ‘‘When the inferior candidate is offered the job: the selection interview as a
political and power game’’, Human Relations, Vol. 58 No. 12, pp. 1605-31.
Byrne, B.M. (2001), Structural Equation Modeling with Amos: Basic Concepts, Applications and
Programming, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
Byrne, Z.S. (2005), ‘‘Fairness reduces the negative effects of organizational politics on turnover
intentions, citizenship behavior and job performance’’, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 20
No. 2, pp. 175-200.
Chang, C.-H., Rosen, C. and Levy, P. (2009), ‘‘The relationship between perceptions of organizational
politics and employee attitudes, strain, and behavior: a meta-analytic examination’’, Academy of
Management Journal, Vol. 52 No. 4, pp. 779-801.
Chen, Y.-Y. and Fang, W. (2008), ‘‘he moderating effect of impression management on the organizational
politics-performance relationship’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 79 No. 3, pp. 263-77.

j j
VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES PAGE 153
 Conner, D.S. (2006), ‘‘Human-resource professionals’ perceptions of organizational politics as a function
of experience, organizational size, and perceived independence’’, Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 146
No. 6, pp. 717-32.

Davey, K.M. (2008), ‘‘Women’s accounts of organizational politics as a gendering process’’, Gender,
Work and Organization, Vol. 15 No. 6, pp. 650-71.

Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. (1992), Multivariate Data Analysis, Macmillan,
New York, NY.

Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. (1998), Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th ed.,
Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. (2006), Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th ed,
Prentice Hall, Upple Saddle River, NJ.

Hallin, C.A., Øgaard, T. and Marnburg, E. (2009), ‘‘Exploring qualitative differences in knowledge
sources: a study of hierarchical effects of judgmental confidence and accuracy performance’’,
International Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 1-25.

Hoyle, R.H. (1995), ‘‘The structural equation modeling approach: basic concepts and fundamental
issues’’, in Hoyle, R.H. (Ed.), Structural Equation Modeling: Concepts, Issues, and Applications, Sage
Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

Kacmar, K.M., Collins, B.J., Harris, K.J. and Judge, T.A. (2009), ‘‘Core self-evaluations and job
performance: the role of the perceived work environment’’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 94 No. 6,
pp. 1572-80.

Karadal, H. and Arasli, H. (2009), ‘‘The impacts of superior politics on frontline employees’ behavioral
and psychological outcomes’’, Social Behavior and Personality, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 175-90.

Marques, J. (2010), ‘‘Workplace spirituality versus workplace politics: what’s wrong with becoming a
‘NON’?’’, Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 3-6.

Miller, B.K., Rutherford, M.A. and Kolodinsky, R.W. (2008), ‘‘Perceptions of organizational politics:
a meta-analysis of outcomes’’, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 209-22.

Nunnally, J.C. (1978), Psychometric Theory, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

Nurse, L. (2005), ‘‘Performance appraisal, employee development and organizational justice: exploring
the linkages’’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 16 No. 7, pp. 1176-94.

Poon, J.M.L. (2004), ‘‘Effects of performance appraisal politics on job satisfaction and turnover
intention’’, Personnel Review, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 322-34.

Randall, M.L., Cropanzano, R., Bormann, C.A. and Birjulin, A. (1999), ‘‘Organizational politics and
organizational support as predictors of work attitudes, job performance, and organizational citizenship
behavior’’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 159-74.

Rosen, C.C., Harris, K.J. and Kacmar, K.M. (2009), ‘‘The emotional implications of organizational
politics: a process model’’, human relations, Vol. 62 No. 1, pp. 27-57.

Rosen, C.C., Levy, P.E. and Hall, R.J. (2006), ‘‘Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the
feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance’’, Journal of Applied Psychology,
Vol. 91 No. 1, pp. 211-20.

Salimäki, A. and Jämsén, S. (2010), ‘‘Perceptions of politics and fairness in merit pay’’, Journal of
Managerial Psychology, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 229-51.

Tabachnick, B.G. and Fidell, L.S. (2001), Using Multivariate Analysis, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA.

Treadway, D.C., Witt, L.A., Ferris, G.R., Hochwarter, W., Perrewec, P. and Goodman, J.M. (2005),
‘‘The role of age in the perceptions of politics – job performance relationship: a three-study constructive
replication’’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 90 No. 5, pp. 872-81.

Vigoda-Gadot, E. (2007), ‘‘Leadership style, organizational politics, and employees’ performance:

an empirical examination of two competing models’’, Personnel Review, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 661-83.

Vigoda-Gadot, E. and Meisler, G. (2010), ‘‘Emotions in management and the management of emotions:
the impact of emotional intelligence and organizational politics on public sector employees’’, Public
Administration Review, Vol. 70 No. 1, pp. 72-86.

j j
PAGE 154 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011
 Witt, L.A., Kacmar, K.M., Carlson, D.S. and Zivnuska, S. (2002), ‘‘Interactive effects of personality and
organizational politics on contextual performance’’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 23 No. 8,
pp. 911-26.

Zivnuska, S., Kacmar, K.M., Witt, L.A., Carlson, D.S. and Bratton, V.K. (2004), ‘‘Interactive effects of
impression management and organizational politics on job performance’’, Journal of Organizational
Behavior, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 627-40.

About the authors

Muhammad Sabbir Rahman is a PhD student of the Business Administration Department of
the International Islamic University, Malaysia. He has recently been awarded a PhD degree.
He is co-author of various articles in journals relating to service marketing. Muhammad
Sabbir Rahman is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: sabbiriiu@gmail.com
Bashir Hussain is a Senior Lecturer in the Business Administration Department, North South
University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bashir received an MBA in business from William Paterson
University, New Jersey, USA, and has more than 15 years teaching and research
experience. Bashir has published numerous papers in international refereed journals in the
areas of economics and global marketing.
Downloaded by International Islamic University Malaysia At 21:20 13 April 2016 (PT)

Ahasanul Haque is an Associated Professor of Marketing at the Department of Business

Administration, International Islamic University, Malaysia. He received his PhD at the
Graduate School of Management, University Putra Malaysia. He has more than ten years
teaching and research experience and has published a text book of marketing, written
several study modules and over 50 papers in international refereed journals in the areas of
global marketing, e-commerce, internet shopping and internet advertising, Islamic
marketing and consumer behavior.

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com

Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

j j
VOL. 12 NO. 3 2011 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES PAGE 155

View publication stats