Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Gallagher, Vickie Coleman
Author's Email Address	vcgallagher@att.net
URN	etd-07092007-111629
Title	Situational and Dispositional Antecedents and Consequences of Impression Management Tactics: The Role of Political Skill
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	Management, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Pamela L. Perrewe Committee Chair Chad Van Iddekinge Committee Member Gerald R. Ferris Committee Member Jack T. Fiorito Committee Member Robert Brymer Committee Member
Keywords	Negative Affectivity Positive Affectivity Political Behavior Job Tension Role Stressors Conservation Of Resources
Date of Defense	2007-05-17
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract What traits and conditions are related to political behaviors in the workplace? Do diverse role stressors, such as overload, ambiguity, and conflict, relate to divergent protective reactions in an effort to fight, flee, or seek social support? This dissertation seeks to answer these questions by conceptualizing impression management tactics as individual protective reactions to workplace stressors. Although impression management behaviors in the workplace are generally believed to be the result of both situational and dispositional characteristics, an array of research has explored only single facets of each domain. For example, ingratiation alone has been explored, single role stressors (i.e., role ambiguity, overload, or conflict), or one or two personality dimensions. However, the complexities of human behavior and organizational life warrants a more comprehensive view of the mix of conditions that are related to various impression management tactics. In my theoretical model, individual needs, affectivity, and situational conditions (i.e., role stressors, organizational culture, and hierarchy) are posed as important antecedents of divergent impression management behaviors exhibited in the workplace. Individual reactions to stressors, in the form of impression management, are conceptualized as fight (intimidation), flight (supplication), or social support (ingratiation) reactions. Political skill is viewed as an important resource that serves not only as a moderator that can enhance outcomes when performing impression management behaviors, but it also serves as an antecedent to the successful selection of tactics and the interpretation of threats in the environment. Dyadic survey data were collected from 110 employees and 55 managers from an automotive group in the Southeastern United States. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression were used to test the hypotheses. Additional post-hoc analyses were also conducted based on the results of my hypotheses tests. Results provided support for a number of my hypotheses, such that employees had diverse reactions to the tested role stressors. However, although I hypothesized that each role stressor would be related to more or less use of each of the impression management tactics, and the tactics would be related to outcomes, only some of my hypotheses were supported. Relationships discovered were primarily in the form of main effects. Interestingly, ambiguity led to a flight mechanism and a reduction in the use of impression management behaviors whereas conflict led to increased engagement in the workplace through the use of more intimidation, ingratiation, and supplication. While there is some, albeit limited, support for the mediating role of impression management tactics between my antecedents (i.e., affectivity and situational conditions) and outcomes (i.e., job tension and performance), propositions are made with regard to other outcomes that may improve our understanding of the mediating role of behaviors in the workplace. Further, our understanding of political skill is enhanced through my moderation analyses, providing an array of propositions for future research with regard to the dimensionality of political skill as it relates to impression management in the workplace. A discussion of the results includes an evaluation of research limitations, suggestions for future research, contributions to the literature, and practical implications.
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