PERCEPTIONS OF POLITICS - DOES MEASURING DIFFERENT FOCI MATTER

Recent research on perceptions of politics in organizations and other organizational phenomena (e.g., commitment) has suggested the use of a multiple-foci approach to understand important politics-outcome relat ionships. This study confirms separate measures of perceptions of poli tics at the organizational and work-group levels and demonstrates diff erential effects in the prediction of various outcomes. After controll ing for the effects of the relationship with one's supervisor (leader- member exchange), perceptions of politics existing at the organization al level predicted turnover intentions, whereas citizenship behavior w as predicted by perceptions of politics at the group level. Both foci of politics significantly predicted organizational commitment.