A comparison of situational and dispositional predictors of perceptions oforganizational politics

The present study is an investigation of situational and dispositional char acteristics that may predispose an employee to perceive his or her organiza tion as political. Participants were 501 regular members, civilian members, and public servants of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Measures used fo r this research were the Formalization Scale (G. R. Oldham & J. R. Hackman, 1981), the Job Autonomy Scale (H. R Sims, A. D. Szilagyi, & R. T. Keller, 1976), the Mach IV (A. Zook & G. J. Sipps, 1986), the Dominance subscale fr om the Manifest Needs Questionnaire (R. M. Steers & D. N. Braunstein, 1976) , the Survey of Organizational Climate (J. C. Taylor & D. G. Bowers, 1972), the Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (G. R. Ferris & K. M. Kac mar, 1992), and the Work Locus of Control Scale (P. E. Spector, 1988). Resu lts indicated that organizational climate, formalization, work locus of con trol (both internal and external measures), and Machiavellianism were signi ficant predictors, accounting for 52% of the variance in participants' perc eptions of organizational politics. Limitations of the present study and di rections for future research are outlined.