Perceptions of organizational politics and hotel employee outcomes The mediating role of work engagement

Purpose - This paper aims to propose and test a research model that investigates work engagement as a mediator of the effects of perceptions of organizational politics on affective organizational commitment, extra-role performance, and turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach - Data were gathered from a sample of 231 full-time frontline employee-supervisor dyads in Iran. The relationships in the model were tested using LISREL 8.30 through structural equation modeling. Findings - The results show that the fully-mediated model provides a better fit to the data than does the partially mediated model and further indicate that work engagement acts as a full mediator of the impacts of perceptions of organizational politics on affective organizational commitment, extra-role performance, and turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications - In future studies testing the effects of challenge and hindrance demands simultaneously on work engagement would be useful. Replication studies with larger sample sizes in different hospitality settings in Iran as well as other developing countries in the Middle East are in order to cross-validate the findings. Practical implications - Providing training programs could make employees cope with difficulties associated with other hindrance demands and their potential effects on organizational politics. In training programs employees can be motivated to speak up when they observe the root causes of organizational politics and unfair decisions in the workplace. This is important, because having a transparent work environment establishes trust between managers and employees. In addition, top management of the hotels should devise new policies and procedures that would minimize the possibility of political decisions. Originality/value - Empirical research regarding the relationships among perceptions of organizational politics, work engagement, and hotel employee outcomes in the hospitality management and marketing literature is sparse. This study partially fills in this void by investigating the mediating role of work engagement via data obtained in the Iranian hotel industry.