Chapter 3: The Role of Political Skill in Relationship Development, Work and Social Networks, and Work Effectiveness

In this first volume of the research series, focusing on “Employee-Employer Relations,” we take a relationship perspective on how political skill demonstrates its effectiveness in the workplace. We examine the composite political skill construct in this analysis, as well as discussing its underlying dimensions of social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, and apparent sincerity, and examine how this social effectiveness construct helps individuals develop and maintain productive work relationships. In turn, we argue that it is these work relationships that can be leveraged to secure advantageous positions in work and social networks, which facilitate individuals’ work performance and effectiveness as well as reflect back to work relationships, contributing to their further development. Work relationships can be associated with positive work attitudes and well-being, which research has demonstrated. However, we look instrumentally at work relationships as important vehicles to insure favorable positioning in social networks, which then facilitate work performance, effectiveness, and employee well-being. We propose that political skill is fundamental to this whole process.