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The relationship between organizational politics, strategic political management, and competitive advantage

Monika Kulikowska-Pawlak
Monika Kulikowska-Pawlak
 und 
Maciej Zatoński
Maciej Zatoński
   | 19. Aug. 2022
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Article Category: Research Article
Online veröffentlicht: 19. Aug. 2022
Seitenbereich: 15 - 27
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijcm-2022-0011
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© 2022 Monika Kulikowska-Pawlak et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Research modelSource: Own study
Research modelSource: Own study

Types and characteristics of political strategies

Type of political strategy Characteristics of political strategy
Reactive strategy Strategic measures are taken to effectively adapt the company's internal processes to political requirements, e.g., effective data processing systems for determining compliance with legal regulations, timely provision of information on compliance with supervisory authorities, and improved structures and processes that directly reduce compliance costs.
Anticipation strategy Strategic measures are undertaken to achieve a competitive advantage that gives priority rent by anticipating future public policy (e.g., merging and reconfiguring internal and external resources to increase the frequency and scope of monitoring the political environment and the timely acquisition of knowledge about the inevitable or potential changes in law or public policy).
Defensive strategy Strategic measures are taken to prevent undesirable political amendments and maintain the status quo (e.g., efforts to maintain current regulations and current policies, in the absence of sufficient flexibility, to take advantage of the change or loss of strategic value of resources and capabilities held; improving relations with authorities and/or intermediate networks with those who influence decision-makers to protect the interests of the company).
Proactive strategy Strategic measures are endeavored to influence public norms and policies (e.g., creating practices that others will follow; active involvement in industry associations and media activities; building a coalition of supporters).

U Mann Whitney dependency test scores between particular dimensions of the political management strategy and the dimensions of OP

Reactive strategy (n = 114) as independent value; Number of observations when the reactive strategy was not present n = 241
Average rank when the reactive strategy was not present Average rank when the reactive strategy was present U Mann Whitney statistics value p
Dominant coalition 175.5 183.2 −0.65 0.513
Exerting the influence 172.6 189.5 −1.45 0.146
Making organizational changes 175.1 184.2 −0.78 0.433
Openness to information 178.3 177.4 0.08 0.936

Factors for organizational politics

Factor 1Dominant coalition Factor 2Exerting the influence Factor 3Making changes organizational Factor 4Openness to information
Factor loadings a)
Employees build ties with influential groups inside and outside the company to influence strategic plans and directions of activities. 0.718 0.215 0.128 0.285
Employees make alliances and form coalitions or a collective front of a group of people, resulting in a highly influential part of the enterprise that no one will ever be able to oppose. 0.739 0.021 0.230 0.292
Employees seek rational justifications: they refer to facts, figures, figures, and the resulting logical arguments to increase the strength of their request or to justify a given point of view. 0.200 0.664 0.273 0.014
Employees try to gain control of important resources to strengthen their position. 0.684 0.155 0.367 −0.092
Employees perceive conflict as a characteristic feature of the situation and assume that the conflict can be resolved through the involvement of interested persons (e.g., through negotiation). 0.121 0.636 0.321 −0.217
Employees subtly maneuver, trying to hide their true intentions. 0.711 0.217 0.097 −0.223
Employees perceive power relations as natural. 0.168 0.778 −0.109 0.096
Employees use co-optation that relies on connecting with influential people or groups of people or including them in their sphere of influence to increase control over the opponent or to silence the opponent. 0.696 0.205 0.238 −0.151
Managers set a deadline for acceptance or action to ensure a sense of necessity to take action. 0.292 0.601 0.076 0.267
Employees express their opinions honestly, even when they are critical of the dominant ideas. −0.041 0.204 0.243 0.785
Employees do favors each other for their mutual benefit. −0.016 0.676 0.300 0.229
Employees use key managers to support initiatives taken, and mobilize support for or opposition to organizational strategies, policies, and practices. 0.352 0.274 0.660 −0.087
Employees strive to obtain their autonomy of actions allowing for experimentation and stimulation of bottom-up change. 0.272 0.180 0.748 0.094
Employees refer to the entity's goals, common values, and ideals to induce specific behaviors of other people. 0.122 0.342 0.542 0.189
Employees strive to determine what meaning should be attributed to new events. 0.117 0.073 0.698 0.269
Employees contest the current understanding of the organizational reality to move beyond the status quo. 0.463 −0.013 0.571 0.008
Explained value 3.130 2.700 2.717 1.168
Contribution 0.196 0.169 0.170 0.073

Correlation analysis scores between particular dimensions of OP and the competitive advantage (n = 355)

Correlation coefficient Dominant coalition Exerting the influence Making organizational changes Openness to information
r Pearson 0.08 0.07 0.23*** 0.15**
tau Kendall 0.10** 0.09** 0.18*** 0.12***

Sobel and Aroian test scores for mediating effect of OP on political management strategy and competitive advantage

organizational politics
Dominant coalition Exerting the influence Making organizational changes Openness to information
Sobel statistics Aroian statistics Sobel statistics Aroian statistics Sobel statistics Aroian statistics Sobel statistics Aroian statistics
Political management strategy (defensive strategy) 0.721 0.600 −0.051 −0.049 1.249 1.193 0.613 0.548

U Mann Whitney dependency test scores between particular dimensions of the political management strategy and competitive advantage

Average rankNo Average rankYes U MannWhitney statistics p n No n Yes
Reactive strategy as an independent variable 172.6 189.4 −1.45 0.148 241 114
Anticipation strategy as an independent variable 173.8 186.9 −1.13 0.258 241 114
Defensive strategy as an independent variable 185.7 151.9 2.61 0.009 274 81
Proactive strategy as an independent variable 178.7 173.5 0.32 0.748 309 46
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