This study investigates the complexities in the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and performance ratings by examining the moderating effect of impression management on that relationship. Expectancy theory was employed to better understand the moderating effect. We proposed that two kinds of impression management tactics occurred: supervisor-focused and job-focused, respectively. It was hypothesized that increased exercise of impression management would mitigate the negative effects of perceptions of organizational politics and performance ratings. Data were collected from 290 full-time employees of (...) ten state-owned enterprises in Taiwan. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis of data revealed that the job-focused tactics exerted a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and performance ratings. When perceptions of organizational politics are low, employees who engage in high levels of job-focused impression management tactics are more likely to gain better ratings than those who employ low-level tactics. (shrink)

Integrating power dependence and gender role theories, we investigate the interactive effects of followers’ gender and leaders’ Machiavellian orientation in predicting followers’ usage of upward influence tactics. Using a sample of 156 matched leader–follower dyads, we found that followers’ gender moderated the relationship between Time 1 leaders’ Machiavellian orientation and followers’ use of upward influence tactics at Time 2. Specifically, the relationship between Time 1 leaders’ Machiavellianism and Time 2 followers’ ingratiation was significant and positive for women followers and non-significant (...) for men followers, while the relationship between Time 1 leaders’ Machiavellianism and Time 2 followers’ assertiveness was significant and positive for men followers but non-significant for women followers. These results suggest that gender plays an important role in how followers react to Machiavellian leaders. The social and ethical implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)