The Relationship Between Political Skill and Job Performance: Exploring the Mediating Role of LMX and the Moderating Role of LMXD

Political skill xists in just about every rganization, but little research has been done on the conditions under which political skill can be related to job performance. We proposed that leader-member exchange (LMX) serves as a mediating mechanism through which political skill affects ob performance. We further argued that the modeled relationship is moderated by leader-member exchange differentiation (LMXD). We collected data from two sources, supervisors and subordinates, with a sample of 140 employees representing 25 work teams of a Taiwan-Japan joint venture company. The valid returns were 124, with a valid return rate of 88%. We used hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses. The results of the study displayed that at individual-level, political skill is positively related to job performance and LMX. LMX mediates between political skill and job performance. At group-level, LMXD moderates the relationship between LMX and job performance. The results revealed that with higher LMXD, the impact of LMX toward job performance will be stronger. We ended with discussions about the theoretical contributions and practical implications.