DIGITAL LIBRARY
EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND WORK ENGAGEMENT: AN INVESTIGATION IN THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY CONTEXT
1 Benue State University (NIGERIA)
2 University of Nigeria, Nsukka (NIGERIA)
About this paper:
Appears in: INTED2013 Proceedings
Publication year: 2013
Pages: 3568-3575
ISBN: 978-84-616-2661-8
ISSN: 2340-1079
Conference name: 7th International Technology, Education and Development Conference
Dates: 4-5 March, 2013
Location: Valencia, Spain
Abstract:
There is hardly any doubt that politics is a fact of organizational life and has some far reaching implications to organizations. Despite the fact that it has been related to many job behaviors and attitudes, studies on perceptions of organizational politics and employee work engagement have been very scarce and needed to be given more attention. In addition, studies of politics proliferates organizational psychology literature, but its influence in the educational sector has been profoundly ignored. Considering that education is the bedrock of all aspects of development, playing politics with it could hamper the growth and development of any nation. Specifically, attention has been laid on the decline in the quality of education in Nigeria. This has been attributed to many factors that include non-implementation of government policies, administrative ineptitude, poor remuneration, and poor recruitment policies, which often are political in nature. The present study therefore examined the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and work engagement in an educational institution in Nigeria. Also, the three dimensions of organizational politics: Go Along to Get Ahead (GAGA), General Political Behavior (GPB), and Pay and Promotion Policies (PPP) and the three dimensions of work engagement: Vigor, Dedication and Absorption were explored using 211 academic staff of Benue State University, Makurdi, North Central, Nigeria. The cross-sectional survey design was employed to elicit responses from the participants. Staff immediate supervisors (Heads of department) provided additional report on their staff level of work engagement. As we expected, the results of the regression analyses showed that perception of organizational politics was negatively related to work engagement. The results equally showed that only GPB was positively related to dedication. GAGA and PPP were both negatively related to vigor, dedication and absorption. Findings have been discussed in the light of the Nigeria educational system. The study’s implications for development of best practices in university management and employee motivation were discussed.
Keywords:
Organizational politics, work engagement, Nigeria.