Journal of Management Studies 49:2 March 2012 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00987.

Developing and Utilizing Network Resources: Roles of Political Skill

joms_987 381..402

Li-Qun Wei, Flora F. T. Chiang and Long-Zeng Wu

Hong Kong Baptist University
abstract This study examines the role of political skill in the development and utilization of network resources at the individual level. Drawing on the behavioural and network perspectives as well as political skill literature, we propose that political skill increases ones network resources (developing network), which will benet his/her performance and career success. Moreover, political skill is hypothesized to strengthen the relationships between network resources and performance and career outcomes (utilizing network). A two-wave study on a sample of 281 supervisorsubordinate dyads from six electronic rms in China conrms our hypotheses. Our examination of the dual role of political skill facilitates a better understanding of the networking process from the perspective of individual skill/behaviour, thus enriching the behavioural theory and network literature. Implications are discussed and directions for future research are suggested. Keywords: career growth potential, network resources, performance, political skill

INTRODUCTION Managers nowadays rely less on their formal authority than they do on relationships and informal networks to get things done. Top management is no longer viewed to hold all the wisdom and inuence. Employees who can use their personal relationships and informal social networks to overcome formal constraints can thrive (Pfeffer, 1992). Informal networks exist not only to provide an important source of resources and information but also create social identity that encourages a strong sense of belonging and cohesion among individuals who are expected to adhere to their normative role (Podolny and Baron, 1997). The importance of informal workplace relationships to employee performance has been widely acknowledged by both scholars and practitioners (e.g. Oh et al., 2006; Sparrowe and Liden, 2005). Recent research underscores the benets of network resources to the achievement of career goals and work performance (Bozionelos and Wang, 2006; Burt, 2004, 2005; Mehra et al., 2001). Despite their benets, relatively little
Address for reprints: Li-Qun Wei, Department of Management, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR, China (weiliqun@hkbu.edu.hk).
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attention is paid to explore antecedents of network resources in the work setting (Zhang et al., 2009) and in particular, the actors who occupy informal positions and how they interact with others and mobilize support for action within organizations (Kilduff and Tsai, 2003). As Krackhardt (1990) suggested, power accrues . . . to those who have an accurate perception of the network in which they are embedded. An individual who has an astute knowledge of where the network links are can have a substantial advantage (p. 343). One objective of this study is therefore to examine how individuals use their political skills to create and develop network resources to subsequently advance their goals and interests in organizations. Viewing organizations as an economic conict system, the behavioural theory of the rm suggests that an organization is a coalition of members who have diverse and conicting goals (Cyert and March, 1963). In such a political coalition, organizational members are connected to preserve and advance their goals and self-interests through informal network relationships and ties (March, 1962). When individuals are embedded in such networks, their ability to accumulate and utilize network resources gures prominent. Individuals engage in building relationships with others to gain access to valuable information and win social support in the organization (Carroll and Teo, 1996; Seibert et al., 2001). Intra-organizational network resources are thus critical to the achievement of career goals and work performance (Bozionelos and Wang, 2006; Burt, 2004, 2005; Mehra et al., 2001). Since resource formation is a result of the interactions among actors in the network (Burt, 2004), ones ability to interact and manage complex relationships is important to garnering benets from network membership. Social network researchers postulate that individual attributes inuence the development of networks (Burt, 2005; Douglas and Ammeter, 2004; Ferris et al., 2007; Thompson, 2005). That is, how individual network resources are acquired, developed, and deployed is highly dependent on the attributes and capabilities of individuals. This in part explains why some individuals are more successful than others in gaining access to and building coalitions and networks. Previous efforts to address this issue, however, focused largely on demographic characteristics (e.g. gender, education, religion, organizational memberships) (Galaskiewicz and Shatin, 1981; Ibarra, 1993) and personality traits, such as extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness (Bozionelos, 2003) and self-monitoring (Mehra et al., 2001). The specic skills and behaviour used to facilitate the formation of network resources has not been adequately explored (Zhang et al., 2009). While there is evidence demonstrating their relationship, we argue that demographics and personality traits are in-born and more stable in nature and hence cannot be expected to ignite action and inuence without the presence of skill (Hogan and Shelton, 1998). Skill is more situation specic and learning based (Epstein, 1983), and therefore more related to network resource acquisition and development. Political skill, and specic capabilities that enable individuals to interact effectively with others, play an important role in the process of network building. To better survive in the organization, which is by nature a political arena, individuals who are politicallyskilled can bypass formal structural constraints to advance their interests through informal social networks in the workplace (Brass and Burkhardt, 1993). Network resources are rooted in relationships and relationships are about inuence and persuasion.
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Network Resources and Political Skill

H3 (mediation) Political Skill H1 Network Resources H2 Job Performance Career growth potential

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H4 (moderation)

Figure 1. The conceptual model of the study

Politically-skilled employees who possess social astuteness and savvy are more able to make favourable impressions and inuence the quality of interactions, thereby harnessing good networks with others. As a result, they are more likely to accumulate network resources (Treadway et al., 2004), and in turn inuence performance and career outcomes (Burt, 2004, 2005; Mehra et al., 2001). It is therefore imperative to understand the antecedent role that political skill plays in building and leveraging informal networks in organizations. By linking network resources with political skill, this study extends and advances our understanding and knowledge on the relationships between action and inuence of individuals and the informal structure of organization (Kilduff and Tsai, 2003). The mere existence of network resources is not sufcient. Leveraging network resources must be accompanied by a strong relational and exchange component (Fombrun, 1982; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Individuals differ in their ability to combine, utilize, and leverage network resources. An individual high in political skill tends to have a higher ability to use social cues to understand people and use that understanding to tailor his/her own behaviour to effectively inuence and control others (Ferris et al., 2005, 2007). This suggests that individuals who possess a higher level of political skill are able to better leverage their network resources to achieving positive work outcomes. Following this line of enquiry, another objective of this study is to examine the moderating role of political skill on enhancing the benecial effects of network resources on individual performance and career outcomes. By integrating these conceptualizations, this study examines how individuals use their political skills to create and develop network resources to advance their goals and interests in organizations. Doing so enables us to better understand the antecedent of network resources (political skill), effects of informal structure (network resources), and how individual skill and behaviour (political skill) interact with network resources to achieve work goals. The research framework of this study is illustrated in Figure 1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES Network Resources and Political Skill Unlike other types of resources, network resources are derived from the informational advantages obtained from social relationships and can be used to advance personal benets (Brass, 1984; Gulati, 1999). Individuals are not atomized decision-makers but
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rather are socially embedded in a network of relationships (Hoang and Antoncic, 2003). Since network resources are rooted in relationships, the ability to interact with and inuence others is important to obtaining these resources. Armed with useful ties and contacts, an individual with high political skills can more easily gain access to a broader base of information, mobilize personal inuence, and access valuable resources that reduce transaction costs (Williamson, 1985). In the Chinese context, one possible form of network resources/ties is guanxi, which refers to interpersonal connections based on mutual interest and benets ( Davies et al., 1995; Yang, 1994). When guanxi goes beyond the dyadic basis to connect more than two persons, it is considered a network (guanxiwang) (Bian, 2006). Network resources, like guanxi, are relation-oriented (Farh et al., 1998) and their practice depends largely on the use of personal power and inuence (Hackley and Dong, 2001; Yeung and Tung, 1996). Hence, network resources are not given but centred on political skill. Dened as . . . the ability to effectively understand others at work and to use such knowledge to inuence others to act in ways that enhance ones personal and/or organizational objectives (Ahearn et al., 2004, p. 311), political skill reects its dispositional characteristics, behavioural exibility, and situational variability (Ferris et al., 2007). These attributes facilitate interpersonal interactions, trust, and relationship building, and thereby impact ones accessibility, accumulation, and development of network resources in three important ways. First, politically-skilled employees possess a distinctive interpersonal style to behave in a disarmingly charming and engaging manner that inspires condence, trust, sincerity, and genuineness (Perrew et al., 2000, p. 116). These dispositional characteristics enable them to thrive in situations where working with and through others in the workplace is required. Since network resources are socially embedded in relationships, the ability to interact and work with others is imperative. Second, politically-skilled employees view interpersonal interactions as opportunities rather than as threats (Perrew et al., 2000). As such, employees with high levels of political skill tend to interact and engage more proactively in the accumulation of network resources (Ferris et al., 2005). Frequent and close interactions facilitate the establishment of connections, friendship, and relationships in the workplace, which are fundamental to network resource building. On the one hand, interpersonal interactions help create common interest and shared values among organizational members (Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998). On the other hand, interactions stimulate trust and reputation (Gulati, 1995). Trust increases the likelihood of sharing, exchanging, and combining resources among actors in a network (Bradach and Eccles, 1989). These qualities enable politically-skilled employees to build stronger coalitions and greater and wider network resources. Third, in addition to building strong ties and bonding (intra-network), politicallyskilled employees should also be able to access, bridge, and connect to wider social networks (inter-network) (Granovetter, 1973). Because of their behavioural exibility and situational variability, politically-skilled employees are able to develop coping strategies that are adjusted based on situational cues and in response to temporal and environmental changes ( Jones, 2005). An ability to form accurate perceptions of social requirements, choose appropriate behavioural responses, and vary responses in accordance to
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Network Resources and Political Skill

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situational demands (Ferris et al., 2005) enables politically-skilled employees to capture a more advantageous position when reaching out to the right person at the right time at the right place to seek valuable information and resources. Armed with highly exible inuence tactics (Kipnis and Schmidt, 1982), they are able to take advantage of the networks benets, by being centrally linked and tightly connected to fragment social networks and tapping into new and diverse resources within and across network boundaries (Granovetter, 1973). In sum, network resource building requires diverse resource inputs as well as combinative capabilities (Hoang and Antoncic, 2003; Kogut and Zander, 1992). Politicallyskilled employees are not only able to gain greater access to diverse and heterogeneous information and resources, but they are also procient in building interpersonal bridges that span structural holes (Burt, 1992). These characteristics should enhance their ability to communicate and disseminate information with actors inside and outside the network in a more timely fashion to develop valuable resources. Therefore, we propose: Hypothesis 1: Political skill is positively related to the development of network resources. Network Resources and Individual Outcomes As a key element of social capital, network resources are those embedded within, available through, and derived from ones relationship ties (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). A persons relationship ties affect the extent to which he/she connects to other members in a network strong and weak ties (Burt, 1992; Granovetter, 1973). Strong ties are typically associated with performance advantages due to increased trust and cooperation, and are effective in facilitating the ow of ne-grained information (Uzzi, 1996) and the transfer of tacit and complex knowledge across departmental boundaries in an organization (Hansen, 1999). Weak ties, which bridge socially disconnected groups, are also benecial to performance because they provide access to novel, non-redundant and heterogeneous network resources (Granovetter, 1973; Levin and Cross, 2004). These relationship ties (both strong and weak) help one to gain access to valuable resources (Ibarra, 1993). Through frequent social interactions, resources can be further combined, facilitated, and exchanged efciently among network members to create new sources of value (Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998). This stream of research draws on the importance of relational network resources in explaining outcomes (Burt et al., 1998; Peng and Luo, 2000). Network resources can be appropriated to serve many varied purposes instrumental and affective/expressive (Coleman, 1988). Individuals can use network resources (e.g. job-related information, professional advice, and expertise) to attain favourable career and work outcomes (Burt et al., 1998; Peng and Luo, 2000). In addition to these instrumental benets, network resources can be affective/expressive in nature (Fombrun, 1982; Ibarra, 1993). Relationship ties also provide psychosocial support via friendship and intimacy, which not only fosters trust and cooperation but also helps facilitate the exchange of valued resources (Brass, 1984, 1995). Superiorsubordinate, mentormentee, and/or peer networks are some examples of instrumental and
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relational network resources in organizations. Through these relationship ties, network members share work-related resources, such as job knowledge, advice, support, and guidance. Previous research has provided insights into how relationship ties encourage joint efforts in problem solving (Ahuja, 2000), facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing (Tsai, 2001), and other instrumental outcomes, such as job performance (Mehra et al., 2001). Network resources provide both opportunities and constraints on behaviours (Brass et al., 2004). As Lin (1999) purported, various formal and informal relationship ties enable employees to gain privileged access to important information, power, and status/reputation required for promotions. Similarly, Seibert et al. (2001) postulated that information forms an important resource base to ones social power; having access to key resources will therefore increase ones inuence and reputation, which in turn contributes to work success. Empirical evidence also demonstrates that employees with more relationships are likely to be promoted (Burt, 2004) and are associated with both extrinsic and intrinsic career success (Bozionelos, 2003; Ng et al., 2005). Increasing ones accessibility to critical resources (i.e. career-related and task-related information and resources) is therefore likely to promote his/her performance and career. While social networks bring along information and resources that help job performance and career promotion, over-embeddedness also creates problems. Some researchers have argued that when relational embeddedness reaches a threshold level, the effects of embeddedness can be counterproductive (Uzzi, 1996, 1997). There may be diminishing marginal returns and increasing marginal costs for increasing resources. However, as empirical studies found, the risk of over-embeddedness is mostly associated with second-order network coupling (weak and arm-length ties) and with respect to particular dimension of performance, such as creativity and initiation (Baer, 2010; Zhou et al., 2009); while for the rst-order network coupling (strong and embedded ties), either no curvilinear relationship exists (Tsai and Wen, 2009; Zhou et al., 2009) or a positive and linear relationship with performance tends to be found (Andersson et al., 2002; Cross and Cummings, 2004; Uzzi, 1996). Since our study is not conned to a particular type/nature of network resources, we treat the relationship between network resources and job performance and career growth as a linear rather than a curvilinear relationship. Hypothesis 2: Network resources are positively related to job performance and career growth potential. The above hypotheses combine to form a mediation model. We contend that network resources will mediate the relationship between political skill and performance and career outcomes. Since network resources are embedded in relationships and relationships constitute access to important information channels, politically-skilled employees possessing social astuteness and savvy are more able to garner benets from network ties and contacts, which in turn are instrumental to attaining positive outcomes. Hypothesis 3: Network resources mediate the relationship between political skill and job performance/career growth potential.
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Network Resources and Political Skill The Moderating Role of Political Skill in Network Resources Outcome Linkage

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Although we hypothesized above that network resources lead to greater performance and career outcomes, some employees may nd it easier to seek informational benets from their network resources. We propose that employees high in political skill are more able to leverage network resources to their advantage for three reasons. First, leveraging network resources requires one to possess a strong ability to inuence others (e.g. managers, colleagues, subordinates) in order to obtain and exchange valuable information (Ferris et al., 2005). Highly politically-skilled employees are more likely to gain greater access to diverse and heterogeneous information and resources than their less politically-skilled counterparts. Because employees who are high in political skill have higher level of self-condence and efcacy (Ferris et al., 2007), they should be more able to overcome potential obstacles and threats that may arise from newly acquired network resources and be in a better position to leverage, protect, and sustain their resource pools to promote career and performance success than their less politically-skilled counterparts. Second, politically-skilled individuals are more goal-oriented (Ferris et al., 2005). With a goal focus, their work efforts and behaviours can be directed towards achieving job and career objectives through exploiting their network resources. As Judge and Bretz (1994) found, the motivation behind the use of political tactics to inuence behaviour was to achieve ones goals related to self-promotion. For highly politically-skilled employees, developing network resources is instrumental to the attainment of their career and performance goals. Finally, researchers argued that employees high in political skill have a greater ability to control (Perrew et al., 2000, 2005). Increased network resources can be a source of work stressors (Perrew et al., 2004). Since the acquisition and protection of network resources are largely dependent upon ones coping strategies in response to job tension and role overload (Ito and Brotheridge, 2003; Perrew et al., 2004), employees with high political skill should be able to effectively cope with, counteract, and manage the potential dysfunctional strain and stress associated with the increased network resources. By contrast, individuals low in political skill are more likely to experience job tension and be less able to cope with the additional work stress associated with an increased amount of information and resources, thereby negatively affecting their career and job performance. Hypothesis 4: Political skill moderates the relationship between network resources and job performance/career growth potential such that the positive relationships between network resources and job performance/career growth potential are stronger for one who is more politically skilful. METHODS Sample and Procedure The research was conducted in six privately-owned electronic companies located in a major city in North China. These rms are randomly selected by our research team members who have connections with them. Guanxi is important in China and having
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connections with the rms is necessary for gaining better collaborations from the company and employees. The sampled company size ranges from 135 employees to 354 employees, with a mean of around 244 employees. Data were collected from both subordinates and supervisors in two waves of survey. In the rst-wave survey, the subordinates provided information in relation to their personal particulars, positive affect, negative affect, and political skill. Their supervisors provided information on their subordinates job performance and career growth potential. In the second-wave survey, the subordinates rated their network resources and their immediate supervisors responded to questions regarding their subordinates job performance and career growth potential. Each supervisor was asked to rate two to six subordinates. Since independent variable (political skill), mediator (network resources), and outcome variables (job performance and career growth potential) were collected from different sources and/or at different times, the potential problem of common method bias was largely controlled (Podsakoff et al., 2003). We obtained rosters of a total of 338 employees and their corresponding supervisors from the participating companies. Since the use of six companies was necessary to achieve an adequate sample size for analysis of the supervisorsubordinate dyads, the companies were combined. Questionnaires were then distributed to the respondents. Both subordinate and supervisor questionnaires had a code number that was used to match supervisor and subordinate data. No one but the research team had access to the codes and individual responses. Respondents were informed that the survey aimed to examine the experience of the human resources practices and were assured of condentiality. Each respondent placed his/her completed survey in a sealed envelope and dropped it into a box set up in the Human Resources Department in each company. In the rst study, a total of 306 subordinate and 121 supervisor questionnaires were obtained. In the second-wave survey conducted around 9 months later (since 6 months is the minimum time necessary for a longitudinal study and it is better to be within one year too long a period may cause many disturbing or uncontrollable effects we conducted the second wave of the survey after 9 months), questionnaires were distributed to these same 306 subordinates and their supervisors. This time, 290 subordinate and 114 supervisor questionnaires were returned. After deleting the unmatched and/or missing cases, the nal sample comprised 281 matched supervisorsubordinate dyads, including 281 subordinates and 112 supervisors, representing a response rate of 83.1 and 87.5 per cent for subordinates and supervisors, respectively. On average, each supervisor rated 2.51 subordinates. Of the 283 subordinates, 67.1 per cent were male; 27.9 per cent were aged between 31 and 35 years and 23.3 per cent between 36 and 40. The average organizational tenure was 7.71 years (SD = 7.05). In terms of their levels in the management hierarchy, 57.2 per cent were employees, 35.0 per cent were front-line supervisors, and 7.8 per cent were middle managers. The employees are mainly technicians or support staff whose jobs involve reasonable levels of task interdependency as well as discretion in pacing and sequencing their individual work tasks. As such, the sample is composed of a group of relatively young employees holding lower or middle level positions in the company, who in general have job discretion and have reasonable space for future career growth. Further, all six companies have a corporate culture of promotion within the companies.
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Network Resources and Political Skill Measures

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Measures of negative affectivity, positive affectivity, political skill and network resources used a seven-point scale, and measures of job performance and career growth potential used a ve-point scale. Past research has shown that the validity of measurements is not affected by minor alterations to response formats (Matell and Jacoby, 1971). Following the commonly used back translation procedure, the scales (which were originally in English) were translated from English into Chinese and then back translated into English by two independent bilingual individuals to ensure equivalency of meaning (Brislin, 1980). Political skill (a = 0.92). An 18-item scale developed by Ferris et al. (2005) and later used by several other studies conducted in the Chinese context was employed to measure subordinates political skill (i.e. Lo, 2006; Wei et al., 2010). Subordinates were asked to respond to questions such as: I spend a lot of time and effort networking with others, I pay close attention to peoples facial expressions, and I am able to communicate easily and effectively with others. Conrmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the 18 items produced an acceptable t indices (c2 (129) = 351.301, p 0.01; CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.91; RMSEA = 0.078). Network resources (a = 0.88). A six-item scale developed by Bozionelos (2003) was used to measure subordinates network resources within the organizations. Subordinates were asked to provide their answers to questions such as: I keep in touch with a number of people who are at higher levels than I am, and There are individuals in the organization with whom I share emotional support, feedback and work information. Job performance (T1, a = 0.86; T2, a = 0.85). A ve-item scale developed by Williams and Anderson (1991) and later used by Hui et al. (1999) in the Chinese context was used to measure subordinates in-role job performance. Supervisors were asked to evaluate on items such as: This employee always completes the duties specied in his/her job description, This employee meets all the formal performance requirements of the job, and This employee never neglects aspects of the job that he/she is obligated to perform. Career growth potential (T1, a = 0.76; T2, a = 0.75). A two-item scale developed by Bedeian et al. (1991) was adapted to measure subordinates career development potential. Supervisors were asked to indicate their answers on items: This employee is likely to attain his/her career goals in this organization, and This employee is likely to gain growth and development in this organization. Control variables. Due to the potential effects of various demographic variables (e.g. age, gender, and organizational tenure) and personal traits (e.g. positive and negative affect) on job performance, career growth potential, and network resources (Bozionelos, 2003; Dreher and Cox, 2000; Forret and Dougherty, 2001), we controlled for employee age, gender, organizational tenure, tenure with supervisor, organizational level, positive effect, and negative effect. Positive and negative affect were measured by a 20-item scale
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developed by Watson et al. (1988). Cronbachs alpha for positive and negative affect was 0.91 and 0.95, respectively. Moreover, since our data was collected from six companies, we created ve dummy variables and added them as additional controls to rule out the potential company effect. Finally, to better demonstrate the causal relationship, we controlled for job performance/career growth potential (time 1). Data Analysis Since 112 supervisors provided ratings of job performance and career growth potential for 281 subordinates, it is possible that supervisor ratings of more than one subordinate causes a certain nesting effect, i.e. the supervisors rating of one subordinate may inuence his/her rating of another. We tested this potential problem by calculating the size of design effect, with the result of all the indicators below the conventional cut-off value of 2. Hence, supervisor ratings were relatively independent and did not signicantly inuence the results of the study. We applied structural equation modelling with AMOS 4.0 to conduct conrmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to examine the convergent and discriminant validity of all multiple-item variables. Following Baron and Kennys (1986) four-step procedures, we then conducted four-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses to test the main and mediating effects (Baron and Kenny, 1986; Cohen et al., 2003). The effect of political skill on network resources was tested rst. Second, the effect of political skill on job performance (T2) and career growth potential (T2) was tested. Third, the effect of network resources on job performance (T2) and career growth potential (T2) was tested; and fourth, the mediating effect of network resources was examined by entering both political skill and network resources for predicting job performance (T2) and career growth potential (T2). To test the moderating effect of political skill in the relationship between network resources and job performance (T2) and career growth potential (T2), we followed Aiken and Wests (1991) procedures. The control variables were entered rst, followed by network resources and political skill in the second and third steps. The interaction term of network resources and political skill was entered in the last step for predicting job performance (T2) and career growth potential (T2). The variables used in the interaction term were centred to reduce any multicollinearity. RESULTS Conrmatory Factor Analysis CFAs were conducted to evaluate the distinctiveness of all multiple-item variables. We rst examined an eight-factor model in which political skill, network resources, job performance (T2), career growth potential (T2), positive affect, negative affect, job performance (T1), and career growth potential (T1) were included. The overall models chi-squared, the comparative t index (CFI; Bentler, 1990), the TuckerLewis index (TLI; Tucker and Lewis, 1973), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA; Browne and Cudeck, 1993) were used to assess the model t. The results
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Network Resources and Political Skill

Table I. Results of conrmatory factor analysis for the measures of the variables studied c2 Six factor model Five factor model: Political skill and network resources combined Five factor model: Network resources and job performance combined Five factor model: Network resources and career growth potential combined Five factor model: Job performance (T1) and career growth potential (T1) combined Five factor model: Job performance (T2) and career growth potential (T2) combined One factor model 2684.552 4178.760 3329.875 2906.685 d.f. 1563 1574 1570 1570 TLI 0.88 0.73 0.81 0.86 CFI 0.89 0.74 0.82 0.87

391

RMSEA 0.051 0.077 0.063 0.055

2834.216

1570

0.87

0.87

0.054

2822.623

1570

0.87

0.87

0.053

9070.172

1595

0.22

0.25

0.129

Notes: TLI is the TuckerLewis index; CFI the comparative t index; and RMSEA the root-mean-square error of approximation.

indicated acceptable model t: c2 (1563) = 2684.552, p 0.01; CFI = 0.88, TLI = 0.89; RMSEA = 0.051. In addition, all the path loadings from the latent constructs were signicant, conrming convergent validity. The discriminant validity was tested by contrasting the eight-factor model against alternative models. Model comparison results, which are reported in Table I, revealed that the proposed eight-factor model was considerably better than any of the alternative models. Thus, the distinctiveness of the key constructs in the study was conrmed. Given the above results, all proposed constructs were applied in further analyses. Descriptive Statistics Table II presents the means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for all the variables of the study. Network resources, job performance (T2) and career growth potential (T2) were positively correlated to each other (r = 0.21, 0.27, and 0.49, p 0.01). Moreover, all these three variables were positively correlated with political skill (r = 0.33, 0.12, and 0.20, p 0.05). Tests of Hypotheses Main and mediating effects. As Table III shows, political skill was positively network resources (b = 0.31, p 0.01, Model 2), job performance (T2) p 0.05, Model 4), and career growth potential (T2) (b = 0.15, p 0.01, Network resources was positively related to both job performance (T2) related to (b = 0.13, Model 9). (b = 0.19,

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Table II. Means, standard deviations, and correlations 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

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Variables

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1. Age 2. Gender 3. Organizational tenure 4. Tenure with the supervisor 5. Organizational level 6. Negative affect (T1) 7. Positive affect (T1) 8. Job performance (T1) 9. Career growth potential (T1) 10. Political skill (T1) 11. Network resources (T2) 12. Job performance (T2) 13. Career growth potential (T2) Mean SD 0.00 -0.10 -0.08 -0.10 -0.05 -0.03 -0.00 -0.00 0.07 -0.00 0.09 1.33 0.47 0.49** 0.26** 0.06 0.02 0.18** -0.01 -0.14* 0.06 0.21** 0.05 7.75 7.06 0.17** 0.05 0.01 0.15** -0.02 -0.09 -0.05 0.14* -0.01 4.05 3.07 -0.07 0.03 0.14* 0.10 0.02 0.06 0.10 0.07 1.51 0.64 (0.95) -0.42** -0.13* -0.18** -0.10 -0.01 -0.09 -0.21** 2.44 1.10 (0.91) 0.10 0.17** 0.17** 0.15* 0.06 0.18** 5.22 0.85 (0.86) 0.37** 0.02 0.10 0.40** 0.16** 3.83 0.68 (0.76) 0.13* 0.10 0.26** 0.42** 3.67 0.80 (0.92) 0.33** 0.12* 0.20** 4.24 0.73

-0.04 0.70** 0.31** 0.27** -0.05 0.10 0.18** -0.00 -0.05 0.05 0.20** 0.12* 2.85 1.47

(0.88) 0.21** 0.27** 4.10 0.78

(0.85) 0.49** 3.81 0.70

(0.75) 3.74 0.76

Notes: N = 281; * Signicant at the p 0.05 (** p 0.01) level. Bracketed values on the diagonal are the Cronbachs alpha value of each scale. Age: 1 below 26; 2 26~30; 3 31~35; 4 36~40; 5 41~45; 6 46~50; 7 above 51. Gender: male = 1; female = 2. Organizational level: front-line l employees = 1; front-line managers = 2; middle level managers = 3.

Table III. Results of hypotheses testing Job performance (T2) M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11 Career growth potential (T2) M12

Network resources (T2) M2

M1

-0.06 -0.02 -0.15* -0.04 0.01 -0.04 0.07 0.14 -0.06 0.03 0.09 0.18** 0.06 0.06 0.15* 0.08 0.13 0.10 0.10 0.04 0.01 0.08 0.01 0.03 -0.04 -0.01 0.36** 0.38** 0.13* 0.19** 0.08 0.17** 0.07 0.15** 0.16** 0.16 3.29** 0.09 28.07** 0.20 5.01** 0.20 5.01** 0.22 5.13** 0.02 5.48* 0.23 5.67** 0.03 11.65** 0.24 5.44** 0.02 7.94** 0.26 5.78** 0.02 8.60** 0.25 6.74** 0.25 6.74** 0.27 6.97** 0.02 7.74** 0.37** 0.15** 0.15* 0.09 0.14* 0.11 0.10 0.04 0.01 0.10 0.01 0.02 -0.04 -0.03 0.36** 0.16** 0.09 0.15* 0.11 0.10 0.05 -0.00 0.06 0.02 0.02 -0.06 -0.04 0.35** 0.16* 0.09 0.16* 0.11 0.10 0.05 -0.00 0.07 0.02 0.02 -0.05 -0.05 0.35** 0.17* 0.09 0.16* 0.12 0.10 0.04 -0.01 0.09 0.02 -0.00 -0.06 -0.04 0.34** 0.15* 0.05 0.16* 0.16* 0.09 0.12 0.08 -0.04 -0.04 0.03 -0.09 0.06 0.15* 0.06 0.18** 0.17** 0.08 0.11 0.08 -0.02 -0.05 0.03 -0.09 0.04 0.31**

-0.05 -0.00 -0.10 -0.01 -0.01 -0.05 0.07 0.19* -0.07 0.03 0.09 0.13* 0.07 0.03

0.16* 0.06 0.20** 0.17** 0.09 0.13 0.06 -0.08 -0.03 0.03 -0.11 0.02 0.36**

0.16* 0.06 0.21** 0.17** 0.09 0.12 0.06 -0.06 -0.03 0.02 -0.11 0.01 0.35** 0.09 0.24** 0.22**

0.17** 0.06 0.21** 0.18** 0.09 0.11 0.06 -0.04 -0.03 0.01 -0.11 0.02 0.34** 0.08 0.20** 0.13* 0.33 20.82** 0.06 8.21** 0.31 7.85** 0.04 15.09** 0.33 7.90** 0.02 6.34*

Network Resources and Political Skill

Control variables Firm 1 Firm 2 Firm 3 Firm 4 Firm 5 Age Gender Organizational tenure Tenure with the supervisor Organizational level Negative affect (T1) Positive affect (T1) Job performance (T1) Career growth potential (T1) Independent variable Political skill (T1) Mediation Network resources (T2) Interaction Political skill Network resources

R F DR2 DF

0.07 1.38 0.07 1.38

393

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Notes: N = 281; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05.

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p 0.01, Model 5) and career growth potential (T2) (b = 0.24, p 0.01, Model 10). After entering network resources, the effect of political skill on job performance and career growth potential disappeared, while network resources were still positively related to job performance (T2) (b = 0.17, p 0.01, Model 6) and career growth potential (T2) (b = 0.22, p 0.01, Model 11). Hence, Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 were supported. Besides the most widely used procedure suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986), the Sobel test (Sobel, 1982) was also performed to see whether the mediating effect is signicantly different from zero (Shrout and Bolger, 2002). Results of the Sobel test indicated that the mediating effect of network resources was signicant in the relationship between political skill and job performance (T2) (Z = 2.47, p < 0.01), and between political skill and career growth potential (T2) (Z = 3.14, p < 0.01). Therefore, Hypothesis 3 received further support. Moderating effect. Table III shows that the interaction between political skill and network resources was positively related to job performance (T2) (b = 0.16, p 0.01, Model 7) and career growth potential (T2) (b = 0.13, p 0.05, Model 12), and the interaction effect accounted for 2 per cent of the explained variance in both job performance (DR2 = 0.02, DF = 8.60, p 0.01) and career growth potential (DR2 = 0.02, DF = 6.34, p 0.05). Hypothesis 4 was thus supported. The nature of the signicant interactions was examined by plotting gures with values plus and minus one standard deviation from the means of political skill and network resources (Cohen et al., 2003). Figures 2 and 3 provide a clear illustration of the interactions by demonstrating the inuence patterns. To better illustrate the signicance of interactions (Aiken and West, 1991), simple slope analyses were conducted and the results were also presented in the gures. As shown in Figure 2, intra-organizational network resources were more positively related to job performance (T2) when employee political skill was high (b = 0.35, p 0.01), but were unrelated to job performance (T2) when employee political skill was low (b = 0.03, ns). Similarly, Figure 3 indicates that network resources were more positively related to career growth potential (T2) when
4.5

Job performance

(r = 0.35, p 0.01)
4.0

(r = 0.03, ns)
3.5

Network resources
3.0 low high
Low political skill High political skill

Figure 2. The interactive effect of network resources and political skill on job performance
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Network Resources and Political Skill

Career growth potential
4.5

395

(r = 0.37, p 0.01)
4.0

(r = 0.11, ns)
3.5

Network resources
3.0 low high
Low political skill High political skill

Figure 3. The interactive effect of network resources and political skill on career growth potential

employee political skill was high (b = 0.35, p 0.01), but were unrelated to career growth potential (T2) when employee political skill was low (b = 0.11, ns). These inuence patterns further supported Hypothesis 4. DISCUSSION Drawing on the literature of network resources and political skill, this study purports to examine the role that political skill plays in the formation, accumulation, and utilization of network resources. Our ndings indicate that political skill facilitates the development of network resources, which in turn promotes job performance and career growth potential. In addition, support was found for the moderating hypothesis. Our results conrm that the benecial effects of network resources on job performance and career growth potential are stronger for employees with a higher (as opposed to lower) level of political skill. Theoretical Implications Our study contributes to both network and political skill perspectives in several important ways. First, it is one of the few attempts to examine political skill as an antecedent of individual network resources. Previous research focuses mainly on demographic characteristics (Galaskiewicz and Shatin, 1981; Ibarra, 1993) and personality (Burt, 2005; Burt et al., 1998). However, these traits (such as self-monitoring and proactive personality) are highly correlated with networks (Mehra et al., 2001; Thompson, 2005), and due to their inborn and static nature, are unlikely to be activated to systematically inuence the dynamic process of network resource development. Our ndings suggest that political skill determines the extent to which individuals gain access to, develop, and become more centrally linked to important social networks. This study therefore sheds light on how network resources can be developed and inuenced by ones behavioural skills, such as political skill.
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By examining the antecedent role that political skill plays in developing network resources, this study contributes to the behavioural theory of the rm by suggesting that political skill enables one to establish coalition through leveraging his/her network resources to the attainment of career and performance goals. Refuting the claim that individuals are reactive recipients of their surroundings (Block, 1987; Zhang et al., 2009), this study suggests that individuals can actively acquire certain skills in response to environmental needs. Political skills have an impact on the development of social networks and informal social structure can be inuenced by political skills. This study also contributes to the literature of political skill by explaining the mechanism by which political skill inuences performance and career outcomes from the network perspective. Although political skill has long been regarded as important to individual work outcomes (Ferris et al., 2007), we know very little about how political skill operates (the black box) to the benet of performance and career. To respond to recent researchers calls for additional studies (e.g. Ferris et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2007), we incorporated network resources in our model. As we found, the impact of political skill on performance and career outcomes is transmitted via the effective accumulation of network resources, providing support for a network capital perspective of political skill effects on employees outcomes. Our ndings point to the importance of network resources in transmitting the effects of political skill to employee performance and career outcome. Given the importance of informal workplace relationships to performance (e.g. Oh et al., 2006; Sparrowe and Liden, 2005), our study underscores the inuential role of network resources in the political skillperformance relationship. Along with recent calls, we suggest that it is important to go beyond the current literature that focuses mainly on the direct effects of political skill on individual outcomes (i.e. Hochwarter et al., 2006; Perrew et al., 2000, 2005). Political skill facilitates the development of network resources, which in turn, provides important social resources and information to benet employees career and performance. Finally, our examination of political skill as both an antecedent and a moderator uncovers the comprehensive role that political skill plays in the process of network resource building. As a moderator, political skill delineates the condition under which network resources can be better utilized to obtain desired outcomes. Although prior research has acknowledged the direct effect of network resources on performance outcomes (Bozionelos, 2003; Bozionelos and Wang, 2006; Burt et al., 1998; Mehra et al., 2001), there is little systematic understanding of the processes that underlie how these resources can be better utilized and leveraged by individuals. Our results show that politically-skilled employees are more competent at utilizing and leveraging network resources to advance their career and performance than those who are less politically skilled (Ferris et al., 2007; Pfeffer, 1992). Network resources only provide valuable resource bases. Performance and career success also depends largely on ones capability/ skill to leverage and turn the valuable resources to his/her advantage. Network resources are socially constructed and are developed through social interactions and inuences. Our study yields evidence that political skill constitutes an important contextual factor in the process of network utilization. Developing political skill while developing and expanding network resources is therefore critical to the success of performance and career.
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Network Resources and Political Skill Practical Implications

397

This study offers some practical implications. From the employee perspective, individuals who desire to advance their career and work performance would benet from understanding how best to utilize their political skill and network resources to achieve their work goals. Our ndings suggest that individuals are not necessarily disadvantaged by the formal structural constraints, while it is possible for employees to try their informal relationships to benet themselves (Block, 1987). Individuals can harness their political skill to advance their performance and career through its effects on network resource development. That is, the level of political skill determines if an individual can reap the benets of network resources to his/her performance and career progression. From the organizational perspective, since political skill is conducive to synergistic relationships and has a direct effect on resource exchange and combination, intra- and inter-departmental cooperation and teamwork should be facilitated. In addition, since the positive effect of network resources on work outcomes is contingent upon political skill, effective training and development programmes and coaching techniques to improve employees personal skill would be recommended. However, this should be exercised with caution and accompanied with appropriate guidance, especially in countries such as China where network relationships are often overused to the neglect of actual work efforts. Managers and human resource professionals should therefore be cautious to ensure that network resources serve as an asset rather than a liability for organizational performance. Limitations and Future Research The results of this study should be interpreted in light of several limitations. First, we found political skill to be an important antecedent of network resources. Based on the premise that individuals are not passive recipients but active shapers of their environment (Zhang et al., 2009), we found that individuals who are more politically skilful are better able to take advantage of the benets embedded in their networks. We conrm the important role that personal skills play in developing employees network resources to advance their interests. Along this line of analysis, other types of personal or social inuence skills that may affect network resource development would be an interesting area for future research. Second, some dispositional traits (e.g. physical attractiveness) may also be directly related to social networks (Scott and Judge, 2009). Prior research show that some personal traits (i.e. self-monitoring and proactive personality) are associated with both political skill and social networks. Hence, it might be possible that political skill mediates the relationship between personal traits and social networks. Furthermore, the cognitive process (such as attention, perception, and thinking) underlying the relationship between political skill and network resources can be further examined. Our research therefore provides guidance for future studies to consider how these dispositional and cognitive variables may affect network building and whether such variables operate through political skill. It may also be interesting to examine guanxi formation. Future research incorporating these variables might enrich our understanding and provide additional insights to network resources development.
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Third, although we collected two waves of data from two separate sources, it was not possible to separate all variables into different times. One limitation thus relates to the causal relationship between network resources and employee performance/career growth, since they were collected at the same time (Time 2). Empirical methods were adopted to solve the problem. Performance/career growth (Time 1) was controlled in the model to better infer the causality between network resources (Time 2) and performance/career growth (Time 2). Even so, future research that incorporates longitudinal data could potentially offer better inferences for the causal relationships. Fourth, we examined the relationship between network resources and in-role job performance only in our study. Although we proposed that in-role performance is more a direct consequence of the accumulation and utilization of network resources, future research can also include the extra-role dimensions of performance. As prior research suggested, in-role performance can be an antecedent of extra-role behaviours (MacKenzie et al., 1998), therefore it would be interesting to examine if extra-role performance can be enhanced from in-role performance due to network resources. Fifth, another limitation relates to the measure of network resources. Although using a subjective measure of network resources would be advisable in the Chinese context where personal ties are often regarded as sensitive and hence respondents may be reluctant to disclose the information (Li et al., 2008; Peng and Luo, 2000; Xin and Pearce, 1996), the objective measure of network resources (e.g. using sophisticated quantitative techniques, such as name-generator approach) typically used in social network research can be more accurate (Burt, 2005). Therefore, future research that uses objective measure would be helpful to improve the rigour of the design. Finally, our data was collected from six private electronic companies in China. This approach permits us to better observe the proposed relationships between the individual factors while controlling for the effects of other factors, such as rm ownership type, industry characteristics, and location. This may, however, limit the generalizability of our ndings. We therefore suggest that future research should replicate our ndings on samples of rms with different ownerships, from various industries and locations. CONCLUSION Drawing on the behavioural theory and networks perspective, this study examines the roles that political skill plays in the development and utilization of network resources. Our ndings conrm the antecedent and moderating role of political skill in establishing and utilizing network resources, which in turn inuence work outcomes. This study therefore contributes to the literature by uncovering the mechanism that underlies the relationship between political skill and work outcomes. It also adds to our understanding of the boundary condition under which network resources are linked to work outcomes in organizations. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to the editor and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and suggestions. Comments from Dr Jian Liang on an earlier version of the paper are also appreciated.
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Network Resources and Political Skill REFERENCES

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