When and how political skill becomes counterproductive: A moral licensing view

Abstract

Counterintuitive to the generally prevailing positive view of political skill, we suggest that this social competency also has the potential to foster dysfunctional outcomes for organizations. Drawing insights from moral licensing theory, the study examines a framework that explains how politically skilled employees strategize to fulfill their self-serving objectives through leader-member exchange (LMX) relations. The findings from a multi-source sample of 250 private sector employees supported our proposed framework and demonstrated that political skill is indirectly related to self-serving counterproductive behaviors through LMX, with psychological entitlement as an important boundary condition. The study’s implications, its strengths and limitations, and future research directions are also discussed. JEL Classification: D23