Impact of perceived organizational politics on employees’ job satisfaction in the commercial banking sector of Sri Lanka

Abstract

This research has been mainly based on the model of perceived organizational politics proposed by Ferris, Russ and Fandt (1989). Four constructs namely perceptions of organizational politics, job satisfaction, perceived control and understanding have been taken into consideration. Further the locus of control introduced by Robbins (2005) was also taken as the next construct. The research studies carried out on the relationships between the above mentioned variables seem to be inconsistent. Some researchers have found that no correlation exists between these variables whereas other studies indicate a weak to moderate relationship between these variables. Many theoretical findings and researches on the perception of organizational politics – job satisfaction relationship have been originated from the western organizational context. It seems that information about Sri Lankan environment is almost nil. The researcher has attempted to find out whether there is a relationship, positive or negative among the above mentioned five constructs in the Sri Lankan environment. The researcher selected the commercial banking sector for this study as it is the most developed and promising sector. The sample of the study consists of 300 employees currently engaged in the commercial banking sector. The sample respondents were chosen randomly. After one month long questionnaire collection, 300 useful questionnaires were collected to identify the relationship in this research. The data was analyzed by using regression analysis and correlation analysis. Hypotheses of the study were tested with the help of the analyzed data. The results indicate that locus of control is positively related to perceived organizational politics. In other words, internal locus of control personalities perceives a lower level of organizational politics compared to external locus of control personalities. Perceived organizational politics impact negatively on job satisfaction. Perceived control and understanding influence the negative relationship between perceived organizational politics and job satisfaction at a moderate level. Besides, internals acquire higher job satisfaction compared to externals. These conclusions were drawn subject to number of limitations such as sampling errors and findings cannot be generalized to organizations other than commercial banks which have quite unique job characteristics.