Leadership styles - Employee upward influence tactics relationships: Testing the moderating effects of political skill and organizational politics perceptions

Extending previous leadership research (Epitropaki & Martin, 2013), this study examined the moderating effects of Pakistani employees' political skill (PS) and perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) on the relationship between leadership styles (transformational and transactional) and subordinate's upward influence tactics (soft, hard, and rational). Data collected from a variety of work settings demonstrated that followers exacerbated the use of hard upward influence tactics toward transactional leaders, and the use of soft tactics toward transformational leaders in the 'vulnerable condition' (i.e., low PS and high POPs). Moreover, low PS employees were found to use soft tactics toward transactional leaders in only the low POPs condition. However, in the 'resourceful condition' (i.e., high PS and low POPs), followers limited their use of upward influence tactics toward transformational and transactional leaders; and similar limited influence behavior was observed among high PS followers in high POPs condition. Results suggest that both transformational and transactional leaders reflect the tendency to instigate manipulative or defying upward influence behaviors among their low PS followers. We conclude with contributions to theory and practice, study limitations, and directions for future research.