The bright and dark sides of organizational politics: a moderated mediation model of honesty-humility and anger

Researchers have focused predominantly on the dark side of organizational politics. Relatively less attention has been devoted to the bright side of organizational politics, particularly in non-Western contexts. Developing a more holistic understanding of this phenomenon is imperative by considering both the bright and dark aspects of organizational politics. The main objective of this research was to examine direct and indirect associations between perceived organizational politics (POP) and sanctioned and non-sanctioned political tactics through anger. Moreover, we investigated the moderating role of honesty-humility (HH) in the relationships between anger and two categories of political tactics. Our sample consisted of 309 white-collar employees in the service sector in Islamabad, Pakistan. Data from a multi-wave survey were analyzed using the variance-based structural equation modeling. Results demonstrated that POP has direct and indirect positive effects on sanctioned and non-sanctioned political tactics through anger. The results of moderated mediation analysis indicated that the indirect effect of POP on sanctioned political tactics via anger was stronger at high levels of HH. In contrast, the indirect effect of POP on non-sanctioned political tactics via anger was weaker at high levels of HH. We contribute to the literature by integrating both POP and political tactics into a single model, unravelling anger as a mediator of two separate pathways, and providing new insights into the moderating effect of HH in the phenomenon of organizational politics.