Organizational Psychology

Article Review Area: Organizational Psychology Source Jam, F. F., Sheikh, A. R., Iqbal, H., Zaidi, B. H., Anis, Y., & Muzaffar, M. (2011). Combined effects of perception of politics and political skill on employee job outcomes. African Journal of Business Management, 5(23), 9896-9904. Retrieved from http://academicjournals.org/article/article1380363658_Jam%20et%20al.pdf Introduction This review will critically assess the aforementioned paper with regard to subject introduction, intellectual plot, methodology, discussion and outcomes. Further, the article will be summarized followed by an analysis of its structure.

This paper attempted to examine the link of POP (perception of politics) with job outcomes, facilitated by political abilities, in companies within Pakistan. Numerous job outcomes like job stress, affective communication, contextual performance, and turnover intent, have been addressed. The research is grounded in the resource conservation theory (Hobfoll, 2002), which stresses that political capabilities help tackle job stressors. Hence, an examination of its role relative to job outcomes and POP can aid employees in improving their political capabilities and avoiding the adverse impacts of workplace POP.

Researchers surveyed three hundred staff members of service as well as public sector firms by utilizing self-report measures. While study findings are in line with hypotheses, researchers failed to establish a significant linkage between affective dedication and POP as hypothesized. The discussion section links outcomes to prior studies via only name dropping. Research implications and conclusion state that findings can aid HR departments’ recruitment efforts, besides predicting workforce job outcomes by evaluating their political abilities.

Article Critique Authority The paper was obtained from the Academic Journals-issued AJBM (African Journal of Business Management), which is an effect-factor journal, thereby being a credible source. Academic Journals publishes several peer-reviewed physical science, biology and social science journals. Gaps in credibility have to be taken into account and dealt with at every level of research planning, publication and reporting, irrespective of research design (Skelly, 2014).

Moreover, researchers’ credibility is established by their roles as senior university faculty at the following renowned Pakistani private universities: University of Central Punjab, University of Central Punjab (Lahore), and International Islamic University. The study’s chief researcher is a doctoral degree holder. But no links have been presented, to any other papers published by these authors, which could increase their authority.

Accuracy The data presented within the paper is appropriate to the context, in addition to being supported using in-text citations and a complete bibliography at the paper’s end. Information sources for the research paper include international journals and books which contribute to content accurateness. But the paper’s accuracy hasn’t been completely maintained, since some information in the abstract (indicating the study was cross-sectional) has not been included within the paper’s body.

As the abstract is that section of any paper most likely perused by readers, it needs to be an accurate reflection of the paper. This sort of deficit creates room for misinterpretation and must be taken care of in the future. Currency As it was published in the year 2011, the paper may, at a first glance, be considered a recent addition to extant literature. But the references used belong to the 70s, 90s and 2000s and this broad publication date range renders the paper not current.

The hypothesis is based on theories and studies published in the years 1970 & 1977, respectively. Ever since, various political, cultural, and economic developments have occurred; it would have been more prudent if the authors based their study on modern theories and literature. Relevance Despite being grounded in not-so-recent literature, the paper is relevant as regards its intellectual plot and context. Researchers have addressed concepts using distinct findings and information when establishing the study hypothesis from the literature review.

Furthermore, the journal wherein the paper appears is relevant to the subject and field. But the content and study title aren’t adequately relevant to each other – readers might think the study is experimental owing to the use of the term ‘combined effect’ in its title, when, in fact, it is a wholly correlational study; even the literature review includes correlational studies and not experimental ones.

Objectivity Authors have maintained a fair amount of objectivity in the paper, using theories and studies to support the content and incorporating a proper bibliography in the end, leaving no doubts as to its authority. Data has been collected using objective measures, decreasing likelihood of bias when scoring, interpreting and reporting results. Additionally, control variables and statistical techniques check optimal confounding on account of variables besides the research variables (Wunsch, 2007).

But control variable usage isn’t evidence-based and sample diversity (participants have been taken from service as well as public sector firms) may give rise to inherent result confounding as both organizational forms’ dynamics differ from one another. Furthermore, personal references were used to select the sample, raising some doubts regarding its objectivity. Analysis of Table and graphs Tables incorporated into the paper hold relevant data and details on results.

However, in the first table, standard deviation (SD) and mean (M) are mentioned even in case of categorical variables, which is unsuitable. Further, table 2 fails to cover control variables’ dummy codes when reporting their relationship to study variables when control variables’ categorical nature has been explicitly mentioned. In addition, regression outcomes have been presented using two distinct Tables: Table 3 and Table 4). The latter would have sufficed as it displays outcomes of the main (step 2, table 3) as well as interection (step 3). Hence, Table 3 was not needed.

Lastly, step 2 of table 4 includes the product of moderator and independent variables (POP x PS); for avoiding multicollinearity, entering this product in the 2nd block after centring (that is, score deviation from mean) would be better (Aiken & West, 1991). Ethical Concerns (APA, 2017). · 3.10 Informed consent. The informed consent principle was considered when performing this study. Subject participation was voluntary and based on authors’ personal references. · 4.01 Maintaining Confidentiality. Confidentiality of the information provided by study subjects was maintained. · 3.04. Avoiding Harm.

Psychologists undertake reasonable action for ensuring no harm comes to their patient or client, organizational client, study subjects, supervisees, pupils and colleagues, and work to minimize any inevitable or predictable harm. All this was considered by the authors of the given study. Conclusion On the whole, the authors made a good effort to study political capabilities’ moderating impact relative to several jobs’ outcomes and POP. The moderation’s findings reveal that POP is harmless if combined with political abilities.

Furthermore, authors’ examinations of these linkages using control variables ought to.