This study examined perceived political behaviors as a critical, yet largely overlooked, component in the traditional organizational politics perceptions model. Further, this study developed an expanded version of the traditional antecedents to politics perceptions and examined the mediating effect of perceptions of politics in the model. Results from 260 full-time employees suggested that the use of reactive/defensive political behaviors exacerbated the already negative effects of perceived organizational politics on outcomes. Further, the set of variables that come from the job/work environment were found to explain more variance in perceptions of organizational politics than the set of organizational or individual variables. Finally, perceptions of politics demonstrated mediation effects between the antecedent variables and job satisfaction, job anxiety, and intent to turnover Discussion centers around the expanded model and the need to conceptually and empirically link politics perceptions with political behaviors.
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