The Role of Participation in Decision-Making in the Organizational Politics-Job Satisfaction Relationship

The present study examined the impact participation in decision-making (PDM) had on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and expressions of job satisfaction among 1251 public sector employees. We hypothesized that perceptions of organizational politics would reduce job satisfaction and that the detrimental effect of poltics on job satisfaction would be weakest among workers who engage in consensus decision-making with their supervisors. We used confirmatory factor analyses to determine whether the variables used in this study reflected distinct constructs. Then, we used correlational analysis and hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that the variables reflected distinct constructs and confirmed the hypotheses. Examination of the interaction indicated that the effect of PDM on job satisfaction was robust at high levels of perceived politics.