Title: Organisational politics: a fulcrum in the organisational trust-affective commitment association

Authors: Eram Shahid; Malik Ikramullah; Muhammad Zahid Iqbal; Muhammad Mustafa Raziq; Faqir Sajjad Ul-Hassan

Addresses: Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan ' Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan ' Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan ' NUST Business School, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan ' Department of Management Sciences, Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak, Pakistan

Abstract: While using an integrative perspective of social exchange and job demands-resources theories, the present study aims to provide empirical evidence on: 1) the mediating effect of perceptions of organisational politics on organisational trust-affective commitment relationship; 2) the conditional process effect of organisational support. The study utilises survey data from (N = 300) full-time bank employees from Pakistan. Data are analysed by employing a variance-based SEM approach. Results suggest that organisational trust subsides' organisational politics, thereby makes employees affectively committed. Organisational support strengthened the relationship between organisational trust and organisational politics more when it is low than when it is high. Furthermore, organisational support has a negative moderated-mediation effect on organisational trust-affective commitment association via organisational politics. The study provides a novel insight by considering trust as a precursor to minimise politics thereby enhancing affective commitment.

Keywords: organisational politics; organisational trust; organisational support; affective commitment; moderated-mediation.

DOI: 10.1504/MEJM.2022.121395

Middle East Journal of Management, 2022 Vol.9 No.2, pp.184 - 208

Received: 30 Dec 2020
Accepted: 12 Feb 2021
Published online: 10 Mar 2022 *

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