Reactions to Organizational Politics: A Cross-Cultural Examination in Israel and Britain

Abstract

This article reports a comparative analysis of reactions to organizational politics (OP) in two substantially different cultures, Israel and Britain. Two resembling samples of public personnel (n1 = 303 and n2 = 149 in Israel and Britain, respectively) were used to examine employees’ perceptions of organizational politics as well as several possible work outcomes (e.g. intentions of exit, voice, loyalty, neglect, job satisfaction, met expectations, and absenteeism). No differences were found between employees’ levels of politics perception in the two samples. However, a between-sample analysis supported the hypotheses of differences in reactions to OP across cultures. Generally, perceptions of organizational politics affected British employees more strongly than Israeli. The former responded with higher intentions of exit and neglect and lower levels of loyalty, job satisfaction, and met expectations. From these results, our main speculation is that reactions to OP may depend on cultural variants relevant to the organizational environment. Our findings are interpreted mainly in light of the idea of cultural differences in perceptions of conflict and politics. Accordingly, this study’s chief merit is its indication that culture-oriented constructs may be useful determinants of reactions to OP. Other implications of the study are also discussed, as well as suggestions for further inquiry into the cultural investigation of OP.