The present study tested por tions of an expanded Ferris and Judge (1991) framework regarding influence processes in human resources decisions and actions. In particular, the roles of political skill and a particularly efficacious influence tactic, rationality, were examined with respect to their interactive effects on supervisor perceptions and evaluations. Online questionnaires were used to collect data from full-time, non-faculty employees of a large south-eastern US public university. To avoid problems associated with common method variance resulting from same source data, supervisors rated subordinates on outcome measures and subordinates supplied data on predictors. The final sample was comprised of a matched dyadic data set of 291 subordinates and their supervisors. Results indicated support for the hypotheses. Specifically, political skill was found to directly relate to the use of rationality and moderate the positive relationship between rationality and two supervisory perceptions known to affect supervisor ratings of job performance, notably supervisor liking of subordinates and perceived similarity to subordinates. Further, perceptions of liking and similarity were positively related to supervisor ratings of both task performance and two important contextual job performance components. Implications of the results, strengths and limitations of the research, and directions for future research are discussed.
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