The Dark Side of Political Skill: When Awareness Reduces Life Satisfaction

Prior research has typically explained the positive intrapsychic influence of political skill using Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. However, theoretical and empirical research explaining possible negative intrapsychic consequences of maintaining a high level of political skill is lacking in the literature. Therefore, we introduce Cognitive Activation Theory (CAT) to the political skill literature to theoretically explain possible negative outcomes of political skill. In order to test this theory, we examined the relationship between affective and continuance commitment, life satisfaction, and political skill in a large Latin American organization. Consistent with both COR and CAT, results indicated that political skill strengthened the relationship between affective commitment and life satisfaction. However, contrary to COR, but in line with CAT, political skill weakened the relationship between continuance commitment and life satisfaction.