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1 International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences 2013 Available online at ISSN X / Vol, 8 (1): Science Explorer Publications Study of the Relationship between Perceived Organization Political Behavior and Organizational Decision Making Styles of Sports Boards Directors- General of West Azarbaijan Province Babak Morad Zadeh 1, Seyyed Ja far Mousavi 2, Jamshid Sayyar Nezhad 3 1. Holder of MA in Sports Management from Islamic Azad University, Sari Branch 2. Faculty Member of Mazandaran Science and Research University 3. Faculty Member of Islamic Azad University, Qaem Shahr Branch Corresponding Author rasooltahery@yahoo.com ABSTRACT: Present research was conducted to examine the relationship between perceived organizational politics and decision making styles of sports boards directors-general of West Azarbaijan Province. It is a correlational applied descriptive-survey study. Statistical population comprised of all directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province approximately amounting to 152. Based on statistical population distribution, simple random sampling was employed and sample size of 102 was selected based on Morgan s table. Research instrumentsconsisted of Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (POPS) and Decision Making Styles Questionnaire and their validities were approved by thesis supervisor and other relevant experts and their reliabilities were calculated using SPSS and calculated Cronbach s Alphas were respectively 0.76 and Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including mean, frequency and standard deviation. Also linear regression and Pearson s Correlation test were used from inferential statistical field. Results from data analysis showed that decision making styles of directors-general of the studied sports boards may be predicted based on perceived organizational politics. In other words, organizational decision making is correlated with perceived organizational politics. Keywords: perceived organizational politics, decision making styles, Physical Education Organization, sports boards directors-general. INTRODUCTION The most important management principle is decision making because a manager performs all managerial functions based on it. If goal setting, policy making, strategy planning, making rules and procedures, selection and employment of human resource, specification of functions and responsibilities of subordinates and supervision, control and evaluation of their performance are considered as managers tasks, then the prerequisite for all of these activities is decision making ( Sa aadat, 1993). Decisions being made in a system are considered as the basis for executive functions and operations. Indeed every action is based on a decision. Thus quality and validity of management of a system is dependent upon the quality of decisions being made within that system (Pour Ma sum, 2009, p.248). In recent public administration approaches, emphasis on public services are mainly of political nature and it is necessary for administrative officials to have political acuity. It does not mean to engage in political activities or having party affiliations. It simply means that since public managers and administrative officials serve to various governments thus they are required to be aware of political issues (Heuz et al, p.283). Organizational politics is a controversial concept. Reviewing previous research, it is seen that politics is a prevalent phenomenon in every organization (Vigoda, 2000, p.327) such that Ro bins (1983) believes that all behaviors in an organization are political. But little is known about its nature and borders. Managers are not able to and should not remove political behaviors from their organization because some of these behaviors are functional and may be used in order to achieve organizational goals (Rahim Nia and Hassan Zadeh, 2009, p.25).

2 Growth, success and failure of organizations result from decisions made by their management. In every organization, there are managers who make decisions and quality of these decisions determine the success of organizations in achieving organizational goals. Without some decision making mechanism, organizationswould collapse and transform into a group of individuals each one following their own interests. Thus decision making is considered as a major issue (Sarfarazi, Sepehr Nia and Kavousi, 2010). TheMinistryof Youth Affairs andsports is the main organization responsible for all sports aspects from general level to professional one in Iran. Thus more research is required on its performance. with respect to the fact that the above-said variables are among factors influential with respect to organizational performance and also given lack of sufficient research in this field in Physical Education Organization, thus the following research questions are raised in present study: given the importance of organizational politics and effect of organization political behavior on decision making in organizations, thus which decision making styles are used by directors-general of sports board of West Azarbaijan Province? How is their perception of political behavior in their organization? How decision making processes are adopted so that employees perception of organizational justice is improved? And especially, which dimensions of these styles do increase perception of organizational justice by employees? Decisions being made by people at top level of the organizations are of the most important because they have usually the most influence on organizational performance. Also decisions being made by other managers influence the performance of organization (Rahman Seresht and Fayyazi 2009): research findings show that even decisions made by subordinate managers have major effects on organizational success. Also Daft (2006) defined organizational politicas as applying power to decision making process in order to achieve intended outcomes (Daft, 2006, p.793). Besides all these issues, often managers do not want to share their values and beliefs with others in the process of management and making fundamental decisions. Generally two concerns preoccupy managers during decision making: Forward movement: why should the current safe status be changed? What is wrong with it? Losing power: managers do not want to lose their control on affaires but they want to lead all processes based on their own desires. Thus present study aims to study the relationship between organizational politics or organization political behavior and organizational decision making in the organization. Research in this field has shown that politics is a main element in work places and it should be investigated in a more serious manner. Meyer and Allen (1977) argued that organizational politics is to employ influence to achieve illegitimate goals or achieve legitimate goals using illegal tools. Ferris and Kacmar (1992) believed that organizational politics consists of strategic behaviors aiming to maximize personal benefits. Thus it may be in conflict with collective goals or others interests (Qoli Pour, Tahmasbi and Monavvarian, 2010). Organizational Politics Queen believes that political behavior includes activities generally being used to enhance legal power or establish the authority (Salajeqeh and Nazeri, 2010). Kacmar and Baron (1999) provided the following definition for organizational politics: organizational politics consists of a set of activities being conducted by individuals to enhance their benefits at thecost others and organizational wellbeing and interest (quoted by Ford, 2002, p.5). In present research perceived organization political behavior is represented by the score obtained by responders to POPS. Political behavior is a behavior outside of work regulations domain. This behavior requires employing personal power. Decision Making Decision making consists of choosing analternative among several present ones. Indeed the main responsibility of decision maker is to figure out the possible alternatives and their probable outcomes and choose the best one (Sarfarazi, Sepehr Nia, Kavousi, 2010). First stage Identification Of situation Second stage Developing alternatives Third stage Evaluation And selection Fourth stage Follow up and implementation Figure1. Decision Making Typical Process (Adopted from Rezaeian, 1983, p.66) 59

3 Relevant experts believe that politics is among the natural elements of strategic decision making of managers. They define strategic decision making as engagement in material interests. This leads managers to support each other, control information and form alliances (Nasr Esfehani, 2002, p.49). Factors contributing to Political Behavior With respect to competitive environment, internal conditions and type of management, organizations are in different situations and with respect to the same differences they may have different effects on employees political behavior. The most important factors having effects on shaping human resource political behavior comprised of two ones: Individual factors related to those working in organizations (b)organizational factors resulting from organizational culture and internal setting (Nasr Esfehani 1997). Parker et al (1995) found that perceived organizational politics had no relationships with job satisfaction, loyalty, senior management efficiency and support of organizational positive values. But they found that those responders who perceived their organizations more political also tended to consider them less supportive. Ferris et al (1989) indicated three potential reactions with respect to perceived organizational politics: increased job stress, decreased job satisfaction, organizational withdrawal. Later studies supported these relationships. The most prominent relationship is that between perceived organizational politics and job attitudes. For example Drory (1993) found that perceived organizational politics had a negative effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. He found that perceived organizational politics had a potential destructive effect on subordinate employees. But it had no negative effects on higher level ones. He believed that lower level employees who did not have an influential position, perceived organizational politics as a potential source of frustration and disappointment and reacted to the political atmosphere with negative attitudes towards the organization. With respect to different viewpoints and various dimensionsrelated to political behavior, relevant studies show that favorable and effective political behavior in the organization is necessary to increase human resource and organizational productivity such that today it is studied as political behavior management in organizational behavior field. Zarei (2011) studied the relationship between organizational commitment and employees perception of politi cal behavior of organizational top officials in Education Organization of Fars Province and its four school districts. Study sample comprised of 104 number of employees of Education Organization selected by classified random sampling. Findings showed that there was a negative correlation between employees perception of political behavior of organizational top officials and organizational commitment. Also by dividing political behavior in to two categories including positive and negative ones, it is seen that employees perception in negative category leads to decrease in their organizational commitment. Blickle et al (2009) explored whether political skills is equally effective in predicting performancein various jobs. Results showed that there was a relationship between political skills and job performance and the more the job demands, the higher the predictive power of political skills. Methodology Present research was conducted to study the relationship between perceived organization political behavior and organizational decision making of directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province in To this end and given the employed instruments, research subject and study of the relationship between perceived organization political behavior and organizational decision making, it can be said that present research was a correlational survey study. Statistical population of present research consisted of all directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province during According to reports of the related statistical bureau, total number of directors-generalwas about 152. In present research sample size was determined using Krejcie & Morgan s table; with respect to statistical population, 108 subjects were selected as the study sample using simple random sampling. 110 questionnaires were sent to directors-general of sports boards at province level and among them 102 returned copies were usable and accepted for data analysis. Research instruments in present study consisted of two questionnaires. one of them was Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (POPS). This scale was used by Hasani and Shirazi (2013) in Orumie University and the reported reliability was In their study, perceived organizational politics was assessed at three levels including top level, higher than current level and current level. The second questionnaire was Decision Making Styles Questionnaire with five dimensions including Rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous and avoidance styles. It should be noted that questions in present questionnaire are closed-end ones and responders were selected using simple random sampling and thequestionnaires were submitted in person or were sent by mail or fax. Sports boards directors-general completed the questionnaires and submitted them to information desk of their work place which then they were received by the author in person or were sent back to the author by or fax after follow up calls. These returned questionnaires were used for data analysis using descriptive and analytic 60

4 statistical methods. Since Decision Making Styles Questionnaire was a standard scale, thus its reliability was already confirmed by other researchers. For example Hadi Zadeh Moqaddam and Tehrani (2009) reported Cronbach s alpha of 0.71for organizational structure questionnaire. Also they used this questionnaire for theirthesis and the reported Cronbach s alpha was For present studychronbach s alpha coefficient was calculated for the entire questionnaire using SPSS version 16 and it was Findings Study of the normality of distribution for perceived politics scores at various organizational levels and decision making style of directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province along with its components. Findings show that data from Perception of Organizational Politics Scale and Decision Making Styles Questionnaire had normal distribution. It was demonstrated using significance level statistics which was for perception of organizational politics (P<0.05) and for decision making styles (p<0.05). With respect to the fact that both figures are higher than pre-specified p-values, thus it is concluded that data from both research instruments had normal distribution. Descriptive Statistics of organizational politics Descriptive statistics on the variable organizational politics was arranged in to parts; in the first one, descriptive information on the variable for all study subjects was considered which was related to responses to question 1 from sub-questions. Question 1: how is the perception of politics at various organizational levels among directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province? Findings show that mean perceived politics at various organizational levels is with standard deviation of Also with respect to the obtained results, after study of descriptive scores for different dimensions of perception of politics at various levels including perception of politics at top level of the organization, perception of politics at the level higher than current one and perception of politics at current level it is inferred that scores related to all dimensions are higher than average. Findings show that frequency of directors-general with bachelor s degree, Master s degree and PhD are respectively 55, 38 and 9 and their mean scores are respectively 3.426, and Descriptive Statistics for Organizational Decision Making Styles Descriptive statistics related to the variable organizational decision making styles was arranged in two parts; in first one, descriptive information related to this variable was provided for all subjects based on responses to subquestions. Question 2: how is the situation of decision making among directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province? Study of descriptive scores of various dimensions of decision making styles show that mean, standard deviation and variance of the sample for each of five dimensions including avoidance style, spontaneous style, dependent style, intuitive style and rational style are respectively (3.275, 0.596, 0.355), (3.496, 0.642, 0.412), (3.357, 0.535, 0.286), ( 3.290,0.540, 0.292) and (3.386, 0.634, 0.402). With respect to the obtained results, it is concluded that scores for all dimensions are higher than average. Descriptive Statistics for Decision Making Style separated by Education Level Findings show that frequency of directors-general with bachelor s degree, Master s Degree and PhD are respectively 55, 38 and 9 and their mean scores are respectively 3.414, and In this section, findings based on research questions are studied. Question 3: is there a positive significant relationship between perception of politics at various organizational levels and decision making styles of directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province? Pearson s correlation was employed for this test. Pearson s correlation coefficient Table1. descriptive statistics related to question 3. Perceived organizational politics politics Correlation coefficient Decision making style Significance level N N سبک تصمیم گیری ضریب ھمبستگی سطح معنی داری 102 تعداد 61

5 There was a positive significant relationship between perceived politics at various levels of organization and decision making styles of directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province because according to the above table, Sig= which is lower than Pearson s correlation coefficient between perceived organizational politics level and decision making styles (0.586) suggests the direct (positive) relationship between these two variables. Question 4: if any dimensions of perception of organizational politics including perception of politics at top level of the organization, perception of politics at the level higher than current one and perception of politics at current level are able to predict decision making styles in the organization? In order to predict variables based on one or more other variables, first it is necessary to find a relationship or correlation between them. Pearson s correlation coefficient was employed to study the correlation between dependent variable (decision making style) and each dimension of independent vari able (organizational politics perception at top level, at the level higher than current one and at current level) and the results are shown in Table 2. table of calculation of Pearson s Correlation Coefficient and significance level for the relationships between variables Items Decision making style Pearson s correlation coefficient Perceived politics at top level Significance level Pearson s correlation coefficient Perceived politics at the level higher than Significance level current one Pearson s correlation coefficient Perceived politics at current level Significance level N 102 In Table 2 Pearson s correlation coefficients for perceived organizational politics dimensions including perception of politics at top level of the organization, perception of politics at the level higher than current one and perception of politics at current level are presented. Findings show that there is a positive significant correlation between each dimension of perceived organizational politics and organizational decision making style. This conclusion is based on values for Pearson s correlation coefficient and significance level which are (0.254, 0.005), (0.621, ) and (0.558, ) respectively for perception of politics at top level of the organization, perception of politics at the level higher than current one and perception of politics at current level. Sample size for this test was 102. This findings suggest that the dependent variable can be predicted based on the independent one. For study of this hypothesis, simple linear regression model was used and the results are shown in the following table. Model 1 R a Table 3. Multiple linear regression model summary R Adjusted R ΔR Significance level based on F-value a:predictors(constant), Perceived politics at top level, Perceived politics at the level higher than current one, Perceived politics at current level b:dependent variable: decision making style Table 3 shows multiple linear regression model summary for research variables. This table shows that to what extent the dependent variable (decision making style) can be estimated and predicted using independent variables (perceived politics at top level, perceived politics at the level higher than current one, perceived politics at current level). Model Constant Politics at top level Politics at top level Politics at current level B Benchmark variable: decision making style Table 4. Correlation coefficients a Standard error B Beta t t-value significance

6 In simple regression analysis it was shown that based on B weights, B standard errors, Beta coefficients and t- values and corresponding significance values for variables politics at top level, politics at top level and politics at current level, it is concluded that there is a significant correlation between each dimension of independent variable and dependent one. Question 5: to what extent there is a significant difference between attitudes of directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province towards perceived organizational politics based on their education level? This question compares directors-general attitudes towards perceived organizational politics based on their education levels. To answer this question, one-way ANOVA was used and the results are shown in table 5. Findings show that F (3) value is and p-value is With respect to the fact that F-value is higher than the critical value in the relevant table (F=3.87) and also given the fact that significance value is lower than a=0.05, thus it is concluded that there is a significant difference between attitudes of directors-general based on their education levels and all of them do not have the same opinion with respect to this issue. Table5. one-way ANOVA to test the effect of attitudes of sports boards directors-general of West Azarbaijan Province based on their education levels Items Sum of squares df Mean of Squares F Significance level Inter-group Intra-group Total In order to compare attitudes of directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province based on their education level in a pairwise manner, Tukey s test was used. The results are shown in Table 6. Findings show that there is a significance difference between attitudes of directors-general of West Azarbaijan Province sports boards depending they have bachelor s degree or Master s degree ( significance level 0.007) and also this significant difference (significance level 0.035) is seen between directors-general with Master s degree and those with PhD but no significant difference was seen between those with bachelor s degree and those with PhD. Table6. Tukey s test for pairwise comparison between groups based on educational level Items Education Education Mean difference Standard error Significance level degree(i) degree(j) (I-J) Tukey s test Bachelor s degree Master s degree PhD Master s degree Bachelor s Degree PhD PhD Bachelor s degree Master s degree mean difference is significant at 0.05 level Education level Figure1. Bachelor s degree Master s degree PhD 63

7 CONCLUSIONS Among important issues with respect to selection of managers, their job profiles and educational degrees may be mentioned. It is expected that managers with higher educational levels and more years of job experience are more successful because they exploit more knowledge and experience in their decision making process and also they are more familiar with organizational politics. Thus based on the above assumptions it is expected that there is a significant difference with respect to perceived organizational politics between managers based on their education level. Findings of present study also confirmed this assumption. It is worthwhile to note that there is a significance difference based on education level and the present research shows that directors-general of sports boards of West Azarbaijan Province exhibit a significant difference with respect to their attitudes towards perceived organizational politics based on their education level. That difference is seen between those with bachelor s degree and Master s degree and also between those with Master s degree and PhD but no significant difference was seen between directors-general with bachelor s degree and those with PhD. Of course it should be noted that the latter finding does not mean that there is no difference between decision making at undergraduate and doctorate levels or they have the same perception of organizational politics. However this findings may suggests a deep difference which merits further research. What is the effect of perception of organizational politics on other activities including decision making which is a major issue? Is politics a major factor in identification of decision making attitudes and work outcomes? Does managers politics and their awareness of politics of top management, subordinate managers and their own politics have impacts on decision making styles? Present study aims to answer the above questions by addressing the reactions of managers and directors-general of West Azarbaijan Province sports boards to organizational politics and power relations. In present research, the relationship between perception of organizational politics and decision making styles was studied. As seen from the findings, directors-general of West Azarbaijan Province sports boards had a high level of perceived organizational politics. Thus the relationship between perceived politics and organizational commitment was confirmed. It means to the extent that sports boards managers and directors-general see a political atmosphere in their organizations and believe that politics and power games are of high status in their organizations, they are make decisions according to attitudes and desires of their superiors and top management. Zarei (2011) found that there was a negative correlation between employees perception of political behavior of their superiors and organizational commitment. Findings of present research also is consistent with this result. In present research, perception of politics at the level higher than current one had the most correlation with decision making style. Thus it can be concluded that decision making style is more correlated with perception of politics at the level higher than current one rather than with perception of politics at top level. It means that viewpoints of higher level managers influences managers in their decision making and they pay attention to their superiors in their decision making process and this means low organizational commitment. Of course Hadi Zadeh Moqaddam and Tehrani (2008) also studied the relationship between general decision making styles of managers in public organizations. They found that various factors including individual, organizational and environmental ones impacted decision making styles and one of the most important factors among them was perception of politics in organization. Another important issue which may be discussed in this respect includes implementation and application of decisions in organization. Obviously every decision made by a manager may be in conflict with interests of other groups or organization. Such decisions may induce resistance from other employees. In this respect Hadavi Nezhad, Khaef Elahi and Alizadeh Sani (2009) showed that there is a posit ive significant relationship between organizational politics perception and cognitive and emotional resistance of employees against change. They found that managers politics exacerbates the relationship between perception of organizational politics and cognitive and emotional resistance of employees against change. Of course as reported by Rahim Nia and Hassan Zadeh (2009), such behaviors and actions in organizational setting cause relationship avoidance of individuals and this in turn exacerbates the conflicts. Among other important issues with respect to contribution of political thoughts to organizational decision making, presupposition of party loyalty may be mentioned. It means that an individual or manager make decisions based on his\her own interests and those of his\her affiliates and at the higher level, his\her desired governing party. This presupposition was tested by Qoli Pour, Tahmasbi and Monavvarian (2009) and it was concluded that political tendencies had effects on organizational citizenship behavior and managers and employees who were biased towards the governing party showed more organizational citizenship behavior than others. It meant that they considered the interests of their party in their decision making and this is consistent with findings of present study. 64

8 Also they found that those who do not had tendency towards the governing party, did not show high levels of organizational citizenship behavior and they can be considered as change resistant employees. Overall, with respect to findings of present study and other similar ones it can be concluded that power relations and politics are visible in Iranian organizations and these factors have impacts on decision making, performance, commitment, job satisfaction, etc. Unfortunately in the course of the present study the author found that Iranian employees and managers not only did not have any positive attitude towards organizational politics, but also it seemed that they were even afraid of raising such issues. It seems that with respect to importance of perceived organizational politics and its effect onorganizational behavior, decision making and performance, more research should be conducted in this field. Recommendations for Future Studies With respect to the fact that present research was conducted in Physical Education Organization, researchers are encouraged to study the same variables in other organizations and departments. With respect to the fact that presentresearch was conducted in a public organization, researchers are encouraged to perform comparative studies on the effect of perceived organizational politics on decision making styles in public and private organizations. REFERENCES Blickle G, Kramer J, Zettler I, Tassilo M, James K. Summers, Munyon Timothy P, Gerald R. Ferris " Job Demands as a Moderator of the Political Skill-job Performance Relationship", Career Development International, Volume,14,Issue,4, Ford JM Organizational politics and multisource Feedback. A dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University Doctor of Philosophy The Department of Psychology Hadavi Nezhad M, Khaef Elahi AA, Alizadeh Sani M Managerial Politics, political perception of employees and resistance to change, Quarterly of Management Science, year 4, No.16, pp Hadi Zadeh Moqaddam A, Tehrani M Study of the relationship between general styles of management decision making in public organizations, period 1, No.1, pp Heuz A New public administration, translated by Alvani, Khalili Shourini and Me mar Zadeh, Tehran: Morvarid Publishing. Nasr Esfehani A Political behavior in organization, Tadbir, No.75, pp Pour Masoum AA Thought Centers and their role in management decision making. Rahborde Yas, No.17, pp Qoli Pour A, Monavvarian A, Tahmasbi R Effects of political environment of public sector on organizational behavior of employees and managers, Quarterly of Politics, period 39, No.4, pp Qoli Pour A, Tahmasbi R, Monavvarian A Study of the effect of party loyalty on organizational citizenship behavior in Public organizations, Humanities Teacher-Management Research in Iran, period 14, No.2, pp Rahim Nia F, Hassan Zad Zh Study of the moderating role of organizational justice in organizational politics perception and individuals relationship avoidance, Transformation Management Journal, Year 1, No.2, pp Rahman Seresht H, Fayyazi M Relationship between power perception and organizational politics and commitment and performance of employees, Managerial Humanities and Social Science Journal, year 8, No. 29, pp Rahman Seresht H, Taqi Zadeh Motlaq M Perception of Organizational Politics and Organizational Behavior (forthcoming). Robbins Stephen P "Organizational behavior", Eleventh edition, Prentice Hall of India Salajeqeh S, Nazeri M An analytical study on political behavior management in organizations, Leadership and Management, year 4, No.14, pp Sarfarazi M, Sepehr Nia R, Kavousi E Effect of creativity on improvement of management decision making: A case study, Innovation and Creativity in Science, year 1, No.1, pp Vigoda E Organizational Politics, Job Attitudes, and Work Outcomes: Exploration and Implications for the Public Sector Journal of Vocational Behavior 57, (2000) Zarei F Study of the Relationship between Organizational commitment and employees perception of political behavior of top officials in Education Organization of Fars Province and four school districts of Shiraz. 65