Abstract:
This research has been mainly based on the model of perceived organizational politics
proposed by Ferris, Russ and Fandt (1989). Four constructs namely perceptions of
organizational politics, job satisfaction, perceived control and understanding have been
taken into consideration. Further the locus of control introduced by Robbins (2005) was
also taken as the next construct. The research studies carried out on the relationships
between the above mentioned variables seem to be inconsistent. Some researchers have
found that no correlation exists between these variables whereas other studies indicate a
weak to moderate relationship between these variables. Many theoretical findings and
researches on the perception of organizational politics – job satisfaction relationship have
been originated from the western organizational context. It seems that information about
Sri Lankan environment is almost nil. The researcher has attempted to find out whether
there is a relationship, positive or negative among the above mentioned five constructs in
the Sri Lankan environment. The researcher selected the commercial banking sector for
this study as it is the most developed and promising sector. The sample of the study
consists of 300 employees currently engaged in the commercial banking sector. The
sample respondents were chosen randomly. After one month long questionnaire
collection, 300 useful questionnaires were collected to identify the relationship in this
research. The data was analyzed by using regression analysis and correlation analysis.
Hypotheses of the study were tested with the help of the analyzed data. The results
indicate that locus of control is positively related to perceived organizational politics. In
other words, internal locus of control personalities perceives a lower level of
organizational politics compared to external locus of control personalities. Perceived
organizational politics impact negatively on job satisfaction. Perceived control and
understanding influence the negative relationship between perceived organizational
politics and job satisfaction at a moderate level. Besides, internals acquire higher job
satisfaction compared to externals. These conclusions were drawn subject to number of
limitations such as sampling errors and findings cannot be generalized to organizations
other than commercial banks which have quite unique job characteristics.
