Political Skill, Gender, and Social Network Positioning of Chinese Employees

Abstract

We collected data from 156 Chinese hospital employees to investigate how political skill and gender affect their advice and friendship network positioning. We found employees with high levels of political skill are more likely to proactively seek friendship ties, while political skill does not affect employees’ advice networks overall. In addition, results show that for men, those with high levels of political skill have lower in-degree centrality in advice and friendship networks than those with less political skill. Political skill does not affect women’s network positions.

Keywords

political skill / gender / social networks / Chinese organizations

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Brill