Ronald E. McNair Program


Inneka K. Minor
Name: Inneka K. Minor
School: Alcorn State University
Major: Business Administration
Mentor: Dr. Mark N. Bing
Expected Graduation Date: May 2009 
Organizations & Honors: 
  • Miss Alcorn State University 2008-2009 
  • Student Government Association 
  • Alcorn State University Cheerleading Squad 
  • Disney College Program Campus Representative 
  • Alcorn State University Yearbook Staff 
  • President’s Scholar/ Dean’s Scholar  
  • Alcorn Chapter of the National Council for Negro Women, Inc.  
  • Tom Joyner Scholarship Recipient 
  • Ronald E. McNair Scholar 
E-MAIL: iminor601@yahoo.com 

ABSTRACT

A Meta-Analysis of the Research on Political Skill

The psychological construct known as political skill has been shown to be related to a variety of workplace outcomes, such as individual differences in job performance. However like individual differences in cognitive ability, individual differences in political skill may not be universally valid predictors of job performance. For example, cognitive ability is a much better predictor of job performance among engineers than among physical laborers. Likewise, some jobs and occupations require more political skill, such as networking abilities and social influence tactics, than others in order to achieve adequate to superior levels of job performance. Thus, this research investigated whether the social influence requirements of jobs studied to-date with respect to the construct of political skill do indeed moderate (i.e., change) political skill’s relationship with job performance. It was found that as the extent of the social requirements of the jobs increased, so did the strength of the relationship between employee political skill and job performance across those jobs. In addition, implications for personnel selection practices and future research are discussed.