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Dispositional Effects in Intra-Organizational Influence Tactics: A Meta-Analytic Review

June 28, 2006 

"The antecedents of influence tactics have been a major focus of inquiry in studies using dispositional variables such as impression management, Machiavellianism, self-monitoring, locus of control, social identity, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, role clarity, gender, age, context, direction of influence, and task objectives.  This study tested dispositional effects of tactics used, employing literature search strategies consistent with those described by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Bommer (1996) and sample-weighted meta-analytic procedures consistent with those of Fuller and Hester (1999), using the Hunter and Schmidt (2004) validity generalization procedures.

The influence tactics examined in this study included the six tactics originally proposed by Kipnis et al.: ingratiation, rationality, exchanges, coalitions, upward appeals, and assertiveness.  Ingratiation is the practice of getting others in a good mood before trying to influence them, often taking the form of flattery.  Rationality involves making logical persuasive arguments to influence the decisions or behaviors of others.  Exchanges are characterized by the offer of tangible rewards or favors for compliance from others, and may include reminding others of past favors when attempting to influence them.  Coalitions involve gathering support from several people, creating a peer pressure or a 'ganging up' effect to influence others' actions or decisions.  Upward appeal can best be described as gaining support from someone's boss in an effort to influence that person using the hierarchical structure to work the system when attempting to influence.  Assertiveness is the practice of making repeated requests in order to influence another to do something.

Hypothesis 1:  Impression management reported by agents will be positively related to their use of ingratiation, coalitions, upward appeals, and assertiveness tactics. 

Hypothesis 2:  Machiavellianism of agents will be positively related to their use of exchange, ingratiation, assertiveness, upward appeals, and coalition influence tactics.

Hypothesis 3:  Self-monitoring of agents will be positively related to their use of ingratiation, coalitions, exchanges, and assertiveness influence tactics.

Hypothesis 4a:  External local of control will be negatively related to rationality influence tactics.

Hypothesis 4b: External locus of control will be positively related to exchanges, upward appeals, and ingratiation influence tactics.

Hypothesis 5a: Social identity of agents will be negatively related to their use of assertiveness, upward appeals, and coalition influence tactics.

Hypothesis 5b: Social identity of agents will be positively related to their use of ingratiation and exchange influence tactics.

Hypothesis 6: Intrinsic motivation of agents will be positively related to ingratiation and rationality influence tactics.

Hypothesis 7: Extrinsic motivation of agents will be positively related to their use of assertiveness, ingratiation, exchanges, upward appeals and coalition influence tactics.

The meta-analytic procedures of Podsakoff et al. (1996) for reviewing the literature and selecting studies to include in the analysis were used.  Computerized searches were conducted using PsychInfo, Social Sciences Index, and Business Source Elite from 1980-2004.  The year 1980 was chosen as a starting point because it corresponds with the seminal work of Kipnis et al. (1980), who devised the first empirical measure of intraorganizational influence tactics.  Overall the literature search identified 237 published studies, dissertations, or book chapters that included citations of the influence tactics model.  Of these initial articles 58 could be eliminated because they were not examining the domains of interest to this analysis.  The remaining 179 published studies, dissertations, or book chapters were obtained for manual examination and possible inclusion in the meta-analytic procedures.  Upon further examination, most of these articles proved inappropriate for inclusion for this study. 

Dispositional antecedents demonstrated some fairly consistent correlations with influence tactics used.  The power of these relationships was acceptable, suggesting that the sampling sizes were adequate.  It appears as though person-oriented antecedents of influence tactics have been fairly well established in the literature to date, and, judging by the results of these analyses, offer some insight for understanding influence behavior. 

This research effort is an important step for testing dispositional antecedents of intra-organizational influence tactics.  Several relationships between person-centered variables (such as impression management, Machiavellianism, self-monitoring, locus of control, social identity, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation) and influence tactics used were revealed in this study.  With additional research, the antecedents of influence tactics can be better understood and empirically derived (Barbuto, J.E.; & Moss, J.A., 2006, p. 30-52)."

Reference:  Barbuto, J.E.; & Moss, J.A.. (2006).  Dispositional Effects in Intra-Organizational Influence Tactics: A Meta-Analytic Review.  Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, Vol. 121, No. 3. 

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Created: 2007-08-28, Updated: 2008-12-04