Why and when will the organisational political perception of employees foster their organisational citizenship behaviour?

The influence of organisational politics on organisational citizenship behaviour has been controversial. On the basis of impression management theory, a three-way moderated mediation model was built to explore their complex relationships using the data from a large sample of 2,596 employees across industries and areas in China. Results show that perceiving a high level of organisational politics can activate the impression management motivation of the employee, which in turn leads to organisational citizenship behaviour, and this pathway is most salient among high self-monitors with increased tenure. The obtained findings suggest that organisational politics may foster an employee's altruistic behaviour (i. e., organisational citizenship behaviour) through their self-serving motivation (i.e., impression management motivation), and this indirect effect is also contingent on one's self-monitoring which evolves over time. The conclusions obtained in this study provide a significant reference for organisations and decision-makers to well manage the effects of organisational politics, create a positive working atmosphere and improve organisational performance.