PERCEPTION OF ORGANISATIONAL POLITICS, PERCEIVED ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AT THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION IN GHANA

ABSTRACT

Employee perception of organisational politics constitutes an important aspect of organisational life with respect to its members as these influence various processes which ultimately affect performance of employees. Although many studies have been conducted to broaden the concept and find its relationship with employee performance, most studies made use of a narrower stream for the measurement of employee performance. The purpose of the study was to examine the moderating role of perceived organisational support in the relationship between perception of organisational politics and employee performance at the Electoral Commission offices in the Western Region. The study was underpinned by two theories: theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behaviour. Due to the research objectives, the study employed the quantitative approach and adopted the explanatory/causal research design. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from a randomly sampled 80 workers out of 96 occupying all Electoral Commission offices in the Western region. The study employed both descriptive and inferential analytical tools and found that perceived organisational support had a significant effect on employee performance. The study also found that, perceived organisational support did not significantly moderate the relationship between perceived organisational politics (POP) and employee performance (EP) since there was no significant relationship between POP and EP. In this light, the study recommended that, management of the Electoral Commission of Ghana should create a supportive environment that would help employees satisfy their psychological, economical, physiological and emotional needs in order to enhance their performances