Abstract
AIMS: To analyse how organisational politics can affect behavioural responses such as organisational deviance and organisational citizenship behaviour towards the organisation among nurses. It also investigates the mediating effect of affective commitment between organisational politics and behavioural responses, and assesses the moderating effect of nurses' professional self-concept in the relationship between organisational politics and its outcomes. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was performed among 229 nurses. METHODS: Data were collected between May and November 2019. The sample demonstrates its representativeness of the nursing population based on several demographic characteristics. RESULTS: The study reveals that organisational politics has a positive effect on organisational deviance and nurses' professional self-concept has a positive moderating effect on this relationship. Affective commitment mediates the relationship between organisational politics and organisational citizenship behaviour towards the organisation. CONCLUSIONS: From a social exchange perspective, this research identifies the moderating role of nurses' professional self-concept in the relationship between organisational politics and organisational deviance. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, our study contributes to a better understanding of how the non-significant relationship between organisational politics and organisational citizenship behaviour towards the organisation is mediated by affective commitment. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION: Nursing managers should pay special attention to organisational political perceptions among nurses with elevated professional self-concepts and address them through a collaborative organisational culture and clear norms to mitigate the adverse organisational consequences of organisational politics among nurses. In this sense, managers should actively listen and communicate effectively, as they represent the organisation's values. NO PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution was involved in this study. IMPACT: The results of this study provided a better understanding of the organisational politics' effects among nurses on relational and behavioural responses and the moderating role of professional self-concept in these relationships.