The Effect of Employees Organizational Commitment on Upward Influence Tactics and Employees’ Career Success: An Indian Study

Influence tactics are goal-oriented behaviors that individuals use to obtain desired outcomes. Thus, it is important that managers understand subordinates’ use of influence tactics and the effects of these tactics on employees’ career success. In this study, the author also investigated the effect of employees’ organizational commitment on the relationships of upward influence tactics and employees career success. Data was collected from 135 employees (managerial=115, supervisory=20) from an Iron and Steel Industry to reveal answers to the questions of present research. For this purpose, the middle level managers and their employees were contacted personally and were requested to fill the questionnaires comprising measure of influence strategies and employee related outcomes. Findings of the studies suggest that employees who used any of these influence tactics were more successful in their career, but no significant effect of organizational commitment was found on the relationship of upward influence tactics and career success of the employees. However the results indicated trend of negative relationship, though not significant between UI tactics and continuance commitment. Practical and research implications for the findings as well as directions for future research are offered.