How Politically Skilled Employees Navigate Supervisory Feedback for Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Employees Across Multiple Industries

Huilu Hou; Ce Zhang

doi:10.62177/apemr.v2i6.957

Authors

Huilu Hou Gyeongsang National University
Ce Zhang Gyeongsang National University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62177/apemr.v2i6.957

Keywords:

Political Skill, Feedback Seeking Behavior, Employees’ Creativity

Abstract

This study investigates how employees’ political skill shapes their creative performance through supervisor directed feedback seeking. Although political skill is widely recognized as an interpersonal resource, the behavioral processes through which it facilitates innovation remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on social efficacy and feedback-seeking theories, we propose that politically skilled employees are more capable of navigating hierarchical interactions, reducing the interpersonal costs of requesting guidance, and securing developmental input from supervisors thereby enhancing creativity. Survey data from 412 employees across multiple industries in China were analyzed using hierarchical regressions and bootstrapped mediation tests. The results demonstrate that political skill positively predicts feedback seeking, and both constructs are positively associated with creativity. Feedback seeking partially mediates the political skill–creativity link, indicating that politically skilled employees are more creative in part because they proactively acquire diagnostic and boundary-spanning information from supervisors. These findings advance a process-oriented understanding of political skill, highlight feedback seeking as a pivotal interpersonal mechanism for creativity, and suggest that organizations can foster innovation by cultivating both political skill and psychologically safe feedback environments.

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