Self-efficacy and political skill as comparative predictors of task and contextual performance: A two-study constructive replication

Task and contextual performance are distinct and critical components of job performance. However, empirical studies of antecedents have tended to focus on one or the other type of performance, but not both. Furthermore, sound theoretical rationale has not always been provided for the prediction of different dimensions of job performance. Two studies were conducted to address these issues. In Study 1, as hypothesized, we found self-efficacy to be more strongly related to task than to contextual performance, and political skill to be more strongly related to contextual than to task performance. In addition, and as expected, results indicated self-efficacy to be a better predictor of task performance than political skill, and political skill to be a better predictor of contextual performance than self-efficacy. These results were constructively replicated (Lykken, 1968) in Study 2, thus providing strong support for the validity of the hypothesized and obtained empirical results. Implications of these results and limitations of the research are discussed, as are suggestions for future work.