The Influence Of Performance Appraisal Politics On Work Engagement Of Civil Servants ——A Moderated Mediating Model

As an important instrument of scientific management decision-making,the accuracy of performance appraisal has always been a most significant research aspect in the field of performance management.However,the political objectivity of performance appraisal is common,which indicates that in most circumstances,performance appraisal results could be greatly affected by the evaluator’s personal subjective intentions.Based on the field investigation,it is found that civil servants often feel that the actual performance appraisal result does not meet their expectations,which is an important reason that drives changes in their work enthusiasm and emotional status.Presently,when attentions are being paid to government performance management,clarifying the internal mechanism of civil servant performance appraisal politics is a prerequisite for upgrading the government performance management system.This paper examined the impact of performance appraisal politics on civil servants’ work engagement.Firstly,a literature review was conducted to conceptualize performance appraisal politics,work engagement,leading member exchange,and perceived insider status.Through reviewing and analyzing existing literature in the field,this paper systematically reviewed these four concepts,and put forward brief research comments accordingly.This process laid the foundation for both a framework for empirical analysis and further research hypothesis.At the same time,literature around the social exchange theory was extracted and analyzed,based on which,together with the previous reviewing process,the study proposed the empirical analyzing framework and hypothesis.This paper adopted the research method of empirical analysis and completes the data collection by issuing questionnaires.Based on a review of domestic and oversea literature,this study identified mature and authoritative scales to compile the questionnaire which was later distributed among civil servants.Then the sample data were analyzed,the research hypothesis proposed in this paper was tested step by step,and finally the research results were obtained.The findings include: first,the politics of incentive performance appraisal positively affects the work engagement of civil servants,while the politics of punitive performance appraisal has a negative impact on civil servants’ work engagement.Second,the exchange of leading members plays a partial intermediary role between performance appraisal politics and civil servants’ work engagement.Third,perceived insider status plays a negative moderating role on the mediating effect of the leadership member exchange.Fourth,perceived insider status negatively moderates the positive relationship between leadership member exchange and civil servant work engagement.The results obtained from the empirical analysis were considered and discussed.At the final stage,research results were integrated and reflected on practical situations to inspire follow-up research in the field of public management practice.