Method of assessing political skill for personnel selection: Development and validation of a situational judgment test

Political skill is a critical interpersonal competency. However, the self-reported political skill scale is unsuitable for personnel selection beacuse it may lead to socially desirable responses, thereby compromising the authenticity of the test scores. Consequently, the absence of a valid assessment method limits the application of political skill in selection contexts. In this study, we applied the situational judgment test (SJT) method to measure political skill and conducted two substudies to evaluate the reliability and validity of the situational judgment test of political skill (SJT-PS). Study 1 focused on the development and initial testing of the SJT-PS. The results demonstrated that the SJT-PS possessed strong structural validity and reliability. Study 2 aimed to assess the criterion-related and incremental validity of the SJT-PS. To evaluate the predictive validity of the SJT-PS in selection contexts, we first compared the correlations between the SJT-PS and self-reported political skill with social desirability. Subsequently, we selected team-member exchange (TMX) and workplace popularity as criteria. The results indicated that the SJT-PS was less affected by social desirability, while self-reported political skill exhibited a significant positive correlation with social desirability. Additionally, the SJT-PS positively predicted TMX and workplace popularity and demonstrated incremental validity over the self-reported political skill scale.