Does Performance Rating Discrepancy Mediate the Relationship Between Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Job Satisfaction? A Comparative Study of Public and Private Sectors

Organizational politics have been shown to negatively impact employees’ work attitudes, yet their influence on performance appraisals and sectoral differences remains underexplored. This study examines how employees’ perceptions of organizational politics affect performance rating discrepancies—differences between self-ratings and supervisor ratings—and job satisfaction. Drawing on organizational justice theory, it is proposed that politically charged workplaces lead employees to perceive appraisals as unfair, thereby increasing rating discrepancies and reducing job satisfaction. These effects are expected to be more pronounced in the public sector than in the private sector. An analysis of Korean employees supports this proposition, revealing that public employees perceive higher levels of organizational politics and experience more adverse effects than their counterparts in the private sector.