This mixed methods research explored the interrelation among leadership styles, organisational politics and employees’ performance in the Oil and Gas Industry in Oman. Previous studies have implied that leadership style was vital in organisations, but scholars appear to have mixed views of leadership operated in Arabic countries. Indeed, the extent to which leadership is intertwined with politics and employees’ performance in Islamic organisations also remains debated. The current research employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design where the quantitative data was collected and analysed first in Study One, followed by qualitative data collection, based on topics framed by the findings from the first study, in Study Two. The quantitative study (Study One) consisted of questionnaires distributed randomly to two groups of participants (managers and employees). The total size of the managers’ sample was 184 respondents, while the employees’ sample was 209 respondents. The qualitative study (Study Two) consisted of semi-structured interviews with 27 participants representing different ages, genders and career levels. The use of the qualitative interviews assisted in exploring and making more in-depth sense of the quantitative findings. In Study One, the results revealed that employees perceived that their leaders displayed transformational leadership style more often than either transactional or passive/avoidant leadership. The findings revealed also a negative relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ perceptions of organisational politics, whereas a positive relationship was found to exist between transactional leadership and the perception of organisational politics. Furthermore, the findings indicated a negative relationship between the perceptions of organisational politics and organisational citizenship behaviour. In Study Two, participants’ perceptions of organisational politics were interpreted according to four levels: reactive, reluctant, strategic, and integrated. The four levels captured how individuals defined, described, and perceived outcomes of organisational politics. Additionally, the study reconciles and refines the dimensionality of political skill as related to existing models in the field. The proposed classifications of levels, definitions, and behaviours complement and extend existing conceptualisations of both transformational leadership and organisational politics. Additionally, the current research contributes to the understanding of organisational politics that is more balanced than the existing negatively skewed conceptualisations and this will have implications for measurement and management of organisational politic

This mixed methods research explored the interrelation among leadership styles, organisational politics and employees’ performance in the Oil and Gas Industry in Oman. Previous studies have implied that leadership style was vital in organisations, but scholars appear to have mixed views of leadershi...