From Politically Naïve to Politically Mature: Conceptualizing Leaders’ Political Maturation Journey

Abstract This paper contributes to the literature on organizational politics and leadership. Current studies of leaders’ engagement in politics neglect notions of learning and development. The current paper aims to overcome this shortcoming by providing a developmental perspective on leaders’ engagement in organizational politics. Using in‐depth qualitative interviews with leaders at different seniority levels, the study examines developmental patterns in leaders’ willingness and ability to engage in organizational politics. The inductive findings inform a three‐stage model of political maturation, providing insights into the developmental nature of political will and political skill. Drawing on leadership skill and adult development literature, the paper posits that political maturation entails not only changes in leaders’ observable skills and behaviours, but also deep‐structure changes in mindsets and cognitive scripts regarding engagement in organizational politics. Furthermore, findings demonstrate the roles of experience and significant others in facilitating learning about organizational politics. The paper discusses theoretical and practical implications of this dynamic, developmental perspective.