Drawing upon signaling theory and newcomer socialization literature (i.e., newcomers as signal senders, supervisors as signal receivers, and veterans as third parties), the current study examined how supervisors attribute politically skilled newcomers to performance enhancement motives and impression management motives, which ultimately lead to increases and decreases in newcomer reward recommendations, respectively. In this three–wave longitudinal study of 132 newcomer–supervisor dyads and 390 veterans across eight months, we tested the hypothesized model and found that newcomer political skill had a negative indirect effect on reward recommendation via supervisor–attributed impression management motives but had no significant indirect effect through performance enhancement motives. Furthermore, newcomer–veteran interactions (i.e., veteran help in newcomer socializing) amplified the positive relationship between newcomer political skill and supervisor–attributed performance enhancement motives. The results partially supported our hypotheses. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.
