The buffering role of political skill on the relationship of interpersonal conflict and project performance through negative emotion as a mediator

The purpose of this research is to study the moderating role of political skills on the association of Interpersonal conflict and Project performance. This paper conducted a quantitative study to measure the moderating role of political skills. Past researches recognized that conflict is a vibrant aspect to lessen project performance through budget overrun. Negative emotions provoked by interpersonal/social conflict have a negative influence on project performance. The influence of interpersonal conflict on project performance by Lessing the dysfunctional outcome is the most emphasized part of this research. In the previous studies, the contingency approach was used to inspect the interpersonal conflict. This research was conducted in the defense industry of Saudi Arabia for the first time. Data was collected from project managers and project members. Hypotheses were tested with 280 samples and process macro was used to test the moderated mediated relation. A survey revealed that political skill does not act as a moderator. Furthermore, findings revealed that there exists a full mediation. Negative emotion mediates the relationship between negative emotion and project performance. This study would be a great step to strengthen the existing literature and will also help to increase knowledge in the prevailing literature. The research was on a small scale and data was conducted from small numbers of respondents. Moreover, research should be conducted to identify the reasons why a political skill does not exist as a moderator in the defense industry. Further, the analysis should be done to identify the other factors which make the project successful even in the presence of interpersonal conflict. When a political skill is not acting as a moderator then what are other factors that could act as a moderator to increase project performance should be catered in the future.


Introduction
*In this section, the background of the study is given and the problem area is presented for which research is conducted. Also, research objectives and research problems are clearly mentioned and the complete structure of a research report is written. Past researches on project success have shown that project success is greatly influenced by conflict, especially interpersonal conflict (Brockman, 2014). Hahn (2000) said that there is more than 20 percent occurrence of "Interpersonal conflict" at the workplace. Most of the time of managers is spent in dealing with conflict among personnel. Brockman (2014) said that unsettled harmful interpersonal/social conflict on the job site is not entirely comprehended.
Interpersonal conflict in a project-based organization is not avoidable. Such as construction projects; a number of different parties are involved in a construction project such as owner, suppliers, and contractor (Senaratne and Udawatta, 2013). The interest of one part differs from other parties. Sometimes it is perceived that concern of one party is being opposed by another one, they will feel threatened and tensed. The nature of interpersonal/social conflict is inevitable and the effect of conflict is harmful; so the basic device of interpersonal/social conflict and project performance is studied by different scholars. Brockman (2014) applied a qualitative approach to search the reasons and penalties of a relational skirmish on a building site. In Brockman's (2014) work, it is established that clash is a vital factor to reduce project performance through budget overrun. Negative emotions aroused by interpersonal/social conflict have a negative impact on project performance. Cooke-Davies (2002) also specified that critical role is played by individuals in project tasks and activities and project results.
Team performance is the chief concern of emotionally positive people. So, the similarity between sentiments and project performance requires more attention. The effect of interpersonal conflict on project performance by Lessing the dysfunctional effect is the focus of research. In the past researches, a contingency approach was used to examine the interpersonal conflict (Huang, 2012;Lin et al., 2014). It is established by the likelihood view of the effects of interpersonal/social conflict that the way and amount of the effects will depend on the impact of related factors (Huang, 2012;Lin et al., 2014). The moderating role of objective positioning on the relationship between clashes "Interpersonal/social conflict" and "Team performance" is explored by Huang (2012). When team performance positioning is high it strengthens the negative bond between relationship clash and team performance. The impact of relationship clash (interpersonal/social conflict) on performance through the effects of reliance and conversation is explored by the development of a conceptual model in Lau and Cobb's (2010) study. The bond between interpersonal conflict and performance is related to different forms of reliance and conversation as examined in this study.
Demands for inspection of possible moderating factors in order to clarify some of the mixed verdicts are encouraged by a contingency approach as showed by these studies. The influence of the moderating factors on the original variables' relationships is analyzed by contingency research. Guidance is provided to executives on adjusting suitable management schemes by this analysis. The determination of this study is to bring out how the effect of interpersonal conflict on the project performance is moderated by interpersonal ability factor-political skill. A project team is a varied group in which political skill is a moderator factor as shown in this research. Politics is ingrained in an organization (Mintzberg, 1985). A well-developed political skill can help practitioners in dealing with social conflict and maximization of project output (Mintzberg and Mintzberg, 1983).
So, the research problem is: To study the buffering role of political skill on the relationship of interpersonal conflict and project performance through negative emotion as mediator.
Following are the main objectives of this research:  To identify the impact of Interpersonal Conflict on project performance.  To investigate the impact of Interpersonal Conflict on negative emotions.  To understand the impact of negative emotions on project performance.
 To study mediating role negative emotions among the relationship interpersonal/social conflict and project/job performance.  To identify the moderating role of political skill  between  interpersonal/social  conflict  and  project/job  performance  through  negative  emotions. This research would deliver several theoretical and pragmatic contributions in numerous ways. Previous quantitative researches had devoted little attention to the bond between interpersonal/social conflict and project performance. Furthermore, the results of this study would help the employee to understand the mechanism of interpersonal impact on project/job performance. The moderating role of political skills would become clear for employees. After the viewpoint of conflict administration, absorbing and training team members with an extraordinary level of political skill in building projects is an effective conflict administration strategy. This study would be a great step to strengthen the existing literature. This study would contribute to filling gaps laying in the existing literature by finding the impact of interpersonal/social conflict on project performance. It is not only significant for its contribution to academic research but also helps the local managers, policymakers, project teams and other supervisors and contributors in a better understanding of conflict management.

Literature review
This section covers all the constructs of the study that are defined and conceptualized. Relationships among the variables and hypotheses are developed in this chapter. Research model and hypotheses are developed.

Project performance
In the midst of hardened market rivalry, Project-Based Organizations otherwise called PBOs must recognize that the human factor is massively critical to the accomplishment of a task (Sunindijo et al., 2007). As debated by Cooke-Davies (2002), individuals run ventures, and that makes the human factor a basic achievement factor in the accomplishment of any project.
The performance of a project is regularly controlled by four components which are project financial plan, project plan, quality, quality, and customer satisfaction. Struggle during the time of construction may influence at least one of these components. Furthermore, conflicts may cause intrusions and incidentally suspension of the entire work of construction. Performance of Construction projects can be influenced by cultural contrasts, absence of sufficient task management, and the natural structure of clashing interests in the project. Internal clashes and conflicts can influence the performance of the project through quarrels among members, for example, proprietor, temporary worker, and specialist etc., (Al-Sibai and Alashwal, 2014).
The project performance is characterized by proficiency, adequacy, and practicality (Henderson and Lee, 1992). Effectiveness is mostly deliberated as smooth group activities and adherence to designated assets time and cost. Adequacy is estimated as the value of work created and meeting with the goals of the project.
Usually, a project is thought to have accomplished a great level of performance if it is conveyed at the ideal time, at ideal cost and great quality level. It must provide the customer high level of fulfillment and satisfaction (Ghadamsi and Braimah, 2000).
The achievement of a construction project can be demonstrated by the performance of that project. The project performance will be reliant on different variables including complication, contractual schedules, associations between members in the project, capability and aptitude of the project manager, and the capabilities of the significant participants in projects. The performance of the project is generally judged and evaluated by project estimation. Project estimation is the basic strategy to gather and report the data identified with the sources of inputs, productivity, and adequacy of a construction project (Takim et al., 2003).
There are different criteria to measure the project/job performance i.e. cost, time and quality of the project. But now the trend has been changed (Walton and Dawson, 2001). While measuring the project performance different stakeholder expectations should be focused (Bryde, 2003;Maylor, 2001). Now different models are used to measure the project performance according to different stakeholders because it is difficult to measure the expectations of all stakeholders.
In this study, the criteria which are used to study the project performance are general criteria used for different projects i.e. Project cost, time, quality, stakeholder satisfaction, project safety and risk goals are used as the same criteria are used in the past studies (Zhang, 2015).

Interpersonal conflict
In the modern era, teamwork is considered more attractive to achieve organizational goals. But effective teamwork has to face considerable challenges (Guzzo and Shea, 1992). Interpersonal conflict is one of those challenges. It is defined as one of the top job stressors (Brockman, 2014).
Interpersonal clash is also famous as the dyadic clash which means the contradiction or incongruence between at least two authoritative individuals from the equivalent or diverse progressive levels or offices (Rahim, 2002).
Conflict and clash are unavoidable in any project related to construction especially and may impact its performance. Global construction projects include individuals from various foundations, occupations, and ethnic gatherings. This situation may turn into a trigger for the extreme clash (Al-Sibai and Alashwal, 2014). Relational or Interpersonal clash is a significant kind of contention that an assortment of its terminology exists, for example, task, process, data, enthusiastic and relationship clashes. This sort of dispute is regularly viewed as a negative term since individual interests are seen to be restricted or adversely influenced (Wit et al., 2012).
Conflict is a twofold sword and it is considered to be both valuable and unsafe at the same time (Amason and Mooney, 1999). As indicated by the contingency view, it is seeing that conflict is said to be injurious and beneficial relying upon the manner in which it is dealt with (Chen et al., 2012).
Interpersonal Conflict talks about a conflict between two people because of their disparities. Relationship strife centers on personal connections and threats among people of an organization. Relationship clash additionally prompts postponed activities and poor results on the grounds that the vast majority of their time is squandered in settling the relationship clashes among their representatives, associates, and staff individuals. The research in Kenya discovered that relationship clashes (Interpersonal Conflicts) are available which are brought about because of differences in culture, observations, and various foundations, and the absence of interpersonal abilities. The line of power likewise causes clashes in that individuals don't have the foggiest idea about their place in the task, and the structure of who to answer to (Gitau, 2016).
It is strongly linked to reduce the workers' physical and psychological health. But contrary to this, among different researchers, conflict especially social conflict is claimed to be a vital factor for project success (Brockman, 2014). In the metaanalysis study of Le Pine et al. (2008), it was found that conflict administration critically distresses team efficiency. Past research done on people of different occupations and different organizations concluded that interpersonal conflict is the most bothering job stressor (Smith and Sulsky, 1995). According to Bolger et al. (1989), interpersonal relations are the prime source of job stress. They further said that conflict with friends, coworkers, and neighbors was more disturbing than family members. According to Jehn (1995), interpersonal conflict is not related to task conflict. Generally, it is considered a dynamic process which is most likely to occur when people depend on each other and have interactive relationships and have different believes and ideas (Barki and Hartwick, 2004).
Interpersonal conflict incorporates task and relationship conflict. This perspective of relational clash recommends that the two kinds of the relational clash are unmistakable, in light of the varying reasonable connections that each is relied upon to have with results. Notwithstanding, the two kinds of contention discernments might be interrelated, to such an extent that a gathering with numerous relationship clashes may likewise have a high number of task conflicts and the other way around (Beheshtifar and Zare, 2013).
Interpersonal Conflict (IPC) is perceived as a significant idea because of its connection to the foundation of an Organizational Conflict (OC). Being inevitable in an organization, Interpersonal Conflict adversely influences the two people and also the organization in the event if that conflict is not coped and handled appropriately (Almusdy, 2007). Additionally, Interpersonal Conflict is very much time taking for managers of every level when it is happening in an organization during any project (Slocum and Hellriegel, 2009).
Interpersonal conflict is related to hierarchical results, for example, expanded non-appearance and diminished degrees of performance of the project. It is likewise connected with sadness, uneasiness, disappointment and fatigue. Line administrators can decrease these antagonistic impacts by overseeing relational clashes (Lawless and Trif, 2016).
To comprehend the helpful or damaging nature of the interpersonal conflict, it is critical to think about the theory of social interdependence, which proposes that, Interpersonal clashes are inalienable in every single social relationship, and are not naturally averse. Despite the fact that contentions are innate in every social relationship, a dispute can have "dangerous or valuable results" contingent upon whether the controversy happens inside a helpful or focused condition.
It is the most common stressor at a place of work, and it engenders various undesirable feelings and undermines teamwork (Bruk-Lee and Spector, 2006); Information is also interchanged in collective decision making through it (Levine et al., 1993). Project-based organizations involve different parties (stakeholders). Every party has its own interests. If one party, feel that its interests are may threaten by other parties they will feel stressed and it causes the generation of negative emotions and ultimately cause the conflict (Senaratne and Udawatta, 2013). As stated by "Social identity" and Self-categorization theory", Individuals categorize themselves and others into various clusters (Tajfel and Turner, 1985). Moreover, individuals want to keep their self and social beliefs that's why they show positive behavior towards those who appear to have the same characteristics (Turner and Haslam, 2001).

Interpersonal conflict in Saudi Arabia
Conflict is all-inclusive and an inescapable part of any organizational setting. It can create both positive and negative ramifications for both the individual and association relying upon its administration (Barker et al., 1987).
Conflicts occur all over the globe, Conflicts are unavoidable in organizations settings. Differences in human beings thinking and personality lead to conflicts (Yildiz and Bumen, 2013). Simple issues may lead to severe conflicts if not managed properly. Traditional thinking that avoiding conflict may lead to resolution of the issue is now become obsolete (De Dreu and Weingart, 2003). Interpersonal conflicts are unavoidable in organizations of every country (Nasir and Bashir, 2012). But the reality is that these conflicts are avoided instead of mitigating them.
Interpersonal conflicts are mostly communication conflicts. Sometimes these conflicts are too severe lead to poor performance (Cassum, 2014). Parties with different values, personalities, and different interests in the project lead to interpersonal conflict.
One of the exploratory researches uncovers that the reasons for clashes, conflict resolution and the method of resolution of disputes rely upon the nation, which could be affected by the culture of an association. In Saudi Arabia, the Communication gap is a noteworthy reason for strife, which is more common than in India. Though, personality/ego conflicts and between reliance of gatherings are more common in India than in Saudi Arabia. It is seen that the vast majority of the conflicts are settled in Saudi Arabia, though about 38% of the disputes are not settled in India (Sasidhar et al., 2012).
Besides, culture assumes a significant job in compromise, styles in business, and even personal clashes. In Saudi Arabia, clashes are typically dealt with in understood and backhanded ways. By and large, the straight threatening vibe stays away from in light of the fact that it can frequently prompt criticism with more conflict and disputes. Moreover, to determine specific kinds of controversies, they include a senior individual to go about as an arbitrator. In Saudi Arabia, individuals show modesty even in the midst of contention and incline toward exchanges to tackle the conflicts.
The capability of Saudi medical attendants to rehearse in an expert way might be affected by their workplace and level of conflict. Various components are seen which clarified the low degree of the impression of polished methodology in Nurses of Saudi Arabia. These identify with the working environment itself, just as to the individual foundation of the attendants, which incorporates the individual enthusiasm for the nursing calling, just as the families, social orders and the shoppers' perspectives on the profession. Findings additionally demonstrate that Nurse Managers are urged to make a workplace that supports polished methodology and limits conflict (Zakari et al., 2010). China is also focusing on harmony and obedience facing interpersonal conflict (Zhang, 2015). As it is expected by the parties to avoid conflict but its inescapable nature of interpersonal conflict exists.

Linking between interpersonal conflict and project performance
Due to unavoidable characteristics of conflicts, different researchers work hard to discover the core mechanism of conflict and project performance (Brockman, 2014).
The connection between the performance of the project and greatness of conflict is called attention to: However, an abnormal state of conflict is counterproductive, nonappearance of contention likewise goes with low performance. Studies have demonstrated that a moderate degree of conflict really helps in increasing performance. The focus has in this manner moved from the aversion of conflicts to conflict management (Callanan et al., 2006).
Keeping up a good workplace without interpersonal clash is basic for the survival of an organization in a focused domain, for example, the hospitality segment as it can significantly impact project execution. Results of research done in the sector of the hospitality of Kenya demonstrate that there existed a negative connection among execution and relationship (interpersonal) conflict, task strife and results of controversy.
Interpersonal/social conflict at work induces many negative sentiments, fury, nervousness and divergent behavior (Bruk-lee and Spector, 2006). Researchers also indicate that negative emotions have malfunctioned effects on individuals' behavior, such as their exertion and task performance. People with negative emotions pay less devotion to the project goal, which then leads to deprived performance.
The result of one research showed that internal or relational conflict may impact the performance of worldwide projects related to construction. All the four factors of conflict that impact the performance of the project estimated internal clash. These are 'compromising', 'the board does not give it a second thought', 'religious contrasts', and 'acquired issues from prior stages'. This shows a noteworthy impact of the interpersonal clash. Additionally, uncertain past clashes can cause more grounded struggle later on and affect project performance (Al-Sibai and Alashwal, 2014).
One of the research conducted in construction project teams in China revealed that interpersonal clash and negative feelings all have backward associations with the performance of the project. Furthermore, antagonistic feelings mediated the connection between interpersonal conflict and project performance. Outcomes demonstrate that interpersonal clash has an unfavorable impact on the performance of the project and ought to appeal an expansive consideration for the future as well (Zhang and Huo, 2015).
A research was done in Kenya about the effect of Interpersonal (relationship) conflict on the performance of the project and results demonstrate that relationship conflict had an antagonistic yet inconsequential association with project performance. These discoveries demonstrate that abnormal amounts of relationship clashes were required to result in low performance of the project however the impact was not critical. The examination results likewise settled that relationship clashes did not significantly affect venture performance in the vitality segment (Gitau, 2016).
Clearly, team members' interpersonal/social conflict influences project performance. Higher the interpersonal conflict lowers the project performance (Brockman, 2014). Because interpersonal skills affect the cognitive state of human beings and they are not able to fully concentrate on their work leading to low project performance. So, H1: Interpersonal Conflict is negatively related to project performance.
On the other hand, researchers also indicate the aids of conflict. It was established that in struggle individuals face issues, learn to take a different perspective, and develop additional creativity which helps to determine creativity (Levine et al., 1993). According to Schulz-Hardt et al. (2002), disagreement helps to make better decisions. Researchers explained that as the conflict becomes more intense superior mental load hinders cognitive litheness and creative thinking. A multifaceted relationship is proposed among clash and performance. Information processing is stimulated by clash, but when conflict becomes more intense, the cognitive system becomes laden preventing the information processing system and reducing team performance.
In recent times, specialists began perceiving the significance of examining emotional responses to work environment conflict. Studies report that views of an abnormal state of conflict among collaborators are related to expanded negative feelings. Furthermore, the few examinations on everyday level conflict propose conflict experience fluctuations are related to fluctuations in negative effect (Todorova et al., 2014). So it can be hypothesized as follow: H2: Interpersonal conflict is positively related to negative emotions. H3: Negative emotions are negatively associated with project team performance.

Negative emotions
It is said that human beings are emotional individuals. Since team members of the project involve people, it is normal that some of the time display their emotional side. It is observed that the human feelings and emotions some of the time varies, the probabilities are that it could influence their perspective and the result of their activities at working environments during the execution of the project (Peslak, 2005).
Investigations propose that whenever any employee or worker experiences positive emotions in an organization setting, that same employee/worker will least probable experience negative emotions at the same time (Fredrickson, 2003).
While evaluating emotions, Ortony et al. (1990) identified that emotions can be evaluated by determining the strength and valence of that experience.
Negative emotions have been thought to hinder people's capacity to process data (Wells and Matthews, 1994), which is considered to be essential for learning. This isn't to propose that feelings don't make them learn benefits but they do.
Emotions are supposed to show an imperative part in interpersonal conflict. It is defined as a powerful emotional force that leads to negative behavior and performance and influences goaldirected behavior (Mulki et al., 2015). According to Seo et al. (2010), negative emotions lead to negative behavior and individuals do not focus on work. Past researches explained the relationship between undesirable's sentiments and performance (Seo et al., 2010). According to data processing prospective interpersonal/social conflict cause negative emotion which interferes with the information processing process and leads to poor performance (Martins et al., 2013).
One of the investigations uncovers that feeling is something unavoidably experienced in the day by day lives of people, thusly; the discoveries show that people are emotional. Likewise, the feeling has an effect on the performance of the project teams and emotion is probably the biggest supporter of the performance of the team, since it is fundamental to each individual.
According to Pelled (1996) and Roseman et al. (1994) conflict give rise to negative emotions such as rage, worry, and strain which divert attention from work. Based on Jiang et al. (2013), interpersonal conflict creates damaging sentiments that stimulate the usual intellectual ability to conflict parties which ultimately results in diversion from work. Brockman (2014) study revealed that mostly project parties are showing negative emotions after interpersonal/social conflict and consequence of negative emotions is poor project performance. In addition to it, interpersonal conflict can drain employees' personal resources, and have a bad impact on efforts and performance (Mulki et al., 2015). Hence the subsequent hypothesis is proposed;

H4:
The relationship between interpersonal conflict and project performance is mediated by negative emotions.

Political skill
Political skill is a relational style variable and gained a lot of consideration in the last decades. It is perceived as an ability to adapt according to different changing situations and effectively influence others and project a sincere image to others; it has the capability to build links and stay attached at work. According to Mintzberg (1985), political skill is the capacity to impact others through encouragement, handling and cooperation.  stated political ability as "the ability to understand others and using the knowledge to influence others in such a way that their actions would improve one's personal and/or organizational aims." From the outset, the political skill may sound like other measures of social value, for example, self-observing, social insight, or social ability. In any case, political expertise has been demonstrated to be skillfully particular from these develops, as it relates explicitly to relations at work.
It is a multi-dimensional concept that includes societal intelligence, specific effect, schmoozing aptitude and seeming honesty . Social intelligence means that politically skilled people are keen observers of others and adapt to diverse social settings. Individual influence means having a convincing personality. Networking refers to making new contacts, building new relations and diverse contacts. They appear to others as a trustworthy, sincere and high levels of authenticity. In addition to this political skill is referred to as three important personality traits, Political Savvy, emotional intelligence, and self-monitoring. Political skill overlap with personality traits and to some extent considered the most important critical ability in the modern organization. (Mintzberg 1985). The political ability has been found to be associated with high project/job performance, greater career progression and success (Ferris et al., 2007;Blickle et al., 2010).

Political skill as a moderator
Individuals with a great level of political skill have better control of their negative emotions with are caused by the relational clash and lessen the use of aggressive words towards others (Perrewé et al., 2005). It is complete package of social expertise, with reasoning, emotional and interactive perceptible, which can directly affect the outcomes and also act as moderator on analyst and aftermath relationship (Ferris et al., 2007) This revision is going to discover the moderator role of political skill on affiliation between interpersonal conflict and project performance through negative emotions. Highly politically skilled people have the ability to regulate negative emotions. People with political skill can control and manage the negative emotions in a well manner but cannot completely deny the arousal of negative feelings (Perrewé et al., 2005). Furthermore, politically skilled people considered the interpersonal conflict as an opportunity rather than a threat. So in this way they try to find an effective resolution to encounter and avoid worthless struggle. So: H5: Political skill will moderate the indirect effect of interpersonal/social conflict and project/job performance (through negative emotions). Hammond (1965) first gave the theory of interpersonal conflict. He said, "conflicts between parties executing judgment tasks might be observed as purely cognitive, hence making it needless to examine the motivations and values of conflicting parties as social psychologists might do interpersonal conflicts in organizations". He outlined the cognitive conflict and said that when different parties are performing any judging task disagreement could exist among them based upon their knowledge about certain mater and having different opinions and different solutions for a problem. Similarly, different parties of the project could have a different opinion and think about a certain matter which leads to disagreement among them and lead to interpersonal conflict.

Theoretical framework
With the above discussion and past researches, the suggested theoretical framework is given below in order to back and support this study. The Zhang (2015) model is established over the other alternatives as it was the most current model developed studied the influence of interpersonal/social conflict on job performance. The current study is focusing on Gap which includes the Moderating role of political skill. Interpersonal conflict is an independent variable in this study and job performance as the dependent variable. Job performance is affected by interpersonal/social conflict through negative sentiments and political skill moderate the relationship.

Research methodology
In this section, the research methodology of the whole study is mentioned. Research design, population frame, and sample size of this study are mentioned in this chapter. Data gathering processes and data analysis are also carried out.

Research design
This research delivers a snapshot of viewpoints connecting interpersonal conflict and project performance. This study follows a positivistic philosophy and deductive approach to find out the result. A cross-sectional study is considered suitable because the researcher intended to comprehend the phenomenon at a given point in time. The quantitative technique is not extensively used in past researches. A deductive approach focused on hypotheses testing developed on the basis of existing theory and then generating results. A quantitative examination permits the scholar to carry out an organized study to measure the degree of a disparity in assumed condition, marvel, or problem (Kumar, 2011). It was considered appropriate to investigate this study. A self-governed survey was conducted to gather data. This is a famous device for data collection where partakers can easily respond to the questions (Saunders et al., 2009). Additionally, the use of the survey method allows the researcher to gather data about the perception of respondents about certain phenomena. Self-administered surveys also decrease academic favoritisms as respondents attempt to complete their replies independently (Saunders et al., 2009).
Primary data was collected to study the impact of interpersonal/social conflict through negative emotions on project/task performance and moderation role of political skill. To achieve the desired results the data was collected from respondents belonging to software project teams. An individual unit of analysis and a cross-sectional time horizon is selected for the study. The study would be conducted in a non-contrived setting. It is a quantitative study and causal in nature. The statistical test correlation, the regression would be performed in this study.

Population
The population of this study includes the members of the defense project team; involving different parties. All team members and managers of the project were part of the population.

Sampling technique
The sampling process used in this study is convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is a technique in which data is collected from those respondents who are conveniently available and willing to give a response. Convenience sampling is used as it is cost and time-efficient. Another reason for using convenience sampling is that the population frame was not specified.
The sample size is a very significant factor in any dissertation. The sample size should be representative of the overall targeted population. Many researchers have used different techniques to calculate the sample size. In this work key data was gathered through a questionnaire survey. It consists of four questions about interpersonal conflict and 5 items related to negative emotions and 8 items would be used to measure job performance. To measure the political skill eight items version would be used. The sample size depends upon the number of observed questions, so taking 10 observations per observed question the minimum sample should be 250 (Kline, 2004). But past researches indicate that there are a smaller number of respondents.

Measurement and scales
A questionnaire was used as the research instrument. Items related to the interpersonal conflict would be adopted from the previous study. Four items scale was that show in Table 1, used to measure it. Negative emotion was measured using 5 items.
Scale based on the studies of Van Katwyk et al. (2000) and Parkinson (1995). Eight Item scale related to political ability was adopted from (Meisler, 2014). Project output was measured using the eightitem scale based on Kissi et al. (2013) and Yang et al. (2015). The responses were assessed on a five-point "Likert scale" starting from 1 "Strongly Disagree" to 5 "Strongly Agree".

Data collection and analysis
Data for the current examination is gathered through a Self-administrated questionnaire. Selfadministered questionnaires are those which are filled by respondents without the help of the researcher. Data is collected from professionals working in the defense sector. Data was collected from all members of the project team, Project manager, supervisor, members. SPSS software was used for data examination. Different statistical tests were used to analyze the data. Reliability analysis was run to check the reliability of the instrument. Validity analysis was done by using factor analysis. To check the bond between variables, correlation analysis was used and it is a prerequisite of regression analysis. It was used to measure the mediation relationship. Moderated mediated relationship was analyzed by using process macro.

Analysis
In this section, the results of the study are mentioned, and a detailed analysis is given. All the results are given along with detailed descriptions and hypotheses are discussed. The summary of the result is given at the end of this section. Before doing the actual analysis, data was prepared for final estimations. Preliminary data analysis techniques were applied i.e. data cleaning. Expectation maximization method was applied to replace the missing values as missing values affect the results they should be deleted or should be handled to achieve the good results.  Kissi et al. (2013); Yang et al. (2015) 4.1. Demographic profile of the sample Table 2 displays the demographic profile of all respondents. Fig. 2, Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show the Graphical representation of gender and age.  In this examination, study data was collected from both genders' males and females. Mostly respondent was male. 84% were male while 15% were female respondents. Most of the respondents belong to the age group of 31-35 years. There were 24.5% who belong to the age group of 26-30, 38.5% from the age group of 31-35. 21.2 % were from the age group of 36-40 and 11% belong to the age group of 41-45 while from the age group of above 45 there were only 4% of respondents. Data was collected from both project managers and project members working on any specific project. Data was collected from which respondents show that most managers and employees have 5-10 years of experience while others have less than five years of experience, an employee having more than 10 years of experience are less in numbers. Table 3 displays the reliability analysis of all variables. Reliability is a measure of the consistency of a measure. Its value should be in the range of 0.7-1. Table 3 shows that Cronbach Alpha for interpersonal conflict is 0.829, for negative emotions is 0.777 and Project performance 0.878. The value of Charon batch Alpha for political skill is 0.898 which is also acceptable. As all Alpha values lie in between o.7 to 1, so data is considered reliable. The questionnaire overall reliability is considered good. So the questionnaire is considered reliable for further study.

Validity test
The validity of all variables is analyzed separately through factor analysis, which showed that all variables are loaded in a single factor and as the overall validity all variables are loaded in four separate constructs which shows that data is valid and further analysis can be done on it. Table 4 shows the normality distribution of all constructs. Descriptive Analysis is used to check the normality of the data and measures the consistency of the respondent towards the variables. The acceptable range of skewness is between -1 to +1 and an acceptable range of kurtosis is between -3 to +3. Keeping in view the Table 4, the value of Skewness and Kurtosis for interpersonal skill is 0.548 and -0.134, for negative emotions is 0.648 and 0.204, for Project performance is -0.200 and -0.414 and for political skill is vales are -0.750 and 1.17. As skewness and kurtosis values for all variables lie in acceptable range so data is considered normal for further analysis.

Correlation
The strength of association among variables is shown in Table 5. Correlation is shown to study the relationship between the variables. It ranges for +1 to -1. 0 correlations indicate that there is no relationship between the variables. +1 one shows a highly positive correlation and -1 shows a highly "negative correlation" between the variables. In this study, the correlation outcomes show that there is a moderate positive relationship between interpersonal conflict and negative emotions significant at a 99% level of the confidence interval. While Interpersonal conflict shows a negative relation with project performance and it is also a moderate correlation which is significant at a 95% level of the confidence interval. There is no significant relationship between interpersonal conflict and political skill. As political skill is moderator so this relation does not make any difference. There is a very week negative relation between project performance and negative emotions. Political skill is not correlated with any one of the variables. It is acting as a moderator so its relation is not very important. All values are less than 0.8 which means all variables are different constructs. As correlation analysis is significant which is a prerequisite of regression so now data is considered useful for further processing.  Table 6 shows the result of the regression analysis and mediation effect of negative emotions between interpersonal/social conflict and project performance. The first step is the impact of IV on DV. The results show that the first step is insignificant and R-square change is 0.000. So H1 is not accepted. Further, the mediation analysis shows that the effect of relational conflict on project performance ignoring negative emotions is insignificant p=0.9631, B=0.0027 which very small impact. While Value of Rsquare change shows that there is no change in the model while the impact of interpersonal conflict on negative emotion is "significant". B=0.4441, P<0.01 so, hypothesis H2 is accepted. The further result shows that H3is also accepted. As B=-0.178 and p<0.05. In the end, the result indicates that controlling negative emotions, interpersonal conflict is not a significant forecaster of project performance, B=0.0818, P > 0.05.
Step 4 is insignificant which means there is full mediation exist. A Sobel test was conducted and found mediation exists in the model (z=-2.225, p=0.0261). So, it was found that negative sentiments significantly mediate the association between interpersonal conflict and project performance. So H4 is accepted. Table 7 indicates that political skills act as moderators. The association between negative emotions and project performance will be weakened for the members higher in political skill. The result shows that the interaction term "is significant", B=0.0583 and p<0.01.   Table 7, the conditional indirect effects of project performance were insignificant. The interaction term shows an insignificant result which means that no moderation occurs in the model. Indecision, this insignificant indirect effect means that political skill does not decrease the mediation effect of negative emotions between interpersonal conflict and project performance, which is inconsistent with the H4b. So hypothesis 4 is not accepted. Table 8 shows the results summary. Interpersonal conflict is positively related to negative emotions. Accepted Significant Negative emotion is negatively related to project performance. Accepted Significant Negative emotions will mediate the relationship between interpersonal conflict and project performance. Accepted Significant Political skill will moderate the indirect effect of interpersonal conflict and project performance (through negative emotions).

Discussion
The study aimed to explore the impact on interpersonal/social conflict through negative emotion on project performance. Further, it explores the moderating role of political ability in the model. The result of the study indicates that interpersonal/social conflicts have a negative impact on project performance through negative emotions. This result is consistent with previous results; past researchers have proved that interpersonal/social conflict leads to arousal of negative emotions which in turn leads to poor performance (Seo et al., 2010).
The result also indicates that there is positive relation in "interpersonal conflict" and "negative emotions" and negative relationships exist in negative emotions and project performance (Jiang et al., 2013;Brokman, 2013).
The mediating role of "negative emotions" is also proved in this study. Negative sentiments significantly mediate the relationship between interpersonal conflict and project performance. There exists a full mediation in the relationship. This means without negative emotions this relationship does not exist. This outcome is also supported by previous studies i.e. (Mulki et al., 2015).
Moreover, this study examines the moderating role of political skill in the relationship between interpersonal conflict and project performance. According to previous researchers i.e., (Perrewé et al., 2005) individuals with a great level of political ability have better control of their negative emotions that are triggered by interpersonal conflict and also decrease the use of aggressive words towards others. But the result of the present study is not consistent with previous studies. Our result shows that political ability does not act as a moderator. The model used in this study is adopted from the construction industry. So it could be the one reason that it is not applicable in the defense industry. According to Blickle et al. (2010), political skill acts as a moderator for job performance under certain job boundaries and conditions. It means that in high enterprising job demands political skill act as moderator. Those jobs in which relationships are very important and face to face communications play vital roles. In such jobs, political skill acts as a moderator. But for conventional jobs, political skill does not act moderator. Conventional jobs are those which imply high rules and regulations, administrating stocks, and designing schedules etc. In the defense industry nature of the job is conventional that is the reason that the moderator relationship does not exist.

Conclusion
The increase in enthusiasm for benchmarking as it identifies with the effective performance of a project can be questionable and turns out to be amazingly entangled if every parameter is not considered and the most significant one distinguished. It is hard to give an unequivocal decision on the achievement or disappointment of a venture/project, as certain criteria are effectively met while others are most certainly not for the particular project.
This study was conducted to examine the moderated mediation analysis. The result of the study indicates that there exists a full mediation between job performance and interpersonal conflict through negative emotions. The result indicates that interpersonal conflict leads to higher negative emotions and ultimately lowering the project performance. There is no direct association between interpersonal conflict and project performance; relationship only exists in the presence of mediator negative emotions. Further, this examination aimed to measure the moderating role of political skill in the model. Results indicate that political ability does not act as a moderator and it does not decrease the impact of negative emotions on performance. While previous researches indicate that political ability acts as a moderator. This result is different because the model is used in the defense industry. While in previous researches model was used in different other industries where there is more need for communication and interpersonal relations. In such jobs, political skill acts as a moderator. While in conventional job political skill does not act as a moderator. In defense sector jobs are mostly conventional and there are high rules and regulations. That is the reason that the results are different. The results of this exploration are helpful for future research and further analysis.

Justification/significance
This study would provide numerous hypothetical and empirical contributions in several ways. Previous quantitative researches had devoted little attention to the association between interpersonal conflict and project performance. Furthermore, the result of this study would help the employee to understand the mechanism of interpersonal impact on project/job performance. The moderating role of political skills would become clear for employees. From the viewpoint of encounter administration, fascinating and teaching team associates with an extraordinary level of political ability in building projects is an effective conflict management strategy.
This study would be a great step to strengthen the existing literature. This study would contribute to filling gaps laying in the existing literature by finding the impact of interpersonal conflict on project performance. It is not only significant for its contribution to academic research but also benefits the local managers, policymakers, project teams and other supervisors and contributors in a better understanding of conflict management.

Limitations
Like most research, this work has limitations. First, the population size is very small and research would be conducted in the context of defense projects; so it would have generalizability issues. As the study is conducted on a small scale and it is empirical study so generalizability issue is not very important.
Secondly, the political skill would be measured through self-reported assessment. It is needed in the future to measure it using other reports such as peer to peer reports and supervisor reports. Further research in this direction might consider emerging more elaborate methods to enable ironic conjunction of project performance.

Future directions
In the future, research on the topic should be conducted on a large scale to increase its generalizability. As a result of the study shows that political skill does not act as a moderator in the defense industry. Then future research should be steered in order to identify the reason behind it. In future research political skills should be measured through other reported assessments. Further, an analysis should be done to identify the other factors which make the project successful even in the presence of interpersonal conflict. When a political skill is not acting as a moderator then what are other factors that could act as a moderator to increase project performance. This could be done through qualitative research.