The Development of Psychological Contract Breach and Violation

Psychological Studies, 2014

This paper examined the relationship between several exchange variables (organizational justice, organizational support, and psychological contracts) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and in-role performance. The setting of this study was Arab teachers in Israel. Four-hundred and forty-six questionnaires were distributed in 13 Arab schools in the North of Israel. Usable questionnaires were returned by 291 teachers, a response rate of 65 %. OCB and in-role performance were reported by the principals of the schools. The findings using HLM showed a weak effect of organizational justice on the outcome variables, and a stronger effect of perceived organizational support and psychological contract breach. Some of the findings differ significantly from results typically found in Western samples. The findings are discussed in relation to the traditional Arab culture examined here.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2008

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 2009

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to introduce the concept of work-related health attributions and investigate the effects of such perceptions as well as of health status on work-related attitudes and turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach -Building on attribution theory, the study tests the assumption that negative work-related health attributions impair employee work-related attitudes and intentions, and moderate the relation between health status and work-related attitudes. Cross-sectional questionnaire data from 785 Swedish retail white-collar workers are collected to test these assumptions by utilizing moderated regression analyses. Findings -The results show that negative work-related health attributions are related to lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment as well as higher levels of turnover intention, even after controlling for demographics, work climate variables, and mental distress. Further, the significant interaction between attributions and mental distress indicates that it makes a difference for employees' turnover intentions if an individual with high mental distress attributes it to work or not. Practical implications -Work-related health attributions should be taken into account in order to avoid impaired levels of employee work motivation. The measure introduced renders it possible to identify and help those individuals who believe that work affects their health negatively. Originality/value -The results underscore the relevance of how individuals think their health is affected by their work, and contributes to the understanding of how health status relates to work-related attitudes. Since the measure of work-related health attributions is easily administered it is also valuable for practitioners working with employee health and attitudes.

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2014

Understanding how employees' cultural values are related to their responses to promises broken by their organizations (i.e., psychological contract breach) is important given today's global workplace. Although past research has found that psychological contract breach is positively associated with employee exit, voice and neglect and negatively associated with loyalty, we know little about the role that cultural values play in this process. We explore the role that power distance orientation-an employee's acceptance of power differentials in society-plays in employee responses to breach. We argue that employees with high power distance orientations will be more likely to respond passively to breach (loyalty and neglect), whereas employees with low power distance orientations will be more likely to exhibit active responses to psychological contract breach (exit and voice). We tested our notions using a sample of 265 employees from different cultures across two points in time. Employees with high power distance orientations were less likely to respond to psychological contract breach with exit and voice than employees with low power distance orientations. However, power distance orientation did not significantly moderate the relationships between psychological contract breach and neglect or loyalty, respectively. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Journal of Labor Research

Understanding the processes through which employees incorporate the organization’s identity into their own identity is critical to building positive employer-employee relationships. We draw primarily on organizational support theory to advance the argument that psychological contract breach is negatively related to organizational identification and positively related to organizational disidentification because it makes employees believe that their organizations do not value their contributions or care about their well-being (reduces perceived organizational support). Results from two studies generally provide support for our hypotheses: in Study 1, perceived organizational support fully mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational identification. In Study 2, Time 2 perceived organizational support fully mediated the relationship between Time 1 relational psychological contract breach (e.g., promises related to training, development, job security...

Group & Organization Management, 2014

This research examined the employment contracts and experiences of information technology contractors working on H-1B visas for bodyshopping firms in the United States. Examination of these nontraditional workers allows for the emergence of insights that promote theory development on psychological contracts (PCs). In a qualitative study of 54 Indian contractors, we identified experiences that both contradict and further develop our currently limited understanding of the PC development process. Specifically, we found evidence of underdeveloped contracts, different PC content, missing PC elements, a high frequency of breach, PCs becoming more transactional over time, and the significant role of context in the PC development process. We discuss the implications of our findings related to these nontraditional workers for research on PCs.

Journal of Business and Psychology, 2011

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of psychological contract breach on the commitment and behaviors of temporary workers engaged in a multiple agency relationship. Specifically, it aimed to measure the influence of contract breach by the employing agency and the client organization on temporary workers' trust and affective commitment to the respective party, and on their adoption of discretionary behaviors at the client site. Design/Methodology/Approach The study was performed using a sample of agency workers from the banking sector, which was composed of 186 worker-supervisor dyads. Findings The results suggested that contract breach by the agency and the client was negatively related to temporary worker's affective commitment toward the respective party. This relation was mediated by workers' trust in each organization. The results also indicated that only commitment toward the client organization influenced the adoption of discretionary behaviors. Implications Understanding of the potential influence of the multiple psychological contracts of temporary workers helps to fully understand the reactions of these workers. As organizations rely heavily on these workers, this study shows how both the client and the agency can foster conditions conducive to the adoption of discretionary behaviors at the client site. Originality/Value This is the first study to provide evidence of the effects of psychological contract breach by each organization that temporary workers associate with on their attitudes and behaviors.

Australian Journal of Public Administration, 2015

The Workplace Remuneration Arrangement agreed between the Australian Government and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) provides for a 4.5% pay over 3 years for ADF personnel. This article makes use of the concept of the psychological contract to argue that this pay deal represents a breach of the Australian Government's obligations towards ADF personnel that is likely to have unintended consequences for their long-term commitment to their ADF careers.

South African Journal of Psychology, 2008

In this article we analyse the different ways in which psychological contracts are measured. On the basis of criteria for measurement and scale development psychological contract measurements are put to a test. The criteria are related to the way the measurement is developed and evaluated, and the specific conceptualisations of the content and evaluation of the psychological contract. Existing questionnaires to measure the psychological contract are evaluated. The use of psychological contract measurements of Freese and Schalk, Psycones, or Rousseau is recommended.

Human Resource Management

This study addresses organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) development by examining the role of perceptions of employer psychological contract fulfillment, and the self-regulatory processes by which OBSE evolves and produces its effects. Self-regulatory theory helps reveal why psychological contract fulfillment relates to OBSE, how OBSE mediates its effects, and the ways in which OBSE might interact with perceived employment opportunities to affect job satisfaction, performance, and turnover intentions. The results show that OBSE is related to and mediates the relationships between relational contract fulfillment and employee job satisfaction and performance, but OBSE is not related to transactional contract fulfillment. Nor does OBSE mediate the relationships between transactional contract fulfillment and the dependent variables. Perceived employment opportunities moderate the relationships of OBSE with job satisfaction and turnover intentions. This study concludes with recommendat...

Human Resource Management Journal, 2002

The concept of the psychological contract, with its focus on the exchange of perc e i v e d p romises and commitments, is increasingly used as a framework to study the employment relationship. Yet re s e a rch has predominantly focused on employee views and has largely neglected the organisational perspective and the management of the psychological contract. This article begins to re d ress the balance by reporting a study, based on a survey of 1,306 senior HR managers, that explores the management of the psychological contract and in particular the role of organisational communication. T h ree distinct and relevant aspects of organisational communication are identified, concerned with initial entry, day-to-day work and more future-oriented, top-down communication. Effective use of these forms of communication is associated with what managers judge to be a clearer and less frequently breached set of org a n i s a t i o n a l p romises and commitments, as well as with a fairer exchange and a more positive impact of policies and practices on employee attitudes and behaviour. The ® ndings are discussed within the context of the wider literature on psychological contracts, o rganisational culture and HRM. The study con® rms that the psychological contract offers managers a useful framework within which to consider and manage the employment relationship. C o n t a c t: David E. Guest, Management Centre, King's College London, 150 S t a m f o rd Street, London SE1 9NN. Email: david.guest@kcl.ac.uk focus on the management of the contract and the communication processes associated with this neglects the two-way re c i p rocal exchange that lies at the heart of the concept. The same neglect is of course apparent in the bulk of the published re s e a rch that ignore s the employer's perspective. The aim of this article is not to explore the full range of issues associated with the psychological contract but to begin to re d ress the imbalance in the re s e a rch by focusing on its management and, in particular, on the core issue of how communication contributes to its successful management.

Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2010

This study examined survey data from full-time employees employed in a variety of occupations. We empirically examined how psychological involvement with one's job affects reactions to psychological contract violation. Data for control variables (i.e., age, gender, organizational tenure), the independent variable (i.e., psychological contract violation), and the moderator (i.e., job involvement) were taken at Time 1; and dependent variables (i.e., depressed mood at work, turnover intention) were taken at Time 2. Results illustrated that job involvement was an important construct in understanding individuals' negative reactions to psychological contract violations. Implications and limitations are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.j asp_626 1490..1514

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 2009

Purpose -The overall purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which breaches in psychological contracts and perceptions of organizational fairness account for variations in job stress experienced by operational police officers (as measured by psychological distress and employee performance), after controlling for the variance associated with more established job stressors (i.e. job demands, job control and social support).

Career Development International, 2010

Purpose -The purposes of this paper are three-fold: first, to examine the effect of diversity climate on professional employee of color outcomes, organizational commitment and turnover intentions; second, to investigate the moderating and mediating roles of interactional and procedural justice on the relationships between diversity climate and the outcomes; and third, to explore the interactive effect of racial awareness and diversity climate on reported psychological contract violation.

Journal of Business Ethics, 2012

This study examined the relative effect of diversity climate dimensions captured by two measures: Mor Barak et al.'s (Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 34:82-104, 1998) diversity climate scale and Chrobot-Mason's (Journal of Managerial Psychology 18: 2003) diversity promise fulfillment scale on professional employee of color outcomes: organizational commitment (OC) and turnover intentions. We hypothesized that the two scales would measure different aspects of diversity climate. We further hypothesized that the different climate dimensions would interactively affect the employee of color outcomes. Third, we predicted that diversity climate would mediate between diversity promise fulfillment and employee of color outcomes. Finally, we hypothesized that organizational commitment would mediate the interactive effect of diversity climate dimensions on turnover intentions. Results indicated that the diversity scales each predicted unique variance in employee outcomes and that the climate dimensions interactively influenced professional of color organizational commitment and turnover intentions. We also found that the diversity climate dimension, as measured by the Mor Barak scale, mediated between diversity promise fulfillment and the outcomes. Finally, we found complete mediated moderation between the interaction of the two climate measures and turnover intentions by organizational commitment. Implications are discussed.

Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2013

Although scholars recognize the importance of trustworthiness for both job applicants and hiring organizations, prior research exploring trustworthiness during the organizational pre-entry period is scattered across a number of disparate literatures. This paper selectively reviews prior work that investigates the role of trustworthiness in the recruitment and selection processes. Within these pre-entry processes, we explore how job applicants' and hiring organizations' perceptions of one another's trustworthiness, conceptualized as each parties' attitudes regarding the others' benevolence, integrity, and ability, influence meaningful recruitment and selection outcomes. Avenues for future research regarding trustworthiness are also identified in each section of the review. Finally, particular attention is given to two overarching issues at the intersection of trustworthiness and pre-entry processes-trust violations and individual differences in propensity to trust.

Career Development International, 2011

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of a number of factors in newcomers' psychological contract development. Design/methodology/approach -The approach taken is a literature review with the development of a conceptual model. Findings -The paper contributes to the psychological contract literature by adopting a sensemaking perspective and focusing on the role of newcomers' pre-entry expectations and emotions on the psychological contract creation process. The authors also discuss the differential role of contract makers and facilitators and the modes they employ to influence newcomers' psychological contract creation. Originality/value -Psychological contract research has emphasized the consequences of psychological contract breach and violation. The paper's aim is to direct attention at understanding the psychological contract in its very initial stages. The authors discuss implications for research and practice on managing psychological contract creation.

Applied Psychology, 2013

This article proposes and tests a model that highlights how organisational embeddedness relates to insomnia. It argues that support rendered by the organisation in general and by supervisors in particular decrease the likelihood that highly embedded employees will experience insomnia. Data collected from 192 managers at four points in time over a 12-month period generally support the proposed model. The article concludes with implications for future research on the relationship between embeddedness and insomnia and the important roles which workplace support systems play in mediating that relationship.

Human Resource Management, 2012

Recent studies propose a theoretical framework of "eight forces" that purportedly captures all the distinct motives causing voluntary turnover decisions. Based on this framework, we develop the Turnover-Attachment Motive Survey (TAMS) consisting of 18 scales, the most comprehensive model-based turnover antecedent survey to date, facilitating more fully specifi ed research models and more systematic diagnoses of turnover causes. Moreover, fi ndings support behavioral inertia against quitting, psychological dissonance costs of quitting, supervisor continuance attachment, and coworker continuance attachment as signifi cant predictors of turnover behavior for the fi rst time in the literature. Overall, fi ndings do suggest that our 18-scale survey demonstrated adequate psychometric properties to justify its further use and development. We fi nally discuss the many uses of the TAMS for both turnover researchers and practitioners.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2015

While the literature has suggested the possibility of breach being composed of multiple facets, no previous study has investigated this possibility empirically. This study examined the factor structure of typical component forms in order to develop a multiple component form measure of breach. Two studies were conducted. In study 1 (N ¼ 420) multi-item measures based on causal indicators representing promissory obligations were developed for the five potential component forms (delay, magnitude, type/form, inequity and reciprocal imbalance). Exploratory factor analysis showed that the five components loaded onto one higher order factor, namely psychological contract breach suggesting that breach is composed of different aspects rather than types of breach. Confirmatory factor analysis provided further evidence for the proposed model. In addition, the model achieved high construct reliability and showed good construct, convergent, discriminant and predictive validity. Study 2 data (N ¼ 189), used to validate study 1 results, compared the multiple-component measure with an established multiple item measure of breach (rather than a single item as in study 1) and also tested for discriminant validity with an established multiple item measure of violation. Findings replicated those in study 1. The findings have important implications for considering alternative, more comprehensive and elaborate ways of assessing breach.

Community, Work & Family, 2004

Psychological contract violations and turnover intentions among full-time and reduced-hours

Public personnel management

Perceived organizational membership (POM) is a relatively new framework to analyze the attachment of employees to their organizations. To date, there are no studies that have examined POM in public higher education. Furthermore, there are relatively few studies that have explored attitudes of public personnel in the context of pay cuts in the form of furloughs. In this article, we present the findings of a survey of more than 5,000 public university faculty, administrative support staff, and managerial personnel. On most POM facets, managerial personnel perceived greater organizational need fulfillment, mattering, and belonging than either faculty or support staff. Implications for university administrators and faculty are discussed, with recommendations to increase POM for all employees.

Group & Organization Management, 2014

Two studies that examined the role of revenge in rumor transmission and involved working adults as participants are reported. Study 1 used hypothetical scenarios to manipulate organizational treatment of an employee and the believability of a rumor. Participants had higher intention to transmit a harmful rumor when the organization broke job-related promises (i.e., breached the psychological contract) and revenge motivation mediated this relationship. Believability of the rumor had no effect. Study 2 used a field survey methodology and, controlling for social desirability, replicated the results for self-and peer-reported rumor transmission behavior. Study 2 also showed that participants' belief in negative reciprocity norm strengthened the relationship between breach and revenge motivation.

Management Research Review, 2013

Purpose -The aim of this article is to examine the relationships between authentic leadership and organizational deviance and to test the moderating effects of trust and psychological contract violation on that relationship. Design/methodology/approach -Data were collected from ten state universities in Turkey. The sample included 848 lecturers and their department chairs chosen randomly. Moderated hierarchical regression was used to examine the moderating roles of trust and psychological contract violation on the authentic leadership and organizational deviance relationship. Findings -The results show that authentic leadership is negatively and significantly correlated with organizational deviance. In addition, the results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses support the moderating effects of employee trust and psychological contract violation with regard to the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational deviance. Practical implications -Given that authentic leadership is associated with valued organizational outcomes such as lower workplace deviance, higher followers' commitment, job satisfaction and citizenship behaviors, organizational efforts to foster authentic leadership should prove fruitful. Moreover, focusing on efforts to improve leader-follower relationship and to create a trust-based work environment could increase the likelihood that authentic leadership will lower level of workplace deviance. Originality/value -This study contributes to the research on authentic leadership and workplace deviance by showing that trust and psychological contract are relevant affect-related variables in determining the importance of authentic leadership perception to subordinate workplace deviance. Furthermore, by incorporating trust and psychological contract (for the first time), it is a response to recent calls for integration of authentic leadership, organizational deviance, trust and psychological contract literatures (Gardner et al.; Ilies et al.). These calls have contended that trust and high quality leader-follower relations are fundamental to linking authentic leader behavior to follower behaviors, yet to date empirical evidence does not exist.

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 2016

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between benevolent leadership (BL) and psychological well-being (PWB) as well as to test the moderating roles of psychological safety (PS) and psychological contract breach (PCB) on that relationship. Design/methodology/approach -Data encompasses 1,009 employees from 23 five-star hotels in Turkey. The moderating roles of PS and PCB on the BL and PWB relationship were tested using the moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Findings -The moderated hierarchical regression analysis results reveal that there was a significant positive relationship between BL and employee PWB. In addition, the positive relationship between BL and well-being was stronger when PS was higher than when it was lower. On the contrary, high-PCB weakened the positive relationship between BL and PWB. Practical implications -This study showed that both PS and BL enhance well-being. Managers could promote PS by breaking down the barriers preventing effective communication and discussion. Moreover, the results of this study indicated that the state of the psychological contract is a significant predictor of employees' well-being. Organizational practices and policies, especially human resource practices, should be carefully designed and implemented as to prevent PCB, an important source of employee dissatisfaction and distrust. Originality/value -The study provides new insights into the influence that BL may have on PWB and the moderating roles of PS and contract breach in the link between BL and employee well-being. The paper also offers a practical assistance to employees in the hospitality industry and their leaders interested in building trust and enhancing well-being.

Journal of Advances in Management Research, 2016

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between value congruence and affective commitment to change as well as to test the moderating roles of psychological contract breach and workplace ostracism on that very relationship. Design/methodology/approach -Data were collected from 13 university hospitals in Turkey. The sample included 1,113 randomly chosen certified nurses and head nurses of their units. The moderating roles of psychological contract breach and workplace ostracism on the value congruence and affective commitment to change relationship were tested using the moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Findings -The moderated hierarchical regression analysis results revealed a significant positive relationship between value congruence and employees' commitment to change. In addition, this very relation was weaker when both psychological contract breach and workplace ostracism were higher than when they were lower. Practical implications -This study showed that employee perception of value congruence increased employee's affective commitment to change. Organizations can enhance employees' affective commit by recruiting individuals who fit well within their organizations' characteristics and by encouraging supervisors to develop close, supportive relationships with subordinates. Moreover, recognizing that employees are likely to experience concern and discomfort about a change initiative along with the fact that such psychological states (psychological contract breach or workplace ostracism) can dramatically impact the effectiveness of change efforts can help organizations to better plan change-related strategies geared towards managing properly such potentially harmful reactions. Originality/value -The study provides new insights into the influence that value congruence may have on affective commitment to change and the moderating roles of psychological contract breach and workplace ostracism in the link between value congruence and change commitment. The paper also offers a practical assistance to employees in healthcare management and their leaders interested in building trust, increasing person-organization fit and change commitment, and lowering workplace ostracism.

BMC Psychology

Background Workplace stress carries considerable costs for the employees’ wellbeing and for the organization’s performance. Recent studies demonstrate that perceptions of psychological contract breach are a source of stress for employees. That is, when employees notice that their employer does not fulfil certain obligations, they will perceive that certain resources are threatened or lost, which in turn translates into increased stress. In this study, we zoom in on how stress unfolds in the aftermath of breach, dependent on the organization’s reaction to the breach. More specifically, we examined the influence of different types of social accounts (i.e., denial, apology, blaming and exonerating justification) on individuals’ stress resolution process using physiological (i.e., heart rate) and psychological (self-report) data. Method We used an experimental design in which we manipulated psychological contract breach and social account type. To test our hypotheses, we performed two s...

Personnel Review

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine “black box” links between HRM innovations and organizational performance by investigating the perspective of a workforce often excluded from the HR realm. Professional Independent Contractors (IPros) play a vital role in achieving workforce flexibility and innovation. While the use of such arrangements has been examined often using a compliance-oriented lens, the authors explore the value of adding a commitment aspect. Design/methodology/approach In total, 375 IPros working in Australian organizations completed an online questionnaire distributed by a national business support services provider. Findings Results show organizational support significantly predicted work engagement and affective commitment. Self-efficacy, age and gender were also significant predictors. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional nature of this study and reliance on self-reported data limit the reliability of the findings. In addition, the findi...

Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology

In this paper, it is argued that the psychological contract (PC) could provide rich insights into the understanding of employee and employer relations within the police and the stress and wellbeing of officers. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with active, full-time police officers and these were analysed using framework analysis. More than 100 base-units of meaning were identified which were categorised into six main themes namely 'Motivation', 'Mutual obligations', 'Stressors', 'Negative consequences', 'Mediators' and 'Positive impact of the job'. From the interviews, it was apparent that some officers are experiencing PC breach and that this was having a negative impact on their wellbeing. These findings are considered and avenues for improving the situation are discussed.

Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal

As the first qualitative study of its kind, this study explored firefighters' beliefs and experiences about the psychological contract between themselves as employees and their employer, workplace stress, stress-management strategies, and their wellbeing. Eleven interviews were conducted with active firefighters from multiple fire stations in the UK. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analysed using framework analysis. Five superordinate themes were identified and labelled as 'Motives', 'Mutual obligations', 'Stressors and their effects', 'Moderators', and 'Retention factors', each of which contained lower level sub-themes. Psychological contract (PC) is a useful construct to measure firefighters' perceived obligations as their responses reflected multiple facets of PC theory. The current climate of austerity measures appears to be negatively impacting on firefighters in terms of reducing numbers and placing higher task demands on those remaining. Thus, making it very difficult for the UK Fire and Rescue Service (UKFRS) to meet the perceived obligations of their employees. The findings have implications for human resource departments within UKFRS trying to manage the impact of funding cuts and they highlight the potential value of the PC as a construct around which such issues can be explored.

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2002

This article explores reciprocity within the exchange relationship between the employee and employer using the psychological contract framework. Specifically, we examine the bidirectionality of the norm of reciprocity. We hypothesize that there will be a positive relationship between perceived employer obligations, fulfilment of obligations and employee obligations and fulfilment. In addition, we hypothesize that employee fulfilment of obligations will be positively associated with perceived employer obligations. Using a longitudinal survey of 1400 public sector employees and 84 managers, our findings suggest that there is broad agreement between the two parties regarding the norm of reciprocity that governs the relationship. We found that perceived employer obligations at time 1 is positively associated with employees' fulfilment of obligations at time 2 and perceived employer fulfilment of obligations at time 1 is positively related to employee obligations and fulfilment of obligations at time 2. Furthermore, we found that employee fulfilment of obligations at time 1 is positively associated with perceived employer obligations at time 2. Overall, these findings provide initial empirical support for the norm of reciprocity in exchange relationships from both the perspective of employees as well as managers, as employer representatives.

Journal of Managerial Psychology, 2011

Purpose-A small number of psychological contract studies have explored the cognitive processes that influence employees' evaluation and reactions to perceived contract breach. The aim of this paper is to extend this reseaerch with a qualitative study on breach using a sense making perspective. Design/methodology/approach-In total, 15 interviews employing critical incident technique to examine employee sense making processes were carried out. Findings-The findings highlight the variety of ways employees perceive contract breach and the processual nature of the experience. Emotions and actions were intertwined in the process of attributing responsibility and finding an explanation for the breach. Research limitations/implications-Contract breach is not necessarily a discrete event and reciprocity is integral to the sense making process. The findings provide a basis for future research that could explore the role of time, contextual factors and various employer representatives as sense-givers in psychological contract evaluations. Practical implications-Employer representatives can aid employees to make sense of critical events that occur in organizations to minimize the effects of breach. Originality/value-The paper provides an under-researched sense making-perspective on psychological contract breach. Through a qualitative inquiry, the complex nature of the employees' experience of and reaction to breach, is highlighted.

Frontiers in Psychology

The present study investigates the relatively less explored construct organizational cronyism as an antecedent of employees' ingratiation. Moreover, the role of the relational psychological contract as a mediator between organizational cronyism and ingratiation is also examined. The data were collected from employees working in different ministerial offices, such as the ministry of defense production, human rights, parliamentary affairs, petroleum, and natural resources, in Islamabad, Pakistan. Through a convenience sampling approach, 250 employees provided data for this study. Due to sensitivity and less approachability to these organizations, the convenience sampling technique was used. The data were collected in two waves with 12-week intervals. The results confirm that organizational cronyism is significantly related to the relational psychological contract, which in turn results in employees' ingratiation. The employees who have close ties with their leaders and enjoy extraordinary favors from their leaders, display more compliance behavior as compared to those employees who have distance from their leaders.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

The extant literature has focused on individuals’ knowledge-sharing behavior and its driving factors, which stimulate the knowledge transmission and exchange in organizations. However, little research has focused on factors that inhibit knowledge sharing and encourage individuals to hide their knowledge. Therefore, based on social exchange and displaced aggression theories, the study proposed and checked a model that examined the effect of abusive supervision on knowledge hiding (KH) via a psychological contract breach (PCB). The Psychological ownership was regarded as a boundary condition on abusive supervision and KH relationship. Using a time-lagged method, we recruited 344 full-time employees enrolled in an executive development program in a large university in China. The findings show that PCB mediates the association between abusive supervision and KH. Similarly, psychological ownership moderates the association between abusive supervision and KH. Employees with high psycholog...

Journal of Operations Management, 2009

Research on trust in buyer-supplier relationships has tended to focus on the performance outcomes of a trusting relationship, as well as the processes that serve to build trust. Largely absent from the buyer-supplier literature is an in-depth examination of activities that break down trust, and the resulting effect on supplier trust in the buyer. The authors propose and test a model that evaluates psychological contract violations between a buyer and a supplier as a mediating variable of the effect of unethical activities on trust within a partnership. Survey data was collected from 110 tier one suppliers of major corporations in the state of Ohio. Our results show how a supplier's perception of a violation of the psychological contract either partially mediates or fully mediates the relationship between the buyers unethical activity and the suppliers trust in that buyer. We discuss how suppliers may demonstrate bounded ethicality when they overlook perceived unethical behaviors by the buyer.

BAR - Brazilian Administration Review, 2015

The goals of this study are to contribute to the understanding of the development of organizational commitment and to explore the relations among psychological contract fulfillment, organizational commitment, and job performance. This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal quanti-qualitative study conducted with newcomers over three years. We identified four trajectories of commitment development: Learning to Love, High Match, Honeymoon Hangover and Learning to Hate. The last one is originally proposed in this study, and it is represented by individuals who began work highly committed to the organization, but then their commitment levels decreased dramatically over time. We discuss some characteristics associated with these trajectories. Our results corroborate the assumption that psychological contract fulfillment is positively related to commitment. Nevertheless, our findings about the relationship between commitment and job performance were different according to the trajectories. The trajectories Learning to Love and Learning to Hate support the assumption that higher commitment levels would lead to better performance, and vice versa; however, the trajectories High Match and Honeymoon Hangover contradict it. We offer and discuss some possible explanations for these findings.

Equal Opportunities International, 2009

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to present personal experiences of using storytelling as a ''sensemaking'' tool, to argue for the benefits of this method as a process of better understanding the gendered academy and the role storytelling can play in effecting change. Design/methodology/approach-Drawing on personal experiences of storytelling within workplaces, the paper explores how stories between colleagues can lead to positive change through the co-construction of new worlds of meaning which are spontaneously revised through interaction. Findings-The paper demonstrates how storytelling between individuals experiencing inequality makes visible the gendered practices in academic workplaces and can lead to a change in those experiences of the workplace. Also, such stories can be a means for prompting change through negotiation. Theoretically, a triple-loop learning environment within an organization could provide the agora required for stories about inequality to be heard continually and change to come about through negotiation. Research limitations/implications-The paper uses a method that serves as a heuristic device and as such cannot be generalized for all organizational settings. The findings offer a new but partial solution for negotiating gender inequity in academia by suggesting that there must be more storytelling in openly public spaces between colleagues to challenge and negotiate the gendered organizational cultures of academia. Practical implications-The application of the method of triple-loop learning in academic organizational settings can assist in challenging and changing gender inequity through the consistent use of narratives. Originality/value-The paper is unique in that it argues for the value of a self-reflexive narrative form of method which favours stories being shared in public spaces-the agora-as a way of addressing gender inequity within complex, male dominated professions such as academia.

Journal of Managerial Psychology, 2010

Purpose-The aim of this paper is to investigate how social exchanges modify the relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance. It aims to present two concurrent hypotheses, based on theoretical interaction effects of social exchanges (conceptualized as social exchange relationships, POS, and trust). Design/methodology/approach-Data were collected from a sample of 266 employees in a service sector company in the USA. Regression analysis was used to explore the moderating effects of social exchanges on the relationships between psychological contract breach and work performance (operationalized as in-role behaviors and organizational citizenship behaviors). Findings-It was found that the negative relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance was moderated by social exchanges, such that the relationship was stronger for employees with high social exchange relationship, perceived organizational support, and trust. Research limitations/implications-The data were collected cross-sectionally, and thus causal inferences have to be made with caution. Moreover, the data were collected from a single source. The study shows that the relations between contract breach and outcomes are moderated by the existing relationship between employee and organization. Practical implications-Although organizations may invest in long-term relationships with their employees, psychological contract breaches have a profound impact on work performance. Therefore, organizations should diminish perceptions of contract breach; for instance by providing realistic expectations. Originality/value-The paper provides new theoretical insights on how social exchange can have two distinct effects on the breach-outcomes relations. It shows that social exchanges moderate the relations between contract breach and work performance.

The Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management

Background: Innovative work behaviour (IWB) is central to organisational success and occurs despite psychological contract breaches (PCBs), which are the norm, rather than the exception. Aim: The aim of the article is to present a comprehensive review of the conceptualisation of IWB and PCB, specifying the manner in which the concepts are defined and assessed. Consistency in conceptualisation and the standardisation of measurement should contribute to the development of the unified body of knowledge. Setting: The ways concepts are defined and assessed differ across studies, which challenges researchers and managers as no standard definitions or measurement techniques are available. Methods: A systematic literature review methodology was followed to gather data, which were analysed by focusing on broad adoption, theoretical coherency and, in the case of measurement, psychometric properties. Results: In total 14 articles were retrieved that measured the PCB-IWB link. Psychological contract breach is most often defined and measured in terms of Robinson and Morrison's (2000) and Robinson and Rousseau's (1994) conceptualisations, whilst Janssen's (2000) framework is applied to IWB. Reliability information is reported for these measures. Conclusion: Whilst many definitions and measures of the constructs are used, some are theoretically more comprehensive and some are applied more than others, and these are now stipulated. Managers, consultants and researchers are now empowered to enter the academic debate on the PCB-IWB link and to test substantial and complementary hypotheses that will contribute meaningfully to the existing body of knowledge.

Frontiers in Psychology

We use trait activation and psychological contracts theories to build the argument that narcissism is a personality trait that will manifest itself in the form of exit and neglect when employees experience psychological contract violation. To test our hypotheses, we surveyed 262 employees from a wide array of industries working in different organizations at two points in time. Our results indicate that violation moderated the relationship between narcissism and exit such that narcissistic employees who experienced high levels of violation had higher levels of exit. However, we did not find support for our prediction regarding neglect. The findings suggest that the importance of narcissism at work may be contingent on the situation. Our study contributes to research on narcissism in the workplace, trait activation theory, and the role that individual differences play in shaping employee responses to psychological contract violation.

Cogent Business & Management

The study aimed to link psychological contract with organizational misbehavior directly and through the moderating and mediation effects of organizational health and psychological contract breach. For testing these relationships, the sample gathered from 224 employees, working in Iraqi Oil Tanks Company. The data collection tool was a structured questionnaire. The preliminary analysis was performed by using SPSS 22.0 while the hypothesis testing was done through AMOS, which measures structural equation modeling that helped in simultaneous testing of multiple relationships. The

Work & Stress

This study analyses the relationship between exposure to workplace bullying and turnover intentions. We hypothesized that this relationship is mediated by perceptions of psychological contract violation, and that employee benevolence acts as a moderator. A survey design was employed and data collected among business professionals (n=1,148). The analyses confirmed that perceived psychological contract violation partially explains the relationship between exposure to bullying and turnover intentions. The mediation process was stronger for those reporting more benevolent behaviour, suggesting the importance of perceived psychological contract violation is greater among those scoring high on benevolent behaviour. The results also show that highly benevolent employees are more affected by exposure to bullying behaviour, although the effects were equally detrimental, irrespective of benevolent behaviour, when employees were exposed to very high levels of bullying. The study advances understanding of the mechanisms that govern outcomes of exposure to bullying, highlighting in particular the role of perceived psychological contract violation, and examining differences concerning high or low benevolence employees.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

This study investigates the influence of employees' perception of managerial breach of the normative relational contract (i.e., the psychological relational contract at the group or workplace level) on performance. Many employees in Australia are employed on a permanent or continuing basis and have normative relational contracts whose terms are embedded in human resource practices that apply to all employees at the workplace. We use normative relational contract theory to hypothesise that, where there is a mutually recognised high quality normative relational contract-a strong contract-the emotional bonds of worforce loyalty that are developed by collective sense-making constrain negative workforce reactions to breach. We also hypothesise that, where managers offer high quality contract terms that are not recognised by employees, the failure to elicit loyalty means that breach has negative performance consequences. Panel data are obtained from a two-stage national, multisource study of employees (n = 1,733) and senior human resource managers (n = 57). Results from hierarchical moderator regression analyses support the hypotheses. They demonstrate that a strong normative relational contract 'buffers' employees' negative responses to breach.

British Journal of Management, 2014

Doing more with less? Employee reactions to psychological contract breach via target similarity or spill-over during public sector organizational change.

Applied Psychology, 2016

This intra-individual study examined relationships over time of job demands and resources with employee perceptions of psychological contract breach and violation, or the emotional impact of breach. Based on Conservation of Resources Theory, we expected job demands to increase the susceptibility of experiencing contract breach and violation over time, and we expected this relationship to be moderated by available job resources. In particular, autonomy and social support were expected to buffer relationships of job demands with breach, while development was expected to intensify relationships between job demands and breach. For violation, we expected job resources to intensify the relationships between job demands and breach, in line with the betrayal hypothesis. Analyses on weekly diary data showed that weekly job demands were related to higher contract breach perceptions in the following week when autonomy and social support were low and when development was high. Moreover, weekly job demands were related to higher violation in the next week, especially when social support was high. The study shows that job demands may be related to higher odds of experiencing a breach and higher violation, and job resources may play opposite roles in moderating the relationships of job demands with breach and violation.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2014

Ti t l e Go s si p in t h e w o r k pl a c e a n d t h e i m plic a tio n s fo r H R m a n a g e m e n t : a s t u dy of g o s si p a n d it s r el a tio n s hi p t o e m pl oy e e cy nicis m

Sustainability

This study investigated the effect of abusive supervision on employee organizational identification by analyzing the mediating effect of psychological contract violation. In addition, it explored the moderating role of favoritism in the direct association of abusive supervision and organizational identification and the indirect effect through psychological contract violation. A total of 488 seasonal, immigrant, and part-time employees from family-run hotel organizations were surveyed during the data collection process. By utilizing Hayes’s macro, we found that abusive supervision and psychological contract violation had a significant negative effect on organizational identification. In addition, the results showed that psychological contract violation mediated the effect of abusive supervision on organizational identification and favoritism moderated the effect of abusive supervision on psychological contract violation. The findings highlight the detrimental effects of favoritism an...

Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

In this study, we explore different pathways during organizational socialization through the lens of the psychological contract using in-depth longitudinal qualitative methods. Analysis of 112 critical incident interviews with 27 newcomers across their first year of work reveals five distinct psychological contract pathways through socialization, within which fulfilment and breach influence adjustment by facilitating or restricting opportunities to learn and integrate, as well as influencing attitudes and behaviour. The analysis reveals that whilst perceived psychological contract fulfilment facilitates newcomer adjustment, perceived breach can disrupt the process. We provide a detailed account of the way socialization and the psychological contract unfold for newcomers over time, and show that psychological contract events can significantly alter the course of adjustment. Practitioner points Delivery of perceived promises that are of particular importance to newcomers during early tenure can accelerate adjustment. Managers should therefore attempt to find out which promised contributions are important to employees and prioritize their delivery. The negative effects of perceptions of broken promises on newcomer adjustment may be reversed by later delivery. Managers should explain the reasons for any broken promises and seek to fulfil them in the future. Ongoing support from managers can help newcomers to negotiate the difficult period after organizational entry, even where promises are perceived to have been broken. Direct managers should be made aware of information provided and promises made to newcomers by those responsible for recruitment.

Personnel Review

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider how employees’ perceptions of psychological contract breach, due to their sense that their organization has not kept its promises, might diminish their creative behavior. Yet access to two critical personal resources – emotion regulation and humor skills – might buffer this negative relationship. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from employees in a large organization in the automobile sector. Findings Employees’ beliefs that their employer has not come through on its promises diminishes their engagement in creative activities. The effect is weaker among employees who can more easily control their emotions and who use humor in difficult situations. Practical implications For organizations, the results show that the frustrations that come with a sense of broken promises can be contained more easily to the extent that their employee bases can rely on pertinent personal resources. Originality/value This investigation...

2021

BACKGROUND: The current study explored the relationship between breach of employer obligations, family-work conflict, psychological distress and well-being during Covid-19 unlock phase. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to understand the breach of how the breach of employer obligation lead to decreased well-being through the family-work conflict and psychological distress during the covid-19 unlock phase. METHODS: The data was collected through structured questionnaire via Google doc from 397 employees across the industries. Snowball sampling was adopted, and SmartPLS 3.0 was used for the structural equation model. RESULTS: Breach of employer obligations are positively affecting family-work conflict. Further, family-work conflict increases the psychological distress, and psychological distress decreases the well-being (life satisfaction and family satisfaction) of the employees. CONCLUSION: The novel contribution of the study is integrating SET, COR and SIP theory during the pandemic situa...

Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 2012

2021

The importance of value-based leadership such as authentic, ethical, and servant leadership is inconspicuous. However, the benefits of these leadership approaches are often only explained through the behaviors of their followers. As such, limited research has communicated the leader’s motivation for pursuing such leadership behavior, resulting in such discourse to escape theorizing. We draw upon role theory and paid attention to the role of higher-level management (leadership) through the trickle-down model to underline their importance in the organization. We then expand this role theory framework by synthesizing research to explain the emergence of value-based leadership behavior at the frontline of management. In doing so, we aim to provide a stronger explanation of the emergence of value-based leadership in organizations. We conclude this analysis by guiding future research in the form of propositions to investigate the psychological process and organizational factors to empiric...

International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management, 2014

Using a sample of two hundred and ninety two administrative employees from five universities in Egypt completed the survey, the survey response rate was 58.4%, this study examined whether organizational cynicism mediated the effects of workplace perceptions represented in distributive, procedural, interactional justice (DJ, PJ and IJ), perceived organizational support (POS), and Perceived of Psychological Contract Breach (PPCB) on workplace incivility. DJ, PJ, IJ and POS were found to significantly and negatively influence both organization cynicism and workplace incivility. PPCB was found to significantly and positively influence both organization cynicism and workplace incivility. Results from Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) also showed that organizational cynicism partially mediates the relationship among DJ, PJ, IJ, POS, and PPCB and workplace incivility. Implications for research and practice of our findings are discussed.

Journal of Management & Organization, 2018

This paper addresses longstanding questions about how promise and obligation, two of the key conceptual building blocks for psychological contract research, are conceptualized and operationalized: How do employees understand these concepts? Would their understandings be congruent with the researchers’ and how would this knowledge inform future psychological contract research? Drawing on interviews with 61 Chinese workers from diverse backgrounds, our results suggest the concepts have distinct meanings for participants in terms of three criteria (defining characteristics, key features and manifestations in employment). We argue that promise and obligation are likely to serve different functions in employment relationship and have different meanings for researchers versus participants, and accordingly we highlight the challenges of using them to conceptualize and operationalize psychological contracts in China and beyond.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2008

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2021

Purpose The study investigates the impact of psychological contract breach on employees' innovative behavior and well-being (happiness, work engagement and mental well-being) who are working from home during this COVID-19 pandemic situation. Drawing on social information processing (SIP) and job-demand resource (JD-R) theory, job stress was proposed as a mediator explaining this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via a structured questionnaire through Google Docs from 258 respondents working at different capacity in Indian organizations. The study includes those respondents who are working from home during COVID-19 pandemic situation. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings Psychological contract breach was negatively impacting innovative behavior and well-being. Job stress mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and innovative behavior as well as well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic situ...

Sustainability, 2018

Despite an increasing amount of research on perceived corporate hypocrisy (PCH), limited research has investigated PCH among employees. Particularly, the literature lacked a valid instrument for estimating employees’ PCH, even though employees experience severe consequences for PCH. To address this gap, a scale was developed to measure employees’ PCH, using a three-stage Item Response Theory modeling approach. After a series of qualitative studies and six quantitative scale-development iterations, PCH was found to be a unidimensional construct represented by the perceived lack of morality, perceived control breach, double standards, and a value‒behavior gap. Further, the nine-item PCH scale was confirmed to be reliable, valid, and unbiased for different demographic groups. The scale makes theoretical contributions by being one of the few attempts to objectively measure employees’ hypocrisy judgements and incorporating corporations’ double standard and perceived commitment to moralit...

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

The aim of this article is to identify the relationship between the fulfilment of relational and transactional psychological contracts and work results, taking into account the mediation effect expressed in organisational identification. The empirical research was conducted on a group of 402 HR professionals responsible for designing and implementing HR practices in one of the leading companies of the Polish energy sector. Hypotheses were tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique (PLS-SEM). Based on our research, we found that the implementation of both relational and transactional psychological contracts positively influenced the results achieved by HR professionals, both directly and indirectly, through the mediating role of organisational identification. The results indicate that the relationship between the psychological contract and work results is stronger when mediated by organisational identification. It plays an important role, especiall...

SEISENSE Journal of Management, 2019

Aim - The objective of the study was to examine the psychological contract expectations by employees and the impact of any deviation from its perceived benefits by the employees of an organization, as they occur within social exchange relationships to account for employee responses. Methodology - This is an exploratory longitudinal study in which an investigation is made into the changes in employment obligations as perceived by employees based on the level of fulfillment of contract obligations by their employer(s). Findings - It was deduced that an employer's inability to fulfill its contractual commitments was the foundational cause associated with the decline in cooperation of the employees to fulfill their employment obligations. Significance - The results of the current study show that there is a significant and positive relationship between Psychological Contract Fulfilment and Employee Reaction. Results presented that there is a significant and positive relationship betw...

Corporate Governance and Organizational Behavior Review, 2022

Retention of employees is substantial for firms to generate sustainability since losing experienced and skilled individuals influence the general productivity, and product quality (Noor, Zainuddin, Panigrahi, & Rahim, 2020). While various researches have been done regarding this matter, the larger part place on turnover because of organizational approach, a couple of studies have been done with the intention to stay. For this reason, this study incorporates organizational justice, organizational commitment, and how they relate to expanding intention to stay. The respondents were picked using a simple random sampling method. Using a sample of 603 engineers working in Malaysian construction projects. The data was accumulated through a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed utilizing structural equation modeling in IBM SPSS AMOS 23.0. The current study gets two fundamental outcomes. Firstly, organizational justice and organizational commitment are positively associated with the i...

Management international, 2017

Cet article développe une analyse exploratoire comparant les politiques RH entre les employeurs publics Suisse romands et leurs homologues des départements limitrophes français, opérant au sein d’un même bassin d’emploi appelé « le Grand Genève « (territoire Franco-Valdo-Genevois). Longtemps confinées à la « simple » mise en oeuvre des statuts du personnel, les politiques RH des organisations publiques deviennent de plus en plus stratégiques, étant donnée l’importance d’attirer et de conserver les meilleurs talents sur le marché de l’emploi. Mobilisant les concepts de Marque employeur et de Contrat psychologique, cette contribution révèle les points communs et divergences, entre employeurs suisses et français, parmi les atouts mis en avant pour les potentielles recrues et les stratégies de valorisation et de profilage utilisées.

Handbook on Management and Employment Practices, 2021

The primary thrust of psychological contract (PC) research has focused on employees' outward directed responses when they experience contract breach and violation. These responses have been primarily directed at the organization as the source of the psychological contract breach. In doing so, the inward-focused

Sustainability

The COVID-19 crisis has challenged and generated severe impact on the global society, economy, and environment. Under this pandemic context, governments and organizations around the world have issued and strengthened environmental policies and regulations to protect the environment and human health. However, the extant knowledge about how people’s interpretation of environmental policies and regulations influence their psychological well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is still limited. This study, therefore, investigates the impact of environmental interpretation on psychological well-being with the mediating role of environmentally responsible behavior and the moderating role of psychological contract violation. Using the data from a large sample of 960 residents in China, results of structural equation modeling show a positive relationship between environmental interpretation and psychological well-being, and this relationship is mediated by environmentally responsi...

Frontiers in Psychology

COVID-19 has had a huge impact on workers and workplaces across the world while putting regular work practices into disarray. Apart from the obvious effects of COVID-19, the pandemic is anticipated to have a variety of social–psychological, health-related, and economic implications for individuals at work. Despite extensive research on psychological contracts and knowledge sharing, these domains of pedagogic endeavor have received relatively little attention in the context of employee creativity subjected to the boundary conditions of the organization’s socialization and work-related curiosity. This study investigates, empirically, the role of psychological contracts in escalating employee creativity through knowledge sharing by considering the moderating role of an organization’s socialization and work-related curiosity. The response received from 372 employees of the manufacturing sector has been investigated and analyzed through Smart PLS software. The results have revealed that ...

Kafkas üniversitesi iktisadi ve idari bilimler fakültesi dergisi, 2022

Bu çalışmada Chang ve Zhang (2019) tarafından geliştirilen psikolojik sözleşme ihlali ölçeğinin Türkçeye uyarlanması amaçlanmıştır. Literatürde psikolojik sözleşme ihlali kavramının genel olarak örgütsel bağlamda ele alındığı görülmektedir. Chang ve Zhang (2019) ise kavramı müşteri ve satıcı açısından ele almışlardır. Çalışma kapsamında dört ifadeden oluşan söz konusu ölçme aracı Türkçeye tercüme edilmiştir. Araştırmaya kolayda örnekleme yöntemi ile seçilen 388 katılımcı dâhil edilmiştir. Elde edilen veriler SPSS 18 ve AMOS 18 paket programları kullanılarak analize tabi tutulmuştur. Yapılan analizler neticesinde Türkçeye uyarlanan formun, seçilen örneklem üzerinde güvenilir ve geçerli olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Scientific Reports

A great deal of empirical research on the consequences of a psychological contract breach (PCB) has overlooked the role of time in understanding individuals’ reactions to a PCB. Moreover, psychological contract research primarily focuses on how employees react to perceptions of a PCB, while questions regarding how the organization’s responsiveness (i.e., social account) might impact these reactions remain unanswered. We aimed to enhance the understanding of stress reactions and recovery that are triggered by PCB perceptions and stimulate empirical research that treats psychological contracts as a dynamic phenomenon. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, we investigated how social account delivery timing—and its subjective experience—influences individuals’ stress resolution processes in the aftermath of a PCB. To this end, we used an experimental design and assessed participants’ physiological (i.e., heart rate) and psychological (i.e., self-report) stress reactions after...

British Journal of Management, 2007

This study tests the effects of psychological contract breach on several employee outcomes: workplace deviant behaviours directed at the organization (WD-O) and its organizational members (WD-I), in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviours directed at the organization (OCB-O) and its co-workers (OCB-I). It also examines the moderating effects of equity sensitivity in the relationship between breach and these outcomes. Data were collected from 162 sales executives and their direct supervisors. We found that breach was related to all behavioural outcomes. Equity sensitivity and breach also interacted in predicting OCB-I, OCB-O and WD-I. The negative relationships between breach and OCB-O and OCB-I were stronger for employees with an outcome-focused approach to organizational relationships than for those with an input-focused approach. In addition, breach had stronger positive effects on WD-I especially for those individuals who are output-oriented compared to those who are input-focused. Psychological contracts consist of a set of beliefs about the exchange terms and conditions between the employee and the employing organization (Guest, 2004; Rousseau, 1995). An important aspect of the psychological contract is the employees' expectation that the organization will adequately deliver on its promises. When employees perceive that the organization has not lived up to its promises, then this results in psychological contract breach (Rousseau, 1995). Breach of the psychological contract has negative implications for a wide spectrum of employee attitudes and behaviours (Coyle-Shapiro and

Current Psychology

Employee task performance is considered to be of crucial importance for organizational survival and growth, at the same time, the struggle for organizational survival and growth most especially in the current economic climate gives rise to perceptions of job insecurity among employees thereby making the perception of job insecurity a relevant topic. This study examined the effect of perceived job insecurity on task performance. In addition, the effect of both quantitative and qualitative facets of job insecurity on the different components of task performance, was investigated. By making use of the multi-stage sampling technique, a total of 342 employees with age range of 23 to 46 years were proportionately selected from the cluster that represents each bank. Furthermore, the close ended and structured questionnaire was utilized in a descriptive cross-sectional research design to elicit responses from these employees. Based on the regression analysis conducted, it was revealed that while perceived job insecurity as a uni-dimensional construct exercise a significant and negative effect on task performance, both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity also have a significant and negative effect on this performance with the later, found to exercise a stronger negative impact. Furthermore, results also indicate that while quantitative job insecurity is more negatively related with the job quality component of performance, both job quantity and job time limit are more negatively related with qualitative job insecurity. To conclude, recommendations were made on the need for organizations to focus intervention on antecedents of job insecurity which have been classified as macro level, micro level and personality factors with the view of reducing the incidence of perceived job insecurity. It was also recommended that managers should endeavor to concentrate more resources on those employees who suffer from qualitative job insecurity whenever there is a need to make use of these interventions, while also being in cognizant of the fact that a different level of intervention is required for employees with different level of job quality, job quantity and job time limit.

Journal of Supply Chain Management, 2016

Today's globally competitive environment presents ample opportunity for buyers to dissolve relationships by switching suppliers. While previous studies have described supplier switching behavior based on supplier attributes and switching costs, our study leverages attribution theory to evaluate the impact of psychological contracts on supplier switching behavior. We report the results of a controlled experiment involving 265 subjects in which we manipulate three characteristics of a psychological contract breach: attribution (whether the breach was due to reneging by the supplier or a disruption), severity (whether the breach was major or minor), and timing (whether the breach was early or late in the life cycle of the exchange history). Our analysis indicates that in the context of supplier switching, buyers are affected by the attribution and severity of a breach but not by the timing. In contrast to previous experimental research in noncompetitive settings, we find that psychological contract violation mediates the relationship between breach and behavior. We further complement our primary findings with a vignette-based experiment and interview data collected from experienced managers. Our research makes an important contribution to the relationship dissolution and industrial buyer behavior literatures by providing a behavioral explanation for supplier switching and reveals the complex role of psychological contracts in supply chain exchanges.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2018

Background: In the last years, many changes have involved the labor context: new ways of working, more flexibility and uncertainty, new and more insecure job contracts. In this framework, perceived job insecurity, worker's perception about potential involuntary job loss, has received renewed interest, also for those workers with a permanent contract in Italy. Consequences of job insecurity on work-related outcomes such as job satisfaction have been demonstrated; nevertheless, its possible effects outside the workplace seem to be underestimated so far. Moreover, literature highlighted the importance to consider gender as a possible moderator in the relationship between one partner's stressors and the other partner's strain. Aim: According to spillover and crossover theories, this study aim was to investigate the relationship between job insecurity and family life satisfaction of both partners, through the mediation of job satisfaction. The model has been simultaneously tested in two groups, women and men, in a sample of permanent workers. Method: The research involved a convenience sample of 344 employees with permanent contract (53% female) from different occupational sectors. Participants (focal persons) and their partners filled out a self-report questionnaire. Results: The multi-group SEM indicated a full mediation of job satisfaction in the relationship between job insecurity on the one side, and both individual's and his/her partner's family life satisfaction on the other side in both groups. Conclusion: These study findings highlighted how job insecurity may be indirectly and negatively related to both members' family life satisfaction, through the mediation of job satisfaction. As regards gender, similar spillover and crossover patterns emerged, contributing to that literature that highlights a greater similarity in the models of interaction between work and family among women and men. Interventions should be aimed at reducing perception of job insecurity among workers, including those with permanent contract. Employers should improve communication and flow of information

Journal of Management & Organization, 2021

This article looks at the relationship between psychological contract breach and voluntary turnover among newcomers, using supervisor trustworthiness as a mediator and negative affectivity as a moderator. Relying on data from 243 newcomers, psychological contract breach was found to be negatively related to the three dimensions of supervisor trustworthiness, i.e., ability, benevolence, and integrity. Supervisor integrity further mediated a positive relationship between psychological contract breach and voluntary turnover measured 8 months later. Psychological contract breach interacted with negative affectivity such that it was less negatively related to dimensions of supervisor trustworthiness at high levels of negative affectivity. The indirect relationship of psychological contract breach to voluntary turnover as mediated by supervisor integrity was also weaker at high levels of negative affectivity. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.

International Journal of Manpower

PurposeThe present work investigates the micro-mechanisms underlying the link between psychological contract violation (PCV) and incivility in women employees. Building on social exchange theory (SET) and the norm of reciprocity, the authors utilized a multi-dimensional variable, labeled “Aggressive Reciprocal Attitude” (ARA), composed of three sub-constructs, namely anger, hostility and negative reciprocity, to explain negative women's uncivil behaviors. Further, the effect of conscientiousness is hypothesized to restrain the mechanism of ARA.Design/methodology/approachConfirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) were used on a sample of 194 women from 4 different organizations to empirically validate the proposed conceptual model and test the hypothesized relationships.FindingsWomen's ARA is shown as a partial mediator of the relationship between PCV and incivility. Conscientiousness significantly moderates the link between ...

Dicle Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi

Hem ulusal hem de uluslararası alan yazında psikolojik sözleşmenin işten ayrılma niyetine, örgütsel özdeşleşmeye, işe bağlılığa, iş tatminine ve iş performansına etkisi üzerine çeşitli çalışmalar yürütülmüştür. Fakat sigorta sektörü özelinde bu çalışmaların diğer sektörlere kıyasla daha az olduğu görülmektedir. Bu çalışmada sigortacılık sektöründe algılanan psikolojik sözleşme ihlalinin çalışanların işten ayrılma niyetlerine etkisi ve bu etki üzerinde örgütsel özdeşleşmenin aracılık rolünü değerlendirmek amaçlanmaktadır. Ayrıca, demografik özelliklerin, mevcut kurumda ve toplamda çalışma süresinin, çalışılan departmanın psikolojik sözleşme ihlali algısında, örgütsel özdeşleşme düzeyinde ve işten ayrılma niyetinde istatistiksel olarak anlamlı farklılık yaratıp yaratmadığını ortaya koymak da amaçlanmaktadır. Çalışmanın amacını gerçekleştirmek üzere SPSS 21.0 Paket Programı Process Makrosu ile Model 4’e ilişkin analizler yürütülmüştür. Çalışmada ayrıca tanımlayıcı istatistiklere ve kor...

Journal of Management, 2004

In this study, we synthesize, from the attitude and turnover literatures, a framework of eight (8) distinctive motives, or “Forces”. We then illustrate how the “8 Forces” framework can be utilized by turnover researchers as clarification of reported reasons for turnover, as causal mediators of turnover predictors, and as factors related to the type of turnover decision process. Finally, we discuss further implications of this framework.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

As an answer to crises such as COVID-19, organizations implemented more subtle forms of cutback measures such as wage moderation, loan sacrifice and recruitment freezes aimed at maintaining a financially healthy organization. In this study, the association between subtle cutback management and employee exhaustion was studied, and it was investigated whether this potential linkage can be explained by employee perceptions of increased qualitative job insecurity or the fear that valued features of the job will decrease in the near future. This research thereby extends prior research on the consequences of cutback management as well as regarding the antecedents of qualitative job insecurity. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted on a sample of workers (N = 218) active in various organizations in the Netherlands and Belgium. Regression analysis was applied to test hypotheses. Mediation was investigated by means of Hayes PROCESS macro. The results of the study indicate that there ...

Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, 2020

PurposeThis study aims to test the mediating role of psychological contract (PC) in a relationship between personality dimensions and turnover intention.Design/methodology/approachThe current study is analytical in nature. The data for the purpose of the analysis is collected from 300 software engineers working in Lahore, Punjab. Purposive sampling technique is used for the collection of this data. The response rate was 87.33 per cent. Different data analysis techniques such as correlation, regression analysis, are used to test the 10 hypotheses of the study. Moreover, the study adopted a cross-sectional survey design.FindingsAccording to regression analysis, extroversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness personality dimensions brought positive but insignificant increments in turnover intention. However, emotionally stable personality dimensions brought positive and significant increments in turnover intention. Open to experience personality dimension brought negative but insigni...

Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies

This study aims to examine the effect of charismatic leadership on followers’ attitudinal, emotional, and well-being outcomes in a crisis setting. Combining leadership literature with Conservation of Resources and leader-follower distance theories, we propose that the effect of charismatic leadership on follower outcomes depends on the interplay between the follower's furlough status during the lockdown period and their Intolerance to Uncertainty (IU) dispositional characteristic. A cross-sectional study was conducted at two points in time: during the first lockdown (March–April 2020) and four months after the lockdown (August 2020). The final sample included 336 employees with data for both points in time ( n = 199 continued to work during the lockdown, n = 137 were on furlough). The findings confirmed the study's hypotheses and revealed that charismatic leadership significantly contributed to employee outcomes only in the case of furloughed employees with low levels of IU ...

BRQ Business Research Quarterly

NATO members have been coping with low motivation and morale. Such environments typically have high turnover intentions and neglect behavior. However, safety behavior is paramount for military organizations and neglect behavior can have serious consequences. Social exchanges are often cited as the main reason for these phenomena. We therefore examine turnover intentions and safety compliance behavior of 1,593 airmen from a European NATO Air Force by focusing on different psychological contract (PC) dimensions. We use polynomial regression and response surface analysis. Results show that higher levels of PC fulfillment are related to lower levels of turnover intentions and higher levels of safety compliance behavior. Furthermore, perceptions of PC overfulfillment are negatively associated with turnover intentions, whereas safety compliance is unaffected by positive (overfulfillment) and negative (underfulfillment) PC discrepancies along all PC dimensions. We discuss implications for ...

Service Business, 2017

Drawing from social information processing, conservation of resources, and affective events theories, our study proposes and tests a conceptual model that examines psychological capital (PsyCap) as a partial mediator of the influence of psychological contract breach (PCB) on service innovation behavior. These relationships were tested with data obtained from managerial and non-managerial employees in customer-contact positions who had full-time jobs in the five-star hotels in Seoul, South Korea. The findings from structural equation modeling suggest that PCB erodes employees' PsyCap and impedes their service innovation behavior. As expected, PsyCap activates employees' service innovation behavior. The findings also lend credence to PsyCap as a partial mediator in the aforesaid relationships.

Management Research Review, 2019

Purpose Constructive deviance is a behavior that can contribute to the effectiveness of an organization despite its problematic nature. Too few studies have examined the correlates of this behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine variables that represent exchange and organizational culture and their relationship to supervisor-reported and self-reported constructive deviance. Design/methodology/approach The survey data were collected from 602 employees (a response rate of 67 per cent) in a large municipality in central Israel. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses were performed for each of the dependent variables (three self-reported constructive deviances and three supervisor-reported constructive deviance) controlling for divisions and departments. Findings The findings showed that self-reported constructive deviance was explained much better by the independent variables than supervisor-reported deviance. Organizational justice and moral identity had a strong direct...

Natural Hazards, 2021

A major challenge for health services worldwide is in providing adequate medical care during mass disasters. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights this difficulty. Patient surge, a consequence of most types of disasters that contribute to trauma experiences, is a primary factor in disrupting such care as it is composed of worried well persons and those experiencing psychosocial trauma that can severely disrupt and overwhelm effective acute hospital based health care. We review the literature and propose a potential solution framework to reduce such a surge that relies on exploiting community social networks as first responders. We utilize and integrate literature based evidence on patient surge, community disaster behaviors and community based informal social networks to examine reasons for patient surge to hospitals. We then propose that leveraging community based social networks as a potent deterrent for non-critically injured, especially those who have experienced psychosocial trauma or the worried well, from seeking hospital care during ongoing disasters. By emphasizing the social capital inherent in community based social networks, this perspective posits an alternative cost-effective means of reducing patient surge.

Cognition, Technology & Work, 2023

Despite the rapid rise in social engineering attacks, not all employees are as compliant with information security policies (ISPs) to the extent that organisations expect them to be. ISP non-compliance is caused by a variety of psychological motivation. This study investigates the effect of psychological contract breach (PCB) of employees on ISP compliance intention (ICI) by dividing them into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the general deterrence theory (GDT). Data analysis from UK employees (n=206) showed that the higher the PCB, the lower the ICI. The study also found that PCBs significantly reduced intrinsic motivation (attitude and perceived fairness) for ICI, whereas PCBs did not moderate the relationship between extrinsic motivation (sanction severity and sanctions certainty) and ICI. As a result, this study successfully addresses the risks of PCBs in the field of IS security and proposes effective solutions for employees with high PCBs.

Personnel Review, 2020

PurposeThis study unpacks the relationship between violations of organizational promises, as perceived by employees and their job performance, considering the mediating effects of job-related anxiety and moderating effects of psychological contract type.Design/methodology/approachMulti-source, multi-wave data were collected from employees and their supervisors in Pakistan.FindingsFeelings of organizational betrayal may reduce job performance due to the higher anxiety that employees experience in their daily work. This mediating role of enhanced job-related anxiety in turn is stronger to the extent that employees believe that their psychological contract contains relational obligations but weaker when it contains transactional obligations.Practical implicationsThe study gives organizational decision makers pertinent insights into how they can mitigate the risk that employees who are angry about broken organizational promises stay away from performance-enhancing work activities, namel...

British Journal of Management

This study investigates the relationship between employees’ perceptions of psychological contract breaches and their failure to meet work‐related deadlines, with a particular focus on the mediating role of the depersonalization they assign to organizational authorities and the moderating role of their religious faith. Results based on multisource data, collected among employees and their supervisors in Pakistani organizations, show that an important factor that underpins the connection between beliefs about broken organizational promises and a diminished propensity to finish work on time is that employees depersonalize organizational leaders. This mediating effect is mitigated by employees’ religious faith. For organizations, this study thus identifies a key mechanism – exhibiting indifference to the people in charge – by which employees’ frustrations about resource‐depleting contract breaches may inadvertently escalate into ineffective time management, and it identifies some worker...

The international journal of organizational analysis, 2019

Purpose -This paper aims to investigate how employees' perceptions of psychological contract violation or sense of organizational betrayal, might diminish their job satisfaction, as well as how their access to two critical personal resourcesemotion regulation skills and work-related self-efficacymight buffer this negative relationship. Design/methodology/approach -Two-wave survey data came from employees of Pakistani-based organizations. Findings -Perceived contract violation reduces job satisfaction, but the effect is weaker at higher levels of emotion regulation skills and work-related self-efficacy. Practical implications -For organizations, these results show that the frustrations that come with a sense of organizational betrayal can be contained more easily to the extent that their employees can draw from relevant personal resources. Originality/value -This investigation provides a more complete understanding of when perceived contract violation will deplete employees' emotional resources, in the form of feelings of happiness about their job situation. A sense of organizational betrayal is less likely to escalate into reduced job satisfaction when employees can control their negative emotions and feel confident about their work-related competencies.

European Management Review, 2023

To establish how and when psychological contract violations steer employees away from championing behaviors, this study addresses the mediating role of beliefs about inadequate career support and the moderating role of forgiveness climates, as perceived by employees. Survey data from 208 employees of a retail organization, along with a simultaneous estimation of mediation and moderation effects (Process macro), reveal that a sense of organizational betrayal undermines efforts to mobilize support for innovative ideas, because employees critique employers for offering limited career support. Perceptions of an organizational climate that forgives mistakes mitigate this harmful process. For championing research, this study unpacks an unexplored link between psychological contract violations and championing efforts, influenced by career‐related adversity and organizational forgiveness. For practitioners, it pinpoints the danger that employees who feel betrayed might inadvertently make things more difficult, because they react with work‐related complacency. Organizations should create benevolent internal environments to diminish this danger.

Africa journal of management, 2023

Employees' perceptions that their organization has not met its promises toward them (i.e., perceived contract breaches) might inform their turnover intentions, in a link that also could be moderated by four relevant leader-related resourcestwo that reflect how organizational leaders share knowledge (communication efficiency and informational justice) and two that capture the nature of the relationship between employees and organizational authorities (humility and forgiveness). Using survey data collected among employees who operate in the oil distribution sector in Angola, this study shows that employees' frustrations about broken organizational promises fuel their desire to quit their jobs, but less so when these employees believe that organizational leaders communicate efficiently and fairly, exhibit humility in their interactions with leaders, and perceive the leaders as forgiving. For organizations, these results provide novel insights into various conditions in which irritations about unmet expectations are less likely to escalate into a detrimental situation in which employees plan to leave.

Personnel Psychology, 2003

Breach and fulfillment in a psychological contract has traditionally been studied with approaches that are conceptually and methodologically limited. We compared predictions derived from the traditional view to predictions from an expanded view that maintains the distinction between promised and delivered inducements and examines their joint relationship with employee satisfaction. The traditional and expanded views were compared using longitudinal data and polynomial regression analysis. Results provided little support for the traditional view. In contrast, results supported the expanded view and revealed that relationships for breach and fulfillment are more complex than previously suggested. Specifically, satisfaction depended on whether breach represented deficient or excess inducements and the particular inducement under consideration. Moreover, satisfaction was more strongly related to delivered inducements than promised inducements. These results question basic tenets of psyc...

Journal of Management, 2003

This research examines the relationships between psychological contract fulfillment and three types of employee behavior: in-role performance, organizational citizenship behavior directed at the organization, and organizational citizenship behavior directed at individuals within the organization. Using a sample of 134 supervisor-subordinate dyads, this study suggests that the extent of psychological contract fulfillment is positively related to the performance of all three types of employee behavior. In addition, the results indicate that psychological contract fulfillment is more strongly related to citizenship behavior directed at the organization than to citizenship behavior directed at one's colleagues. Finally, this research investigates if employees' attributions regarding the reasons that psychological contract breach occurred also impact their work performance. However, the data provide only limited support for the idea that employees are most likely to reduce their work effort when they perceive that the organization has intentionally failed to live up to its commitments.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 2020

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to understand whether psychological contract (PC) expectations manifest differently for diversity clusters of gender, physical disability and region in relation to job performance and intention to stay.Design/methodology/approachIt is a survey-based study. Data from 1,065 information technology and business process management professionals were analysed using partial least square based structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and multigroup analysis.FindingsThe met PC expectations related to career growth and development impact performance and are influenced by regional diversity. The met PC expectations related to job and work environment impact the intention to stay. Gender and physical disability do not influence any relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings related to physical disability are based on a small sample of 60 employees. This could be reflective of their actual participation in the workplace.Practical implicationsNo signi...

Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 2016

This research integrates social exchange theory and resource theory to develop a measure of the types of resources supervisors provide to their employees, referred to as supervisor-provided resources (SPR). The factor structure, construct validity, and criterion-related validity for the SPR are reported based on six separate samples of working adults. Results indicated three resource dimensions: money, social, and task resources. All three resource types were positively related to quality of the social exchange relationship, but they were differentially related to attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Implications of the SPR for future research and practice in the context of exchange relationships are discussed.

Human Relations, 2010

In this article we extend consideration of differences of interest in employment relationships to career issues. Two sets of interests — those of employing organizations and of individual workers — often make careers ‘contested terrain’ in which organizations pursue strategic advantages and individuals personal advantages. The contestation is contextualized by current trends to individualized employment relations and a focus on managerial, professional and technical work. The two interest sets mirror a disjuncture between two disciplinary bases, the ‘vocational’ base underpinned by psychology and the ‘strategic human resource management’ (SHRM) base, underpinned by economics. We develop a ‘psychological contract’ model, in which both individuals and organizations invest knowledge capital in the other with a view to obtaining long-term returns. We consider the implications of our analysis and model for career management by both individuals and organizations, for future research on ca...

Frontiers in Psychology, 2021

Journal of Management, 2010

Adopting a multifoci approach to psychological contract breach (i.e., breach by the organization referent and breach by the supervisor referent), the authors propose a trickle-down model of breach. Results from three studies show that supervisor perceptions of organizational breach are negatively related to supervisor citizenship behaviors toward the subordinate, resulting in subordinate perceptions of supervisory breach. Subordinate breach perceptions are, in turn, negatively related to subordinate citizenship behaviors toward the customer and, ultimately, customer satisfaction. The findings demonstrate the interconnected nature of social exchange relationships at work and draw attention to the effects of breach for other employees and customers.

Human Resource Management Journal, 2018

How to manage talent effectively is a key question in organisations. Yet we still know relatively little about talent's psychological reactions to their exclusive status. Based on psychological contract theory and research on status, this study analyses a sample of 321 employees identified as talent by their organisations, only some of whom were aware of their exclusive talent status. The results provide evidence that talent status awareness moderates the relationship between a range of employer inducements and talent obligations, such that it increases the importance of some inducements while diminishing that of others. The study contributes to the talent management literature by isolating specific effects of talent status awareness and calling into question extant evidence of its direct positive effects on talent attitudes. The findings also have implications for talent status communication, talent management, and future theorising of talent reactions to their exclusive status.