Psychological contracts and reciprocity: a study in a Finnish context

Existing research has demonstrated how the norm of reciprocity operates as a general principle in exchange relationships. However, limited explicit theoretical and empirical attention has been paid to its role in the functioning of the psychological contract. Using a sample of Finnish public sector employees, this study investigated the impact of perceived employer fulfilment of psychological contract on employee perceptions of the form of reciprocity underlying the exchange relationship. The potential mediating role of the reciprocity perceptions between perceived contract fulfilment and its outcomes (affective commitment, continuance commitment and intention to leave) was also examined. The results show that perceived employer fulfilment is positively associated with employee perceptions of the generalized form of reciprocity, and negatively with perceptions of the balanced form of reciprocity. Further, perceptions of generalized reciprocity were found to mediate the relationship between perceived contract fulfilment and affective commitment and intentions to leave the organization. Results and implications are discussed.     

Psychological Contract Breach in a Chinese Context: An Integrative Approach

ABSTRACT    This study examined the antecedents and outcomes of psychological contract breach as well as why and how psychological contract breach is related to these outcomes. Respondents were Hong Kong Chinese employees (N=152). Results showed organizational change and history of contract breach to be related to psychological contract breach which, in turn, was related to turnover intentions, psychological withdrawal behaviour, and civic virtue. Further, trust in employer fully mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and the work outcomes of psychological withdrawal behaviour and civic virtue but partially mediated the psychological contract breach–turnover intentions relationship. Lastly, interactional justice failed to moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and the work outcomes.     

Linking job insecurity to well-being and organizational attitudes in Belgian workers: the role of security expectations and fairness

The aim of this study was to investigate how perceptions of job insecurity and fairness associate with individual well-being (job satisfaction and general health) and organizational attitudes (organizational commitment and turnover intention), under the condition that the psychological contract as perceived by the employee includes a promise on job security, or not. More specifically, we suggest that (H1) job insecurity is negatively related to individual well-being and organizational commitment and positively related to turnover intentions when job security is expected as part of the psychological contract, (H2) that job insecurity is negatively related to fairness perceptions when job security is expected as part of the psychological contract, (H3) that fairness associates positively with individual well-being and organizational commitment and negatively with turnover intentions and (H4) that the association between job insecurity, individual well-being and organizational outcomes is mediated by fairness under the condition that job security is expected as part of the psychological contract. Thus, we propose a model of mediated moderation. Results based on a sample of Belgian employees (N = 559) supported our hypotheses for organizational outcomes. For individual well-being, the mediation framework was not conditional upon a perceived promise of job security as part of the psychological contract. We conclude that employees' perceptions of job insecurity and fairness are important factors in employees' well-being and their attitudes towards the organization. More importantly, these perceptions can in part be shaped by organizational agents such as managers and supervisors. Additionally, the active utilization of the psychological contract in management strategies seems to have favourable results for the fostering of pro-organizational attitudes among employees.     

How Adult Attachment Styles Relate to Perceived Psychological Contract Breach and Affective Organizational Commitment

The current study examines the relationship between adult attachment style and both perceived psychological contract breach and affective organizational commitment in a sample of college students with employment experience. Attachment style is argued to be an individual difference factor that affects how an individual perceives organizational events based on theory and existing empirical research related to adult attachment style. Individuals with insecure attachment styles were predicted to perceive more psychological contract breach and have lower levels of affective organizational commitment. The results reveal that individuals with higher levels of preoccupied and dismissive attachment styles perceived higher levels of psychological contract breach, and preoccupied attachment style significantly and negatively relates to affective organizational commitment. The relationship between attachment style and psychological contract dimensions was stronger for relational than transactional contract dimensions. Evidence is also found that perceived psychological contract breach mediates the relationship between preoccupied attachment style and affective commitment. Future potential research directions are described. The implications of these findings for managerial practice is discussed.     

Why and when organizational culture fosters affective commitment among knowledge workers: the mediating role of perceived psychological contract fulfilment and moderating role of organizational tenure

Drawing on Denison and Mishra (1995)’s framework of organizational culture, this study examines why and when organizational culture is related to knowledge workers’ affective commitment. Data were collected from 640 employees working in three high-technology companies in China. The findings indicate that the relationship between organizational culture and affective commitment is mediated by perceived psychological contract fulfilment. In addition, organizational tenure moderates the relationship between two external dimensions (i.e. adaptability and mission) of organizational culture and perceived psychological contract fulfilment. This study extends the current theoretical framework of organizational culture by demonstrating the underlying mechanism and the boundary condition of the relationship between organizational culture and affective commitment. The findings also provide practical implications for international managers to design appropriate human resource management policies and practices in China.     

Intra-national variation in organizational commitment: evidence from the Chinese context

This study demonstrates how organizational commitment can differ at the sub-national level. We develop and test hypotheses based on levels of economic development and related shifts from collectivism to individualism. The data comprise 1017 retail employees drawn from two economically distinctly different parts of China. We find that organizational commitment is higher in ‘less economically developed’ regions. Affective and normative commitment (NC) negatively predicted turnover intentions, whereas continuance commitment related positively to turnover intentions. Unlike earlier findings using Western samples, this study finds the effect of NC on turnover intentions considerably stronger, suggesting that NC is more predictive of turnover intentions. As expected, our results indicate that continuance commitment is more predictive of turnover intentions in the ‘more economically developed’ regions.     

How mass layoffs are related to lower job performance and OCB among surviving employees in Chile: an investigation of the essential role of psychological contract

This study aimed to investigate how mass layoffs impact surviving employees in organizations. More specifically, this study ascertained the relationships between mass layoffs and employee work behaviors. It was theorized that mass layoffs will be negatively related to employee performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) through its relationships with job insecurity and psychological contract breach. Moreover, it was expected that perceived manager support would buffer against the negative relations of contract breach with employee performance and OCB. A study among 615 employees in multiple Chilean organizations showed support for the hypotheses: job insecurity and psychological contract breach mediated the relationships between mass layoffs and employee performance and OCB. We also found moderating relationships of manager support, but the relations of breach with performance and OCB were particularly negative when manager support was high, indicating feelings of betrayal among high-support employees in response to contract breach. Moreover, the relation of contract breach with performance was positive for low-support employees, and non-significant for high-support employees. Our study advances understanding of the processes underlying how mass layoffs influence employee behavior in the workplace, through introducing the psychological contract as a way of understanding the relationships.     

顾客关系承诺研究:模型与实证

顾客关系承诺有三个维度,持续性承诺、规范性承诺以及情感性承诺。顾客关系承诺意愿越强,则其转换意图就越弱,忠诚度越高。持续性承诺的影响因素包括转换成本和服务质量;情感性承诺的影响因素包括满意和信任;规范性承诺的影响因素为主观规范。对山东省服务业的调查分析显示,情感承诺、规范化承诺和持续性承诺都与转换意向负相关,但是情感承诺由规范化承诺中介,即情感承诺越强,对服务供应商的规范化承诺越强。主观规范与转换意图之间的关系由规范性承诺中介,信任与转换意图之间的关系由情感承诺中介,转换成本与转换意图之间的关系由持续性承诺中介,服务质量和转换意图之间关系没有由持续性承诺中介。     

Empowering leadership: leading people to be present through affective organizational commitment?*

Abstract

This study tested a mediation model in which empowering leadership was negatively related to three withdrawal behaviors: lateness, absenteeism, and turnover intention, with affective organizational commitment as a mediator. With 294 full‐time US employees, results from structural equation modeling indicated that empowering leader behaviors at one time were positively related to estimates of affective organizational commitment at a second time, which in turn was negatively related to absenteeism and turnover intention at a final time. Additionally, no significant direct effect was found between empowering leadership and withdrawal behaviors, further supporting the mediation model. However, neither empowering leadership nor affective commitment influenced followers' lateness. Empowering leadership, which provides employees with autonomy and developmental support, may have a favorable effect on employees' decisions to attend and stay in the organization, as well as their affective reaction to the organization in the form of psychological commitment. This study extended prior research models by examining a full range of withdrawal behaviors in relation to empowering leadership and showed that commitment may explain why empowering leader behaviors can affect employees' retention decisions.     

Performance appraisal satisfaction and employee outcomes: mediating and moderating roles of work motivation

The purpose of this study was to explore alternative relationships between performance appraisal satisfaction and employee outcomes in the form of self-reported work performance, affective organizational commitment and turnover intention. A cross-sectional survey of 593 employees from 64 Norwegian savings banks showed that performance appraisal satisfaction was directly related to affective commitment and turnover intention. The relationship between performance appraisal satisfaction and work performance, however, was both mediated and moderated by employees' intrinsic work motivation. The form of the moderation revealed a negative relationship for employees with low intrinsic motivation and a positive relationship for those with high intrinsic motivation. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Why Do Employees’ Perceptions of their Organization's Change History Matter? The Role of Change Appraisals

In this article, we identify employees’ change history in an organization as a key antecedent of their appraisals about organizational change (i.e., threat, harm, and challenge). We argue that these change appraisals are associated with psychological contract violation, which in turn is associated with intentions to leave the organization, and, ultimately, with voluntary employee turnover. In 2009, we collected data over three measurement periods from 252 full‐time, permanent employees from a manufacturing organization in the Philippines that was just about to undergo an organizational‐wide restructuring. At Time 1 (T1, the change announcement), employees completed a survey assessing their change history in the organization and change appraisals. At Time 2 (T2, six months after the announcement), employees completed a survey assessing psychological contract violation and turnover intentions. Two years later (Time 3, T3), we collected data on voluntary employee turnover. Results suggest that a poor change history in an organization was negatively associated with challenge appraisals and was positively associated with threat and harm appraisals. Challenge and harm appraisals were significantly associated with psychological contract violation. These appraisals, in turn, were associated with turnover intentions and, ultimately, with voluntary employee turnover. In addition, T1 threat appraisals were directly positively associated with T3 voluntary turnover. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Personality,self-efficacy and job resources and their associations with employee engagement,affective commitment and turnover intentions

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the extent to which personality characteristics influence employees’ psychological connection to their work beyond that predicted by job context factors. More specifically, using Job Demands-Resources theory, we examined the influence of HEXACO personality facets, self-efficacy, and job resources on engagement, affective commitment and turnover intention. We used structural equation modelling on data collected from 623 participants working in a variety of organizational settings to test a proposed and a re-specified model. The results showed that both job resources and individual differences factors had direct and indirect effects on engagement, affective commitment and turnover intention. The personality facet liveliness was positively associated with engagement; sentimentality was positively associated with affective commitment; and social boldness, diligence and sentimentality were positively associated with self-efficacy. The model explained 69% of the variance in engagement, 60% of the variance in affective commitment and 33% of the variance in turnover intention. Despite the stronger influence of job resources, the results suggest that both individual factors and job context factors influence employees’ psychological attachment to their work. Practical implications in terms of selection, engagement and organizational development interventions, and further research opportunities are identified.     

Programme knowledge and value of work-family practices and organizational commitment

This study examined the relationship between the programme knowledge and value of work-family practices and organizational commitment. Employee programme knowledge of work-family policies was significantly related to affective commitment. This finding suggests that organizations should pay attention to how much their employees know about work-family benefits and how practices can be accessed. While the value of paid parental leave was positively related to normative commitment, the perceived value of childcare policy was negatively associated with both affective and normative commitment. These findings suggest that organizations must be aware that how employees perceive work-family practices can influence their commitment towards the organization. Specifically, practices that are viewed as having minimal value might actually lead to a reduction in commitment.     

Relationships between organizational justice,organizational trust and organizational commitment: a cross-cultural study of China,South Korea and Australia

In an increasingly globalized world, organizations that operate in more than one country are a substantial part of the world economy. It is therefore beneficial to understand the attitudes of employees in different countries and their impact on the organization. One important area is organizational justice and its relationships with organizational trust (OT) and organizational commitment. This empirical study collected survey data from university employees across China, South Korea and Australia. We proposed that OT would mediate the relationships between affective organizational commitment (AOC) and both distributive justice (DJ) and procedural justice (PJ) in all three countries. In Australia, we found that PJ and AOC were significantly related, and OT fully mediated the PJ-AOC relationship. In China and South Korea, both DJ and PJ were significantly related to AOC, and OT fully mediated the PJ-AOC relationship. OT partially mediated the DJ-AOC relationship in China but fully mediated this relationship in South Korea. Implications for theory and for management practitioners are discussed, and areas for future investigation are identified.     

Wage reduction of Portuguese civil servants and their attitudes: the psychological contract perspective

This study is based on the psychological contract theoretical model. It provides an empirical test of the antecedents and consequences of psychological contract violation (PCV) that was caused by the wage reduction of Portuguese civil servants. Data were collected from a sample of 212 employees who worked in public organizations across different sectors. These positions entailed different functions and were subject to different levels of wage reduction. A Structural Equation Model was used to analyze the data. The results show that employees' attributions of this psychological contract breach are related to their perception of PCV. Furthermore, our findings also suggest that civil servants have two distinct psychological contracts and that the PCV of the employing organization also depends on the PCV of the public institution. Moreover, the PCV of the public institution was found to be the mechanism that explains the relationship between the meaning attached to wage reduction and the PCV of the employing organization. Finally, our findings confirm that the PCV of the employing organization mediates the relationships between the PCV of the public institution and the commitment and turnover intentions of civil servants. Therefore, such results highlight the usefulness of the psychological contract framework in explaining civil servants' reactions to wage reduction.     

Serving two organizations: Exploring the employment relationship of contracted employees

Although growth has occurred in contract employment arrangements both in the public and private sectors, scant research has been conducted on the organizations and employees affected by these arrangements.This study examines the employment relationship of long‐term contracted employees using a social exchange framework. Specifically, we examine the effects of employee perceptions of organizational support from contracting and client organizations on their (a) affective commitment to each organization and (b) service‐oriented citizenship behavior. We also examine whether felt obligation toward each organization mediates this relationship. Our sample consists of 99 long‐term contracted employees working for four contracting organizations that provide services to the public on behalf of a municipal government. Results indicate that the antecedents of affective commitment are similar for the client and contracting organization. Employee perceptions of client organizational supportiveness were positively related to felt obligation and commitment to the client organization. Client felt obligation mediated the effects of client perceived organizational support (POS) on the participation dimension of citizenship behavior. Our study provides additional support for the generalizability of social exchange processes to nontraditional employment relationships. Implications for managing long‐term contracted employees are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

One job,one deal…or not: do generations respond differently to psychological contract fulfillment?

This paper investigates generational differences in the relations between psychological contract fulfillment and work attitudes. Data were collected from a sample of 909 employees in the Dutch service sector. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the moderating effects of generational differences on the influence of psychological contract fulfillment on affective commitment and turnover intention. The relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and these work outcomes was moderated by generational differences. Furthermore, results indicate that different generations respond differently to different aspects of psychological contract fulfillment, such as career development, job content, organizational policies, social atmosphere and rewards. The study provides evidence that generational differences impact the reciprocal relationship between employer and employee. Results from this study suggest that Baby Boomers and Generation X may be more motivated by social atmosphere, whereas Generation Y may be more motivated by job content and career development. Fair organizational policies are particularly motivating to Generation X, and providing rewards, though more important to Generation Y, seem mostly unrelated to work outcomes. This article is the first to study the moderation of generational differences in the relationships between psychological contract fulfillment and work outcomes.     

Organizational Justice and Individuals' Withdrawal: Unlocking the Influence of Emotional Exhaustion

This study examined the relationships between organizational justice and withdrawal outcomes and whether emotional exhaustion was a mediator of these linkages. Data were obtained from 869 military personnel and civil servants; using structural equation modelling techniques, we examined an integrative model that combines justice and stress research. Our findings suggest that individuals' justice perceptions are related to their psychological health. As predicted, emotional exhaustion mediated the linkages between distributive and interpersonal (but not procedural and informational) justice and individuals' withdrawal reactions. Results showed that distributive and interpersonal justice negatively related to emotional exhaustion and emotional exhaustion negatively related to organizational commitment which, in turn, negatively influenced turnover intentions. These findings were observed even when controlling for the presence of contingent‐reward behaviours provided by supervisors and individuals' psychological empowerment.     

High commitment HRM and organizational and occupational turnover intentions: the role of organizational and occupational commitment

Using data from 41 managers and 143 chefs from 41 Indonesian restaurants, we examined whether High Commitment Human Resource Management (HCHRM) is negatively related to chefs’ organizational (ORTI) and occupational turnover intentions (OCTI). In addition, we examined whether organizational commitment (ORC) mediates the HCHRM–ORTI relationship and occupational commitment (OCC) moderates the HCHRM–OCTI relationship. Results from hierarchical level modeling analyses (chefs nested in restaurants) showed that HCHRM is negatively related to both chefs’ ORTI and OCTI. In addition ORC mediates the HCHRM–ORTI relationship, and OCC moderates HCHRM–OCTI relationship. These results have important implications in terms of the unique role the two foci of commitment play in the HCHRM–ORTI and OCTI linkages.