Organization Promises in the Triangular Psychological Contract as Perceived by Temporary Agency Workers,Agencies, and Client Organizations

Temporary agency blue-collar workers (N = 100), the agencies through which they were hired (N = 12), and the client organizations to which they were assigned to work (N = 11) reported their perceptions on the content and the fulfillment or breach of organization promises within the psychological contract. All data were collected in Belgium through a survey from fall 2002 through spring 2003.Nonparametric tests and t-tests indicated similarity rather than discrepancy in the parties’ perceptions. Fulfillment of the psychological contract was the case rather than breach. When focusing on differences, agencies and client organizations perceived more promises made than their temporaries did. Agencies and client organizations had more favorable perceptions of their promises kept than their temporaries did. The temporaries perceived more promises made by their agencies than by their client organizations.     

Is coworker feedback more important than supervisor feedback for increasing innovative behavior?

A growing body of research explores human resource management practices that encourage employees to innovate. In this study, we examine the links between different sources of feedback (supervisor and coworker) and employees’ innovative behavior. Drawing on social exchange theory and the job demands‐resources theory, we first propose that work engagement and psychological contract breach mediate the relationship between supervisor feedback and employees’ innovative behavior. Second, we propose a moderated mediation model in which coworker feedback attenuates the relationships between supervisor feedback and employees’ innovative behavior through the mediating mechanisms of both work engagement and psychological contract breach. Using three waves of multisource data from 300 Chinese employees and their 64 supervisors, we found a dual‐mediation pathway by which employees’ work engagement and perceptions of psychological contract breach mediate the influence of supervisor feedback on innovative behavior. Our results also show that coworker feedback can be used to supplement the lack of supervisor feedback when required. Organizations are advised to ensure that employees obtain regular feedback from multiple sources because such feedback can promote employees’ work engagement and perceptions that the organization is upholding its side of the psychological contract, which fosters employees’ innovative behavior.     

A study of employee affective organizational commitment and retention in Pakistan: the roles of psychological contract breach and norms of reciprocity

Abstract

Social exchange theory and notions of reciprocity have long been assumed to explain the relationship between psychological contract breach and important employee outcomes. To date, however, there has been no explicit testing of these assumptions. This research, therefore, explores the mediating role of negative, generalized, and balanced reciprocity, in the relationships between psychological contract breach and employees’ affective organizational commitment and turnover intentions. A survey of 247 Pakistani employees of a large public university was analyzed using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping techniques, and provided excellent support for our model. As predicted, psychological contract breach was positively related to negative reciprocity norms and negatively related to generalized and balanced reciprocity norms. Negative and generalized (but not balanced) reciprocity were negatively and positively (respectively) related to employees’ affective organizational commitment and fully mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and affective organizational commitment. Moreover, affective organizational commitment fully mediated the relationship between generalized and negative reciprocity and employees’ turnover intentions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

基于消费者心理契约违背的品牌危机产生机理研究

心理契约概念是建立在社会交换理论基础上,用来描述雇员与雇主关系的理念。构建在企业和消费者共同信任和互惠基础上的消费者品牌关系也是一种心理契约关系。大量研究证明消费者心理契约的违背将导致消费者品牌关系的扭曲甚至断裂,最终导致品牌遭受危机。只有深入研究和探讨品牌危机的产生机理,正确地认识品牌危机,才能有效地防范和化解危机。     

心理契约视角下的离职模型研究

如何面对员工的流失,尤其是人才的流失,成为众多企业不得不考虑的一个战略问题。要解决人才流失的难题,关键在于抓住人才流失的原因进行对症下药。目前,已有许多文献对员工的离职原因进行了分析,并提出许多离职模型,分析各个变量之间的关系。本文从现有的研究成果出发,结合心理契约的相关理论,尝试从心理契约的角度完善离职模型。     

Citizenship behavior and fairness in organizations: Issues and directions for future research

In this review, we discuss the preceding papers in the special issue, and explore their implications for future research. In particular, the effects of fairness on citizenship behaviors are summarized, the role of managerial responses to OCBs on subsequent perceptions of fairness are explored, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Employees' perceptions of HR investment and their efforts to remain internally employable: testing the exchange-based mechanisms of the ‘new psychological contract’

This study investigates the relationship between perceived investment in employee development (PIED) and the internal employability efforts that such perceptions are assumed to influence under the terms of the ‘new psychological contract’. A cross-sectional survey among 238 employees in a Norwegian IT and management consulting firm provides support that PIED relates positively to employees' openness to develop themselves and adapt to changing work requirements (‘internal employability orientation’) and their active pursuit of new competencies and career trajectories within the organization (‘internal employability activities’). However, our findings challenge widely held claims that investment in employee development elicits these responses by way of the reciprocal mechanisms of a social exchange relationship. While PIED is found to relate positively to employees' perceptions of a social exchange relationship with their organization, these positive exchange experiences are not supported to influence internal employability outcomes. Our findings do support, however, that PIED relates negatively to perceived economic exchange relationships that in turn undermine internal employability orientations. Suggestions for future research and implications for practice are discussed.     

基于利益相关者理论的企业心理契约和社会责任管理

市场经济是契约经济,企业社会责任管理的主要方式是契约管理,其中以有形的文本契约为主,心理契约作为文本契约的有益补充,对企业绩效发挥重要作用。企业社会责任管理是全面的责任管理,涉及股东、债权人、员工、顾客、政府和环境,同时,企业社会责任是全方位的责任管理,包括经济责任、法律责任和道德责任。因此,实施企业社会责任的心理契约管理,要全面、全方位地把握。     

What's in a broken promissory obligation? Developing and testing a multiple component form measure of psychological contract breach

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 = 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 = 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.     

顾客心理契约、顾客满意与顾客公民行为关系——基于健身行业的实证研究

社会交换理论和结构方程模型是研究顾客心理契约、顾客满意与顾客公民行为关系的依据和有效方法。本文通过健身业的实证研究发现,顾客心理契约、顾客满意均对顾客公民行为具有显著的正向影响。顾客满意在心理契约与顾客公民行为关系上起中介作用。其中,顾客满意除了在交易心理契约与顾客反馈行为关系上起到部分中介作用外,在心理契约的两个维度与顾客公民行为三个维度的关系上均起到完全中介的作用。研究结论首次验证了顾客心理契约与顾客公民行为的正相关关系,并对企业利用顾客心理契约促进顾客公民行为的营销实践具有指导意义。     

Expatriate management: lessons from the British in India

In this paper, lessons for the study of expatriate management are drawn from the period of British administration in India. It uses ‘the past to study the present’ and puts into sharp focus the key issues which confront human resource management researchers and practitioners dealing with expatriate management today. These issues are seen as essentially the same and cover such areas as selection, training, adjustment, appraisal, reward and re-entry.