Confronting Pension Reform: Public Employees’ Psychological Contract Breach, Negative Perception, Regret, and the Moderating Role of PSM

Abstract

Although pension reform has been a global trend in the last couple of decades, public administration research has seldom addressed the issue of how targeted pension reforms affect civil servants. The goal of this study is to conceptualize pension reform as the breach of the psychological contract between the government and civil servants and to understand whether it leads to the experience of regret in civil servants over choosing a government career. In doing so, this study also explores the possible role of public service motivation (PSM) in moderating the experience of regret elicited by psychological contract breach as well as the negative perception of the pension reform. The analysis of the data collected from 944 Taiwanese public employees shows that (i) both psychological contract breach and negative perception trigger regret and (ii) PSM strengthens the impacts of psychological contract breach and the negative perception of the pension reform. The findings have critical implications for both practitioners handling pension reforms and researchers interested in building a theory of PSM.

Do Opinions of Policy Target Population Deservingness Correlate to Public Service Motivation? Insights from Medicaid

“…Our findings also test the PSM value congruence proposition (Perry & Vandenabeele, 2008) and build upon growing work on the moderating role of PSM (Mussagulova et al, 2021; Park & Lee, 2020; Quratulain & Khan, 2015). We respond to calls to examine PSM in a polarized way (Coursey et al, 2012).…”

“…Past work has found evidence that PSM can function in this general fashion. For instance, there is evidence that PSM plays a moderating role in the workplace, with higher PSM being associated with stronger regret following a psychological contract breach (Mussagulova et al, 2021), greater vulnerability to workplace politics (Park & Lee, 2020), and exacerbated negative effects in the face of red tape (Quratulain & Khan, 2015). Perry and Vandenabeele (2008) suggest PSM's influence varies by the consistency of individuals’ values with PSM and the extent to which the issue at hand is related to their PSM values.…”

Are Millennials Different? A Time-Lag Study of Federal Millennial and Generation X Employees’ Affective Commitment

“…Psychological contract theory is commonly used to explain the development of employees’ affective commitment (Mensah, 2019; Mussagulova et al, 2021). The psychological contract is “an employee’s beliefs about the reciprocal obligations between that employee and his or her organization, where these obligations are based on perceived promises and not necessarily recognized by agents of the organization” (Morrison & Robinson, 1997, p. 229).…”

“…How managerial practices can differently influence generations can be explained by combining psychological contract theory and generational theory. The psychological contract is defined as employees’ beliefs about the mutual obligations of their employers and themselves (Morrison & Robinson, 1997) and was commonly used to understand employees’ affective commitment (Mensah, 2019; Mussagulova et al, 2021). According to this perspective, employees will reciprocate with higher commitment when organizational managerial practices meet their expectations (Coyle-Shapiro & Kessler, 2003).…”

Bullying and Harassment as a Consequence of Workplace Change in the Australian Civil Service: Investigating the Mediating Role of Satisfaction With Change Management

“…These may include obligations regarding instrumental factors such as remuneration, workload, or career advancement, but may also include softer aspects such as the way in which an organization should position itself, or the way in which tasks should be executed (Kickul et al, 2002). When an employee believes that the organization severely failed in fulfilling one or more of the obligations of the psychological contract, feelings of injustice, anger, cynicism, regret and betrayal are generated (Kickul et al, 2002; Morrison & Robinson, 1997; Mussagulova et al, 2021; Robinson & Wolfe Morrison, 2000). Violation of the psychological contract is likely to occur when workplace change is implemented, as various allocation decisions, procedural choices and interactions may be perceived as unfair (D’Cruz, et al, 2014).…”