Reactions to psychological contract breach: a dual perspective

Abstract

SummaryThis study examined reactions to psychological contract breach from two separate perspectives, that is, employee's reactions to perceptions of employer breach and supervisor's reactions to perceptions of employee breach of the psychological contract. In addition to the main effects, we also hypothesized that the benevolence (or kindness) of the supervisor and the traditional values (or respect for authority) of the employee would attenuate the negative effects of psychological contract breach. We tested these hypotheses with a sample of 273 supervisor-subordinate dyads from the People's Republic of China. The results showed that employer breach correlated negatively with employee outcomes of organizational commitment (OC), organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and work performance, but this negative relationship was weaker for employees with traditional values. The results also demonstrated that employee breach correlated negatively with responses from the supervisor, in terms of the mentoring provided to the employee and the leader-member exchange (LMX) quality. However, more benevolent supervisors reacted less negatively in terms of the mentoring than did the less benevolent supervisors. Implications for future research are offered.

A Multilevel Examination of High-Performance Work Systems and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Social Exchange Theory Perspective

“…Secondly, the empirical results supported hypothesis H5, verified the cross-level moderating effect of Chinese traditionality on relation between psychological contract and OCB. Traditionality had no direct impact on OCB, but weaken the relationship between psychological contract and OCB, which is similar to the conclusion of Liu et al (2012), Farh et al (2007) and Chen et al (2008). It will be helpful to correct understand the effect of traditional values, and to grasp the impact of psychological contract on OCB.…”

“…In other words, high traditionalists are more likely to dedicate themselves to their work and engage in OCB because they are "assigned to assume certain responsibilities and obligations", while low traditionalists would engage in OCB for the reasons that "the organization offers a lot, so I should return". At the same time, several empirical literature also found that the traditionality played a moderating role in the relationship between psychological contracts and OCB: traditionality can weaken the negative relationship between psychological contract breach and OCB (Chen, Tsui, & Zhong, 2008), and the relationships between perceived organizational support and OCB are stronger for low traditionalists (Farh et al, 2007).…”

Psychological contract in the light of flexible employment: The review of studies

“…Stwierdzili to chińscy autorzy [24], którzy zbadali 268 par składających się z pracownika i jego bezpośredniego przełożonego (w sumie: 536 osób) zatrudnionych w 8 różnych przedsiębiorstwach. Autorzy badań stwierdzili, że kierownicy, którzy doświadczali łamania kontraktu psychologicznego przez przełożonych, istotnie częściej przejawiali zachowania przemocowe wobec swoich podwładnych.…”

Organizational Commitment, Psychological Contract Fulfillment and Job Performance: A Longitudinal Quanti-qualitative Study

“…On the one hand, the assumption is that the fulfillment of a psychological contract by the employer and also the high levels of organizational commitment among employees have desirable consequences, such as better job performance (Correia & Mainardes, 2010;Riketta, 2008). On the other hand, there is a complementary assumption that breaches and violations in psychological contracts are associated with lower organizational commitment and job performance (Chen, Tsui, & Zhong, 2008). Nevertheless, studies investigating the consequences of fulfilling, breaking and violating psychological contracts are still needed (Gondim & Rios, 2010;Menegon & Casado, 2012).…”