Dulac, Tanguy
Coyle-Shapiro, Jacqueline A-M.
Henderson, David J.
Wayne, Sandy J.
This study attempts to integrate social exchange and psychological contract theory by examining how the quality of an individual?s relationship with the overall organization (POS) and his or her leader (LMX) moderate the relation between perceptions of contract breach and feelings of violation. We hypothesized that relationship quality (captured by POS and LMX)
would be negatively related to perceptions of contract breach and would moderate the relationship between contract breach and violation. We also hypothesized that contract violation would be negatively related to affective commitment and trust in the organization, and positively related to intent to leave. Finally, we predicted that feelings of violation would mediate the effects of contract breach on these work outcomes. Using a longitudinal survey from 159 employees, our results suggest that POS and LMX at Time 1 are negatively related to perceptions of contract breach at Time 2. POS at Time 1 moderated the relationship
between contract breach and violation at Time 2. Perceived violation was negatively related to affective commitment and trust in the organization, and positively related to intent to leave at Time 2. Violation fully mediated the effects of contract breach on affective commitment and trust in the organization and partially mediated the effect of contract breach on intent to leave. The findings suggest that psychological contract breach can be viewed as an event (or series of events) that occurs within the context of the relationship an individual develops with agents and the overall organization.


Bibliographic reference |
Dulac, Tanguy ; Coyle-Shapiro, Jacqueline A-M. ; Henderson, David J. ; Wayne, Sandy J.. The Development of Psychological Contract Breach and Violation. ECON Discussion Papers ; 2006/07 (2006) |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/5504 |