Journal Article

Unraveling the Psychological Contract Breach and Violation Relationship

Henderson, Kevin E., O’Leary-Kelly, Anne M.

2021

Overview

Research on psychological contracts has not been clear on why psychological contract breach (PCB) impacts psychological contract violation (PCV). While a few studies have examined individual mediators, no integrated view of the mechanisms responsible has been undertaken. In addition, the emotions associated with PCB have been underexplored to date and studies have over-relied on a PCV measure that focuses primarily on intense emotions like anger and betrayal. Therefore, this study examines multiple mediators of the PCB-PCV relationship: mistrust, distributive injustice, perceived lack of organizational support, and self-identity threat. Using a longitudinal design and a random sample of 148 university alumni, the results show that only mistrust is a significant mediator of the PCB-PCV relationship. The results also show that the primary emotion associated with PCB is sadness, not anger, and that both of these emotions decrease over time. These findings highlight the importance of repairing trust and reducing feelings of sadness following PCB in order to diminish its negative consequences.

• Publisher: Pittsburg State University,Pittsburg State University - Department of Economics,Pittsburg State University, Department of Economics
• Subject: Analysis / Attitudes / Breach of contract / Emotions / Employee attitude / Identity / Injustice / Job satisfaction / Longitudinal studies / Psychological research