Behavioural Outcomes of Psychological Contract Breach in a Non‐Western Culture: The Moderating Role of Equity Sensitivity^*

Abstract

This study tests the effects of psychological contract breach on several employee outcomes: workplace deviant behaviours directed at the organization (WD-O) and its organizational members (WD-I), in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviours directed at the organization (OCB-O) and its co-workers (OCB-I). It also examines the moderating effects of equity sensitivity in the relationship between breach and these outcomes. Data were collected from 162 sales executives and their direct supervisors. We found that breach was related to all behavioural outcomes. Equity sensitivity and breach also interacted in predicting OCB-I, OCB-O and WD-I. The negative relationships between breach and OCB-O and OCB-I were stronger for employees with an outcome-focused approach to organizational relationships than for those with an input-focused approach. In addition, breach had stronger positive effects on WD-I especially for those individuals who are output-oriented compared to those who are input-focused.Psychological contracts consist of a set of beliefs about the exchange terms and conditions between the employee and the employing organization (Guest, 2004;Rousseau, 1995). An important aspect of the psychological contract is the employees' expectation that the organization will adequately deliver on its promises. When employees perceive that the organization has not lived up to its promises, then this results in psychological contract breach (Rousseau, 1995). Breach of the psychological contract has negative implications for a wide spectrum of employee attitudes and behaviours (Coyle-Shapiro and

When Employers Betray: A Study of Psychological Contract Breach Among Croatian Employees

“…In their seminal paper, Robinson and Rousseau (1994) showed that PCB is more the norm than the exception, and, when it happens, can lead to undermined trust between employee and employer, dissatisfaction among employees and even the dissolution of the relationship. Consistent with that, it has been shown that that PCB is negatively related to job satisfaction (Raja, Johns & Ntalianis, 2004), intention to stay in the organization (Turnley & Feldman, 2000), job performance (Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003), trust in the organization (Zhao et al, 2007), organizational citizen behaviors (Restubog, Bordia & Tang, 2007) and organizational commitment (Zhao et al, 2007). At the same time, PCB was shown to be positively correlated with counterproductive work behaviors (Bordia, Restubog & Tang, 2008), absenteeism and organizational cynicisms (Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003).…”

Influence of Personality on Perception of Psychological Contract Breach

“…Breach is the employees' cognitive evaluation of the difference between what is considered as obligation and what is done by employer in reality. Breach results in various undesirable individual and organizational outcomes which includes reduced job satisfaction (Orvis et al, 2008;Turnley & Feldman, 1999), reduced organizational commitment (Restubog, Bordia, & Tang, 2006), lowered performance (Robinson, 1996;Suazo & Stone-Romero, 2011), lowered organizational citizenship behavior (Restubog, Hornsey, Bordia, & Esposo, 2008;Robinson, 1996), increased burnout (Gakovic & Tetrick, 2003), increased deviant behaviors (Restubog, Bordia, & Tang, 2007), and heightened turnover intention (Turnley & Feldman, 2000;Raja et al, 2004).…”

Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment

“…In order to "get even" with the organization after a psychological contract breach, employees tend to reduce their commitment to the organization and display less organizational citizenship behaviors (Turnley et al, 2003). A recent study found that psychological contract breach was negatively related to supervisor rated OCB-I and OCB-O (Restubog et al, 2007). A meta-analysis of 51 empirical studies revealed that perceived psychological contract breach was negatively related to employees' citizenship behaviors (Zhao et al, 2007).…”

“…For example, a psychological contract breach is negatively related to the employee's trust in management (Chelliah et al, 2009;Deery, Iverson, & Walsh, 2006;Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, & Bravo, 2007), job satisfaction (Gakovic & Tetrick, 2003;Zhao et al, 2007), intention to remain with the organization (Kickul et al, 2002;Zhao et al, 2007), employee performances (Restubog et.al, 2007;Suazo et al, 2005), citizenship behaviors Zhao et al, 2007), civic virtue behavior (Chambel & Alcover, 2011), and employee commitment (Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003;Raja et al, 2004) and positively related to workplace deviant behaviors (Bordia et al, 2008;Restubog et al, 2007), employees' neglect of job duties (Turnley & Feldman, 1998, 1999, job burnout (Chambel & Oliveira-Cruz, 2010), employees' cynicism about their employer (Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003), higher absenteeism (Deery et al, 2006;Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003), and revenge cognitions (Ahmed et al, 2007;Bordia et al, 2008). Such findings indicate that the psychological contract breach is negatively related with three forms of employee contributions to the organization: day-to-day performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, and intentions to remain with the organization (Robinson, 1996).…”